Chinese Gender Prediction Chart

I had several friends who were confident that our baby was a boy before we made our announcement because I said in a blog post that the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart predicted that we were having a boy. The Chinese Gender Prediction Chart uses the date of conception (Chinese lunar month) and the mother's age (Chinese lunar age) to predict whether a baby is a boy or a girl. Most of these websites will allow users to enter a due date to estimate the date of conception, rather than having users enter the actual date their baby was conceived since many couples do not know the exact date they conceived their unborn child. I used my due date because I was not sure when in the IVF process our baby was technically conceived.

Example of Chinese Gender Prediction Chart

I know so many people believe in the Chinese gender predictions, and I also know several people who have used it trying to get a boy or a girl and have had it work for them. I have just two problems with it: First, how does it predict multiples? Even with fraternal twins it is very likely that they are conceived on the same day so how can boy/girl twins be explained?

My second problem with it is the conception part: when does conception occur? Conception is not exactly a scientific term so a clear answer is hard to find. in religious circles-especially in discussions of abortion-there have been arguments for years about when exactly conception occurs (when do an egg and a sperm start to become a baby?) I found three different explanations:

1.  Conception occurs at the time that the sperm fertilizes the egg
2.  Conception occurs when the fertilized egg travels to the uterus
3.  Conception occurs when the fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining

Really all of these are just the steps that happen in order for pregnancy to occur. So according to these definitions our baby could have been conceived at three different times:

1.  February: when our egg retrieval was done and my eggs were left to mingle with Ryan's sperm in a lab for two days to see how many would come together for fertilization (all 15 did).
2.  July: when we actually might have had sex (if we had naturally conceived) to get pregnant by the date our embryo was transferred (this is likely the month the gender charts I entered my due date into came up with).
3.  August: when our embryo was transferred to my uterus (August 11 to be exact) where it implanted some time in the next week.

No matter when our baby was conceived, my lunar age would have been the same: 33 years (even though according to our calendar I actually turned 32 this year, and was 31 during all of the months when conception might have happened).

With all of that in mind, I went through and used the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart (on several different websites. Here are two more: Chart 1, Chart 2) to see if they all said boy no matter which estimated date of conception I used. I found that if our baby was "conceived" in either February or July, the chart predicts boy. But if our baby was conceived in August, then the chart says girl. This would suggest that the Chinese do not consider conception to be at the time of implantation. It is still interesting though because if we had gotten pregnant naturally  (with my last period being July 23), it is possible it happened in the very end of July, but would have been more likely to happen in early August.

Here is where it gets a little tricky. Since the sperm cell carries the x or y chromosome that determines if a baby is a boy or a girl, the sex of a baby is actually already established when the sperm fertilizes the egg. If conception occurs at the time of fertilization, then according to the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart, all of our embryos are already boys. That does not make sense because that would mean that anyone who does IVF using embryos from the same egg retrieval would only have babies of the same sex every pregnancy. Don't make me talk about the Octomom again (six boys and two girls all born as a result of the same IVF attempt, so all conceived on the same day.)

I guess the only way for me to test this and see how accurate it really is would be to use the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart the next time we want to get pregnant, and plan for our embryo transfer to happen at the right time (by due date) for the baby to be a girl. If we do end up having a girl, then I will wonder if the predictions just determined by the ESTIMATED time of conception based on counting back from the due date rather than using the actual date of conception. If that is the case, then it would mean that every woman my age due to give birth on April 29, 2015 is having a boy (I'll see what I can find out in the hospital).

Really I just can't get past the fact that the sex of all of our embryos is already genetically determined, so no matter when they are put inside of me or when our baby or future babies are due they are already the sex they are going to be. For the Chinese Gender Predictions to be correct this would mean that conception happened back in February when my eggs were fertilized and all of our embryos are boys. That being said, I do not think that all seven of our embryos that survived to be transferred or frozen are boys (this includes the ones from our unsuccessful attempts). Although according to recent research, it is likely that most of them are (New studies suggest IVF is skewing the gender balance).

I think I might be overthinking this and getting lost in the science of it all. I doubt I will ever know whether or not it works for sure, but I am just superstitious enough to make sure we use the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart to time things just right to give our boy a baby sister someday. No matter what though, all of the superstitions and old wive's tales are fun and entertaining.

Just for fun I tested this out on my nieces and nephews (the ones born in 2006 or after). It was correct about half of the time: 6/10. Apparently 3 of our nephews should have been girls and one niece was supposed to be a boy.