PP - awkward typo; one was female and one was *male*, not normal.

Yeah, at my clinic, they would obviously recommend based on the grade of the embryo first. But my two normals were the same grade (5AA) and one was female and the other was normal. I asked the doctor if there was any reason one was likely to work over the other and she said "nah, it just depends on if you have a preference for a boy or a girl." It was a non-issue for the clinic.

Anonymous wrote:The cause of our infertility was thought to be a micro deletion on my dh’s Y chromosome. He would have passed this on to sons, so I asked about whether we could select female embryos to ensure that we didn’t pass on infertility. Our nurse at Shady Grove (this was 14 years ago) replied, “we don’t do family balancing.” I explained again that we weren’t trying to balance anything (we had no children), and had no preference, but that I wanted to select the sex in order to prevent our child from inheriting a medical condition. She still said no dice. I would have pursued it with the doctor, but we never had enough robust embryos for them to even do the testing. We ended up with fraternal twin girls - the only two viable embryos to come out of 3 IVF cycles.

Shady Grove asked if I wanted to choose earlier this year for my second baby. I think it's becoming so common, they probably no longer want to step in and make a potentially "ethical" decision for their clients.

I did have several of the same grade to choose from.

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

Yes PGS testing is an additional cost. From my understanding some insurance plans cover it, but many still do not as it’s deemed as unnecessary (in the eyes of employers looking at cost margins on benefits plans)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

As someone already explained, PGT-A (previously known as PGS) is a standard part of IVF now. Not everyone does it, but it is a pretty routine part of the process. It is a biopsy that tests for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, and part of that testing identifies sex chromosomes. Unless you're Elon Musk, people aren't doing PGT-A ONLY to test for sex, they're doing it so that they don't transfer abnormal embryos that won't turn into healthy pregnancies. Yes it costs extra, somewhere between $3,000-5,000 usually depending on the number of embryos you're testing. But when IVF is $20,000 anyways, another $3k generally isn't a deal breaker.

And insurance varies - only something like 10-15% of insurance policies cover IVF, and the coverage varies widely. It could cover up to a certain number of IVF retrieval cycles or it could cover up to a certain dollar amount. Almost no insurance policies let you "embryo bank" - meaning they require you to transfer any available embryos before doing a new retrieval cycle.

Thanks! OP here. So basically all the women I know having girls probably selected them knowing that they would have a girl! Makes total sense. I knew that my friends didn't want boys. LOL.

Are you trying to demonstrate what a textbook confirmation bias looks like? You clearly don't have much clue about infertility and IVF, and I'd recommend that you refrain from passing judgment on topics you're uninformed/misinformed on. That would just make you a better person overall.

I did IVF and I'm expecting a boy. It was a fresh transfer so we didn't know the sex beforehand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

As someone already explained, PGT-A (previously known as PGS) is a standard part of IVF now. Not everyone does it, but it is a pretty routine part of the process. It is a biopsy that tests for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, and part of that testing identifies sex chromosomes. Unless you're Elon Musk, people aren't doing PGT-A ONLY to test for sex, they're doing it so that they don't transfer abnormal embryos that won't turn into healthy pregnancies. Yes it costs extra, somewhere between $3,000-5,000 usually depending on the number of embryos you're testing. But when IVF is $20,000 anyways, another $3k generally isn't a deal breaker.

And insurance varies - only something like 10-15% of insurance policies cover IVF, and the coverage varies widely. It could cover up to a certain number of IVF retrieval cycles or it could cover up to a certain dollar amount. Almost no insurance policies let you "embryo bank" - meaning they require you to transfer any available embryos before doing a new retrieval cycle.

Thanks! OP here. So basically all the women I know having girls probably selected them knowing that they would have a girl! Makes total sense. I knew that my friends didn't want boys. LOL.

No, that’s not what it means.

The cause of our infertility was thought to be a micro deletion on my dh’s Y chromosome. He would have passed this on to sons, so I asked about whether we could select female embryos to ensure that we didn’t pass on infertility. Our nurse at Shady Grove (this was 14 years ago) replied, “we don’t do family balancing.” I explained again that we weren’t trying to balance anything (we had no children), and had no preference, but that I wanted to select the sex in order to prevent our child from inheriting a medical condition. She still said no dice. I would have pursued it with the doctor, but we never had enough robust embryos for them to even do the testing. We ended up with fraternal twin girls - the only two viable embryos to come out of 3 IVF cycles.

But doesn't the testing in general tell you if there is an X or Y chromosome? So they are already telling you, so if you select an XY embroyo, then you know you're trying for a girl? Also, these procedures are advancing every year and what was done a couple years ago doesn't really apply to today, right? So now, selecting embroyos with girls or boys seems the norm in 2020? Do they let you gender select in Philadelphia? Does anyone know?

I think I already answered your questions in the other reply. But just to be clear, genetic testing for embryos is pretty common, particularly for older women who have higher rates of abnormal embryos, and yes you would know the sex as part of that genetic testing. But MOST people transfer the highest quality embryo first because the highest quality has the best chance of success. With the exception of Elon Musk, very few people would discard an embryo or choose to transfer a lower quality embryo because of sex. Most people are infertile and have been trying for a baby for years - they want a baby, they're not doing IVF to get a girl or boy. But if someone has 3-4 embryos of the same quality, some people let the doctor pick which one to transfer and some people will say "let's transfer embryo A this time", knowing that embryo A is a particular sex.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

As someone already explained, PGT-A (previously known as PGS) is a standard part of IVF now. Not everyone does it, but it is a pretty routine part of the process. It is a biopsy that tests for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, and part of that testing identifies sex chromosomes. Unless you're Elon Musk, people aren't doing PGT-A ONLY to test for sex, they're doing it so that they don't transfer abnormal embryos that won't turn into healthy pregnancies. Yes it costs extra, somewhere between $3,000-5,000 usually depending on the number of embryos you're testing. But when IVF is $20,000 anyways, another $3k generally isn't a deal breaker.

And insurance varies - only something like 10-15% of insurance policies cover IVF, and the coverage varies widely. It could cover up to a certain number of IVF retrieval cycles or it could cover up to a certain dollar amount. Almost no insurance policies let you "embryo bank" - meaning they require you to transfer any available embryos before doing a new retrieval cycle.

Thanks! OP here. So basically all the women I know having girls probably selected them knowing that they would have a girl! Makes total sense. I knew that my friends didn't want boys. LOL.

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

As someone already explained, PGT-A (previously known as PGS) is a standard part of IVF now. Not everyone does it, but it is a pretty routine part of the process. It is a biopsy that tests for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, and part of that testing identifies sex chromosomes. Unless you're Elon Musk, people aren't doing PGT-A ONLY to test for sex, they're doing it so that they don't transfer abnormal embryos that won't turn into healthy pregnancies. Yes it costs extra, somewhere between $3,000-5,000 usually depending on the number of embryos you're testing. But when IVF is $20,000 anyways, another $3k generally isn't a deal breaker.

And insurance varies - only something like 10-15% of insurance policies cover IVF, and the coverage varies widely. It could cover up to a certain number of IVF retrieval cycles or it could cover up to a certain dollar amount. Almost no insurance policies let you "embryo bank" - meaning they require you to transfer any available embryos before doing a new retrieval cycle.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know that at the clinic we visited, you needed to have a valid medical reason to sex select. Some genetic diseases Target one sex or the other. Some mutation carriers have fewer effects depending on sex. I’m not explaining this well, but think of BRCA mutation carriers.[/quote]

Unless you're Elon Musk (who sex-selects only for boys) or a celebrity and go to concierge doctors for this stuff, the people who are going to clinics generally need a valid medical reason.

One valid reason for selecting girls is if genetic testing shows risk of a X-linked recessive inheritance disorder like haemophilia, or some forms of muscular dystrophy.[/quote]

Nah, I never had enough embryos to choose, but I know people that did at most of the big clinics around here. They don't advertise it as sex selection, but you'll have a conversation with your RE about which embryo to try first and they leave it up to you without getting into why you chose one over the other. Assuming you have multiple similar grade normal embryos of course - it might be a different conversation if you have 1 and want to do another retrieval before transferring. And also agree that most REs would not be willing to discard normal embryos based on sex, a la Elon Musk.
[/quote]

But doesn't the testing in general tell you if there is an X or Y chromosome? So they are already telling you, so if you select an XY embroyo, then you know you're trying for a girl? Also, these procedures are advancing every year and what was done a couple years ago doesn't really apply to today, right? So now, selecting embroyos with girls or boys seems the norm in 2020? Do they let you gender select in Philadelphia? Does anyone know?

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know that at the clinic we visited, you needed to have a valid medical reason to sex select. Some genetic diseases Target one sex or the other. Some mutation carriers have fewer effects depending on sex. I’m not explaining this well, but think of BRCA mutation carriers.[/quote]

Unless you're Elon Musk (who sex-selects only for boys) or a celebrity and go to concierge doctors for this stuff, the people who are going to clinics generally need a valid medical reason.

One valid reason for selecting girls is if genetic testing shows risk of a X-linked recessive inheritance disorder like haemophilia, or some forms of muscular dystrophy.[/quote]

Nah, I never had enough embryos to choose, but I know people that did at most of the big clinics around here. They don't advertise it as sex selection, but you'll have a conversation with your RE about which embryo to try first and they leave it up to you without getting into why you chose one over the other. Assuming you have multiple similar grade normal embryos of course - it might be a different conversation if you have 1 and want to do another retrieval before transferring. And also agree that most REs would not be willing to discard normal embryos based on sex, a la Elon Musk.

This is fascinating, PP. Do you have to pay extra for the testing? Some insurances now cover up to two procedures. It makes sense as to why older mothers prefer girls over boys now.

[quote=Anonymous]I know that at the clinic we visited, you needed to have a valid medical reason to sex select. Some genetic diseases Target one sex or the other. Some mutation carriers have fewer effects depending on sex. I’m not explaining this well, but think of BRCA mutation carriers.[/quote]

Unless you're Elon Musk (who sex-selects only for boys) or a celebrity and go to concierge doctors for this stuff, the people who are going to clinics generally need a valid medical reason.

One valid reason for selecting girls is if genetic testing shows risk of a X-linked recessive inheritance disorder like haemophilia, or some forms of muscular dystrophy.