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Family Balancing/Gender Selection

Family balancing at Texas Fertility Center can help you have a baby of a specific sex

Many families have been blessed with multiple sons or several daughters. However, before calling their family complete, they might want to have a baby of the opposite sex. If this is true for you, Susan Hudson MD offers an option called family balancing. Also referred to as gender selection, this option can help our New Braunfels fertility specialist transfer a female or a male embryo, depending on your family-building goals.

What does gender selection involve?

Family balancing is an option that you can pursue as part of an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle. This proven fertility treatment involves multiple steps.

Gender selection occurs between the steps of fertilization and the embryo transfer. During this time, our trained embryologists in the lab will take a tiny cell sample from each resulting embryo. This biopsy is very safe because the cells come from the area that will develop into the placenta (trophectoderm) rather than what will become the baby.

Using preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A), our laboratory team will look at the cell samples and examine the chromosomal makeup of each embryo. This information helps us identify which embryos are chromosomally normal, while also allowing us to see whether an embryo is male or female.

Once we have the PGT-A results, Dr. Hudson will transfer one of the chromosomally normal embryos of your desired sex. This technique is highly effective, and it has helped countless families achieve their parenthood dreams.

Why would someone want to pursue family balancing?

Most patients who are interested in gender selection have several boys or girls, and they want to balance their family by having a baby of the opposite sex. However, other patients have a medical reason for pursuing this option. They may have or carry a sex-linked chromosomal illness and only want to transfer embryos of the sex that cannot inherit the condition.

Regardless of the reason you want to explore family balancing, our New Braunfels fertility specialist can help you. Contact us to schedule an appointment and learn more about this family-building option.