Consultant: Exceptional cases to determine the sex of the newborn during in vitro surgeries

Dr. Nabil bin Muhammad Ijaz Prasha, a consultant infertility, IVF and gynecological endoscopic surgeries at King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard in Jeddah, explained that there are exceptional cases during which it is possible to determine the sex of the newborn, which is carried out through the operations of assistive technologies for pregnancy, namely, IVF with ICSI, as some families complain of The spread of some genetic diseases, and so that the new child does not have any genetic disease, high-quality embryos are selected and subjected to a genetic diagnosis test before implantation or what is known as genetic testing, and this test is done by taking a biopsy from the fetus to examine the genetic information of the fetus before returning it to The uterus, and after a fetal examination, a healthy fetus of the required sex is returned to the mother’s womb.

Bracha continued: The sex of the fetus is determined by the sex chromosome carried by the sperm that fertilizes the egg, and the sperm can carry either the X or Y chromosome, while the woman’s egg contains only the X chromosome. But if it carries the X chromosome, the baby will be female, and in some cases the family resorts to determining the sex of the baby to achieve a balance between the number of males and females in the family.

He added: There are 4 stages in the process of determining the sex of the newborn for the excluded cases:

The first stage: the program of induction of ovulation through hormonal needles given to the wife from the beginning of the cycle, and during the program the eggs are constantly monitored until they reach the size required for withdrawal.

The second stage: Eggs are withdrawn from the body through a special vaginal needle under intravenous sedation, local or general anesthesia, and the egg is microscopically fertilized with sperm on the same day.

The third stage: placing the embryos in special incubators and leaving them for 3 days until each embryo reaches the stage of 6-8 cells, and then the embryo wall is punctured and one or two cells are withdrawn without any harm or harm to the embryo. The cell is studied by dyeing the chromosomes to determine Syndromes such as Down syndrome, Edward and Patau, as well as the gender of the fetus.

Fourth stage: The embryos of the desired sex are returned, and only the embryos of the desired sex and healthy embryos are returned.

The last stage: It is taking a pregnancy stabilizer program and waiting for two weeks to find out that pregnancy has occurred.

Pracha concluded:

Early genetic testing for individuals who have a family history of certain diseases such as sickle cell anemia or genetic abnormalities is the best way to have healthy children with the possibility of conducting a test to determine and choose the gender of the fetus, as ICSI procedures include – as I mentioned – determining healthy embryos and the type of fetus at excellent and guaranteed rates 100%.