Pregnant: girl or boy?

Eva Rudolf-Müller is a freelance writer in the medical team. She studied human medicine and newspaper sciences and has repeatedly worked in both areas - as a doctor in the clinic, as a reviewer, and as a medical journalist for various specialist journals. She is currently working in online journalism, where a wide range of medicine is offered to everyone.

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Girl or boy? This question often comes up quickly when a woman tells relatives and friends about her pregnancy. The parents-to-be themselves often want to know the gender of their child. Others, on the other hand, do not even want to find out from the doctor whether it will be a boy or a girl. Find out here how the sex of an unborn child is determined and when the doctor can say with relative certainty whether it will be a girl or a boy!

Sex determination by ultrasound

The sex of a child is already determined at the time of fertilization. The external genital organs have developed by around the 11th or 12th week of pregnancy (SSW). In principle, sex determination by ultrasound is possible from the 12th week of pregnancy, but it is still very uncertain.

The question “girl or boy?” Can be answered with relative certainty during the second regular ultrasound examination between the 19th and 22nd week of pregnancy, especially in the 3D ultrasound - provided that the little one does not turn and bend in such a way that the doctor cannot see anything .

Sex determination by invasive methods

If you want to know with one hundred percent certainty whether it will be a boy or a girl, then this is only possible with the help of invasive methods of prenatal diagnosis. Invasive means that an intervention is made in the mother's body, for example to take an amniotic fluid sample with the child's cells. These cells can then be examined genetically. Such invasive methods of prenatal diagnosis are associated with a certain risk of miscarriage. They are therefore not primarily carried out to determine gender, but only if there is a medical need (for example in the case of hereditary diseases in the family or a high-risk pregnancy).

Gender: No statement before the 12th week of pregnancy

Regardless of whether your doctor learns about the gender of your child as part of the ultrasound examinations or through prenatal diagnostics, he must under no circumstances tell you before the 12th week of pregnancy. That is in the GenDiagnostik-Gesetz (GenDG), which stipulates in § 15: "If the sex of an embryo or fetus is determined on the occasion of a ... prenatal examination, the pregnant woman can be informed of this with her consent after the 12th week of pregnancy." The reason For this passage in the law there is the possibility of a punishment-free termination of the pregnancy up to a maximum of the 12th week of pregnancy. The legislature wants to prevent abortions from being carried out only because of what the parents consider to be the “wrong” gender.

The question "girl or boy?" In folk medicine

In folk medicine there are innumerable “signs” that are supposed to signal whether a girl or a boy is growing up in the mother's womb. Some examples:

• Belly shape: round = girl / pointed = boy
• Skin and hair: bad skin, oily hair = girls / beautiful, pure skin, shiny hair = boy
• Cravings and cold feet: Lust for something sweet = girl / Desire for something salty and cold feet = boy
• Psyche: bad mood = girl / headache = boy

However, the probability that one of these folk wisdoms correctly answers the question “girl or boy?” Is no more than 50 percent.

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