In-vitro fertilization, or IVF, uses the latest technology to help you achieve your dream of having a child. When combined with gender selection, IVF can help you have the family you've always dreamed of with just the right number of boys and girls.

When making such an important decision about your family's future, there are many facts you need to know. IVF is not for everyone. The following IVF facts will help you make decisions that are best for your family.

When considering whether this method of having a family is suitable for you, it is essential to consider all aspects of the issue. There are many excellent reasons to have this procedure and a few good reasons to give it a second thought. While you're on your journey to creating your family, you also might encounter other alternatives that might be a better fit for your situation.

While this is an exciting new technology, it is crucial to make this decision as calmly and rationally as possible. Getting caught up in the moment is no way to make such a significant decision. Therefore, let's begin with a few cons of building your family using IVF with gender selection.

No Surprise

Since you choose the gender of the embryo to carry, you already know if you're going to have a girl or a boy. There is no surprise when you go in for an ultrasound, whether at 12 or 20 weeks gestational age. There is also no need to hide the baby's gender from a spouse who doesn't want to know or pretend you don't know if you're the spouse who wanted to be surprised.

Even if you know what gender they are from an ultrasound, there's a lot to be surprised about after a child is born. You might not be able to have any gender guessing games, but you can spend hours wondering which parent they'll look like or how their voice will sound. Of course, once they're born, their voice will quickly become very familiar to you.

Gender Imbalance

Another con of choosing your child's gender during the in-vitro process is creating a gender imbalance within your family. If you choose to have all girls, dad will be the only guy in the house. The situation is reversed if you want to have only boys.

Beyond your own family, another criticism is creating a community or even country-wide gender imbalance. If most families choose to have children of one gender, the community's population might have much more of one gender than another. This gender imbalance might make it harder for your child to find a spouse one day in your city, town, or country.

Unused Embryos

Since more embryos are made than you'll need to get pregnant, one issue you'll need to handle is what to do with any unused embryos. If you're confident you're not going to need them in the future, you can have them thawed. This means they are no longer viable, so you won't be able to use them.

Many faith traditions highly reverence life and believe it begins at conception. Since children are children even when they are at the embryo stage, you may wish to honor their lives. You can show your respect by holding a burial or cremation service in their honor.

Another option for embryos you don't plan to use in the future is to donate them for medical research. Such research can help discover new ways to treat diseases or valuable information about how genes work. When you give to science, your unused embryos can make a positive difference for humanity.

If you aren't comfortable with your embryos being used for medical research or being thawed, you can choose to have them frozen indefinitely. Freezing your embryos gives you the opportunity to use them later if you wish to have more children. This also might be a good option if you have any religious convictions against using them for anything other than conceiving children.

Another possibility for unused embryos is to put them up for adoption. As is the case with a traditional adoption, an embryo adoption can either be open or closed. A closed adoption is when another couple carries your embryo without knowing your identity. An open adoption allows you to have varying degrees of information about the family who carries your embryo.

Since open adoption is available, embryo adoption doesn't have to be among strangers. You can help a sister or close friend share in the joy of becoming a mother, too. Assisting others to achieve their dream of having children is one of the many pros of IVF with gender selection.

Prevents Gender-Selective Abortions

Although the possibility of having unused embryos might sound wasteful, consider the health-saving potential of this procedure. When you decide the gender of your child before they are implanted in your uterus, you no longer need to have a gender-selective abortion.

While gender-selective abortions are available, they are still a medical procedure with additional risks to your health. Some possible complications of abortion include heavy bleeding, cervical damage, and infection. When you begin your pregnancy with an embryo of your chosen gender, you eliminate 100% of the medical risk associated with a gender-selective abortion.

If you've ever been pregnant, you know that you become more attached to the child you're carrying as days turn into weeks or months. When you're in this situation, it might be tough to have a gender-selective abortion. You might end up carrying that child to term and take a chance on their gender.

If you decide to go through with an abortion, you might always wonder about the child you didn't carry to term. These regrets might be magnified if your faith has any prohibitions against abortion. Getting pregnant with the embryo of your chosen gender helps you avoid violating religious beliefs.

Eliminates Gender-Based Adoptions

When you're carrying the child you have chosen, you don't need to spend time searching for an adoptable child. After you give birth, you'll immediately have a baby who is of your preferred gender. There is no wait.

If you're searching for a baby, it can be hard to find infants up for adoption. You might have to choose between a toddler, school-aged child, or no child at all. This search is even more difficult when you're searching for a baby of a particular gender.

Delays due to legal issues and processing paperwork are common issues adoptive parents face. Another is the rights of the biological parents. You might fall in love with a baby of your chosen gender only to lose her or him to a birth parent who has changed their mind or rapidly passing deadlines for legal documents. When you select your own embryo, you eliminate these challenges.

Gives You Insight Into Your Children

Since selecting an embryo of your preferred gender doesn't involve adopting from outside of your family, you have more insight into their behavior because they share genes with you. While genes don't determine behavior, they heavily influence it. This can help you anticipate challenges along the way.

Did you spend hours trading stickers with your friends or committing sports stars' statistics to memory? Chances are your genetically-related child will be similar. Did you do your chores grudgingly or fight with your siblings over everything? If you give birth to an embryo selected for gender, then you can't claim that you weren't warned.

While adoption gives so many people a chance to have children, it won't provide you with a direct genetic link to them. Shared genetic heritage is not just a matter of pride or tradition for you. It can help your children by giving them an idea of what conditions they're more likely to develop as they age.

Although genetically-based health planning might sound complicated, it can be as simple as writing a list of health conditions that run in your family. If you have this to share with your children, they can have more motivation to make healthier lifestyle choices or at least know what might be coming their way. Genetically-related children from embryos of your chosen gender can reap these life-enhancing benefits.

Prevents Placing Children for Adoption Due to Their Gender

You may think that if you carry a child who is not of your preferred gender to term, you can always put them up for adoption once they arrive. You do, however, need to consider some factors before you do so. Putting up a child for adoption on the basis of their gender can be risky.

If you live in a small town or travel a lot, you never know if you'll someday cross paths with this child and their adoptive family. Even if the child doesn't recognize that they're genetically related to you, you do. This might bring up feelings of guilt, shame, and stress. Using in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant with a child of your chosen gender can free you from the possibility of ever being in this backward situation.

Children who are put up for adoption frequently search for their birth parents when they grow up, and gender-based adoption is no exception. One day, the child you put up for adoption because of their gender will grow up. You need to ask yourself if you're prepared to deal with their questions or if you're comfortable with making it a closed adoption. If you choose in-vitro fertilization with the ability to select their gender instead, you don't need to worry about such a confrontation or taking steps to keep them out of your life completely.

Helps You Have the Right Size Family for You

The right size family is having the number of children that you are able to care for with love and safety. If you don't want to have an abortion or put up a child for adoption, you might end up having several children until you have a child of the opposite gender.

Until your long-hoped-for boy or girl arrives, you might have more children than you ever envisioned. While you love each one, it can become very difficult to feed and clothe them all adequately. Selecting your child's gender through modern technology gives you the advantage of carefully choosing which children you will raise.

The Possibility of Preventing Pregnancy-Related Health Risks

When you're pregnant, every system of your body dramatically changes. Even when there are no complications, there are major disruptions to your sleep, energy, and daily activities. When you allow another woman to carry your embryo, you can have a healthy child without putting your own health at risk.

If you have had a high-risk pregnancy in the past or have been told by your doctor that you're at risk for pregnancy-related complications, working with a gestational mother might be a solution you might wish to consider. A gestational mother is a healthy woman who carries your embryos to term. Although she carries and gives birth to your baby, they will be your child who is 100% genetically related to you and your spouse.

This option is about more than sparing your health. When your child grows inside a healthy gestational mother, they're in an environment that encourages optimal growth. Working with a gestational mother through in-vitro fertilization can help you have a healthy baby of your preferred gender without possibly risking your health or life.

More Economical

From a practical standpoint, having children of one gender can save you money. Having children of one gender means that they can wear many of the same clothes as they grow. Older siblings can also hand down items such as bed linens, toys, and other things to younger siblings as they receive newer items.

Many homes are built with a limited number of bedrooms. Selecting one gender for your children gives you the option of having one bedroom for all of them. Sharing a room can save you the money and time needed to find a larger home with another bedroom or two.

When you know what gender your baby will be, you don't need to spend time returning pink items well-meaning relatives purchased for your surprise baby boy unless you think he looks good in pink. You can fill your baby shower registry at the shops with the items that you want for your baby boy.

While ultrasound can reveal the gender of your child, the baby's genitals are not visible until you have been carrying them for 13 weeks. If you have any hopes of knowing their gender from your first ultrasound at 12 weeks, you're out of luck. You'll need to wait until your second ultrasound at 20 weeks. By then, you're well into your second trimester. Getting pregnant with a child of your chosen gender takes away any of this guesswork.

Although ultrasounds are very accurate at visualizing gender, they don't always get it right. The skill of the person performing the ultrasound, the equipment used, and the experience of the person searching for signs of your baby's gender can significantly impact the accuracy of the result. There are many cases of couples who were told they were expecting a girl at one appointment only to learn at a later time that they were actually expecting a boy. Using gender-selective technology can help you have a child of the gender you prefer.

Parent With Your Strengths in Mind

Everyone grows up in different family configurations. If you were raised in a house full of boys, you might not feel comfortable parenting daughters. While children are all distinct individuals, there are some gender-related differences that can make parenting more challenging.

Parenting is hard work, even when you have a "good" child who hits all of the expected growth milestones on time. Why not parent with your strengths in mind? If you feel better equipped to raise daughters, then focus your energies on raising the most compassionate, capable girls possible. You'll be doing society a huge favour when they become women who are well-equipped to lead your grandchildren toward an even better future. The same is valid for sons, so maximize your parenting potential with the latest technology.

Reduces Genetic Disorders More Common in a Particular Gender

While the health of the mother, lifestyle considerations, and other factors already discussed are important, the health of the baby is a very common reason to consider IVF with gender selection.

Certain conditions are more common in males than females. These disorders can range from visual challenges to multi-system concerns. Some of the most common are briefly described for your convenience.

Red-green color blindness and congenital stationary night blindness are both more common in male children. When your child has red-green color blindness means that will not be able to see either of those colors for their entire life. This can make telling what color traffic lights are rather tricky, possibly leading to vehicular accidents.

Congenital stationary night blindness makes it hard for your child to see in dim lighting. They also don't see images clearly, are severely nearsighted. have uncontrolled eye twitching, and misaligned eyes. While their color vision is usually normal, their other visual difficulties can make work and everyday activities challenging.

Genes that put your child at increased risk for high blood pressure are more common among females. In fact, women are six times more likely to have high blood pressure during their lifetime than men. Since high blood pressure is linked with an increased risk for stroke, heart attack, and other severe health conditions, choosing to have a boy can decrease your child's chance of developing high blood pressure and its related problems.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a condition in which your child's muscles are weakened and damaged. It is typically diagnosed in boys between three to five years old and gets worse over time. By age 15, 90% of individuals with DMD need to use a wheelchair. Since this condition is much more likely to occur in males, if DMD runs in your family, you may consider having a female child to reduce your child's risk of having this health condition.

Fragile X Syndrome is a condition in which the body doesn't make a protein necessary for the brain to grow normally. It is almost twice as likely to occur in males as in females. When females have this condition, it is usually milder than in males, so having a female child reduces your child's risk of having more significant mental retardation.

Having a child of a particular gender can reduce their risk of having one of the conditions mentioned above. Although risk reduction is not the same thing as prevention, a disorder that is less common in one gender will frequently be less severe in that gender. For example, girls with Fragile X Syndrome might have a less severe intellectual disability or even average intelligence.

Eliminates Disorders Occurring Exclusively in One Gender

If reducing the likelihood or severity of a serious health condition is beneficial, preventing it altogether is extremely powerful. Some conditions exclusively occur in one gender so that you can prevent them.

Some of these conditions include:

• Hemophilia A
• Klinefelter or XXY Syndrome
• Turner Syndrome
• Rett Syndrome

Hemophilia A is one condition that can be prevented by choosing to have a female child. Hemophilia A is a blood clotting disorder that causes your male child to bleed more easily. Individuals with this condition need to have intravenous medication given within an hour to help their blood clot normally so that they don't lose a lot of blood.

Klinefelter Syndrome, also known as XXY Syndrome, occurs exclusively in males. Males typically have XY chromosomes. As its name suggests, this condition means that a male has a second X chromosome. This second X chromosome often doesn't cause too many symptoms early in life. Still, later in life, it can make men more likely to develop health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disorders in which the immune system attacks healthy tissues, blood clots, and heart disease. Taking the opportunity to choose a female child can prevent these serious health problems in the first place.

Rett Syndrome is a condition affecting the neurological system. It is much more common in females and causes a variety of health issues, so it may be a reason you might wish to have a male child. These issues include loss of speech, repetitive and involuntary hand movements such as "handwashing," breathing difficulties, and difficulty walking.

Most of the gender-linked or gender-exclusive health conditions already described target males. The two exceptions to this rule are some forms of genetically-linked high blood pressure and Rett Syndrome. Turner Syndrome is a condition with significant health consequences that exclusively occur in females.

Turner Syndrome occurs when a female is missing all or part of an X chromosome. Typically, females have two X chromosomes. When a female has an incomplete set of genes, it can cause heart defects, underdeveloped ovaries, short height, and many other health issues to develop. Since Turner Syndrome occurs only in females, choosing to have male children can give you a child who is 100% free from Turner Syndrome.

PGD Gives You Added Peace of Mind

PGD stands for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. This is the testing done on your embryos to reveal their gender. This form of testing is completed before you get pregnant with your chosen embryo.

In addition to revealing the gender of your embryos, this testing also detects more than 100 genetically linked diseases, disorders, and chronic health conditions. These conditions include diseases such as Huntington's, sickle cell anemia, and Tay-Sachs disease. If you have any genetically linked diseases or disorders, PGD can help you make more informed family planning decisions.

While PGD provides you with the information needed to get pregnant in the first place, it is not a substitute for prenatal diagnostic testing. If you're currently pregnant or about to become pregnant, you should go to your prenatal medical appointments. You should also get amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, or other tests recommended by your medical doctor to ensure your preborn child continues to be healthy.

Thinking Of Pursuing IVF With Gender Selection?

If you're excited by the possibilities this new technology may have for your life, you're not alone. Many couples have embraced this new technology before you and are enjoying life with the children they've always wanted right now.

Your first action step is to talk as a couple about your goals for your family. Dreams are lovely, but they are only starting points that can help keep you motivated when times get challenging. What you need to do is clarify your vision of your family. Asking questions such as, "How many children do we wish to have?", “What genders would we like them to be?" and "How far apart do we want to space their births?" are excellent for envisioning your family together.

If you already have one or more children, you also need to envision your new family with them in mind. They need to be prepared for the new additions you have planned. After all, they will be gaining new siblings for life.

In the midst of your search for the family you long for, you probably have many questions about your medical options. Our highly specialized and expertly trained medical staff is here to give you the answers you need to move ahead.

Building the family of your dreams is only a phone call or email away. Once you get in touch with us, we can consult with you about your goals and other essential information. You can have the family you've always wanted, and we're here to help turn your dreams into reality.