Finding Out the Baby's Sex

Very unusual that a doctor will not do an ultrasound, they are not to find out the sex of the baby but also to diagnose problems that they would want to know before delivery. I would switch docs or find someone who will do an ultrasound. Good Luck!!!!

Debbie that's an awesome idea!! I wish I knew about that before. I'll have to pass on the information.

She is right the dr. should preform at least 1 at about 20 wks. This is to find any defects like heart problems or anyother odd defects that can be fixed before or after the birth. In one of my ultra sounds they found that my daughter had an enlarged kidney, so they monitored us more carefully and everything was fine. But it's that stuff that can be found and corrected if possible.

You can go to a 3rd party to pay for an ultrasound. Sometimes they will have 3-D ultrasounds that are pretty cool. It may be expensive though.

Good Luck.

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READ THIS IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY HER DOCTOR WON'T DO AN ULTRASOUND!!!
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The answer is, it's not necessary. While a social expectation, routine ultrasounds *do not* improve outcomes for mothers or babies, and actually can lead to incorrect diagnoses, unwarrented stress, and other unecessary testing because of false positive results. There have also been no long term studies done to determine if ultrasounds are totally safe (remember how they used to x-ray pregnant women?). Here are the guidelines for whether a woman qualifies for an u/s according to the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

"Simply stated, if a pregnant woman is young (but not too young) and healthy; has a firm recollection of the dates of her last normal menstrual period; goes for examination by her obstetrician early in pregnancy; has completely unremarkable physical examination findings and medical, family, and obstetric histories; meets every milestone during her pregnancy; and has no unusual laboratory findings, then she is not a candidate for sonography."

"ACOG (The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists) and the AIUM have published guidelines for obstetric sonography. Neither of these organizations supports the use of routine sonographic screening of all pregnant women."

I'd say that T. has an excellent doctor who is following the guidelines of evidence based medicine.

Why wont your dr do an ultrasound?? It is normally routine for at least one ultrasound to check vitals and growth...finding the sex is a secondary benefit and one ultrasound is normally covered under insurance with even a normal pregnancy. I was able to hav lots of ultrasounds, but also did one at a school for free. Try calling Argosy in Bloomington, MN...they have a ultrasound program and sometimes the students need extra practice, especially with pregnant women. I did this and it was pretty cool. My mom got to come and had never seen an ultrasound before and the girl took lots of time and let me have lots of pictures. Since she was practicing, she was really curious and not rushed like at a dr office.

I have seen the kits at Walgreens, but haven't tried it. I was thinking maybe next go around just to see!? I remember reading about them a while back and I think you may have to mail your sample to a lab to have the test done (it's not instant like pregnancy test) but it may have changed. Good luck and congratulations on your pregnancy.

I am really curious as to why your doctor will not perform at least one ultrasound to montior development and to check for potential issues- especially when some of the issues, if detected early enough, can be resovled in utero with no lasting effects on your sweet little baby. It seems to me that refusing to perform even one ultrasound would be per se malpractice. But that's just my opinion.

That said, you can always pay to have a 3D or a 4D ultrasound and get some awesome pictures of your baby. You can Google it- there are several facilities that offer this service in and around the cities. Maybe the doctor or tech performing the ultrasound will even be able to look for any red flags as well, who knows.

Good luck, and will you let us know 1) who your doctor is , and 2) why he will not perform an ultrasound? I only ask for the name of your doctor because I am pregnant and looking for a new OB and I would like one who will perform an ultrasound. Thanks!

What always worked with me is to lay quietly at night and imagine yourself holding your baby. What are you holding? We know what we are having, we just have to tune into it. I also dream about my grandbabies. While my son and daughter in law were sure she was having a boy, I dreamt of a little girl who looked just like her daddy sitting on my lap. She was born 9-27-06 and she looks just like her daddy. My daughter in law says now that deep down she knew she was having a girl but was hoping for a boy so she talked herself into thinking it was a boy. I had a dream a couple years ago of my oldest son having twin boys that look just like him when he was that age and now he and his wife are expecting. They went into the doctor last week and while she is only 12 weeks along and too soon for ultra sound or to tell by the heartbeat, her uterus is larger then normal at 12 weeks according to the doctor. I keep telling them that if they find out they are having twin boys, they better never brush me off when I say "I had this dream..." again..lol.

I like Kathy K's response! My insurance won't cover an ultrasound at all unless the dr finds a very specific medical reason for it. I know women who don't believe in having ultrasounds at all. The couple women I know that tried the home kit said it didn't work, but I think I would like to try it, might be fun. I heard once that the draino test could be dangerous, because of the fumes that might come from mixing chemicals (the draino mixed with the ammonia in the urine). At least if you do try it make sure it's a very well ventilated room.

T.,

I only know two moms who purchased the home test - both tests were wrong when they learned the gender for sure. When I worked outside the home, lots of women used the "Draino" test at work. The results were right about 50% of the time. Considering that you have a 50% chance of being right no matter what you do, I think it's safe to say it doesn't work.

Congrats on #2,
S.

I don't know about THAT test.

BUT google "Chinese Birth CALCULATOR"! You type in your info and it'll tell you if you're having a boy or girl! It was right on the 2 children I gave birth to and to 1 I miscarried.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100702&a...#

Here is what you are looking for. I am debating doing this just for fun. We won't find out the sex with our ultrasound because it ruins the fun but I was interested after the fact to see if it works.

If the link doesn't work I have found them at walgreens.com (and in stores) Intelligender Gender Predictor Test. I do not know the accuracy but of course the kit gives you it's high reliability rates though not independently backed up.

Can you tell me why the Dr's Office will not do an ultrasound? Is it because they are concerned about overuse and potential dangers from doing too many? I've heard of potential risks, but haven't really heard of Dr.s not wanting to do them. Just curious. You can email me off line: ____@____.com.

Thanks! And congratulations with your pregnancy & baby!

I'm guessing you are pry talking about the intelligender tests. Well I'm due in December and belong to a birth club month. Everyone was crazy about trying all those crazy things to figure out the sex because most aren't finding out till recently.

I asked my doc about a ton of different of those old wives tales ways to tell. He told me about 50% of the time they are right. Which of course made me laugh. So I said guessing wouldn't that also be a 50% shot and he said yep! LOL!

Funnily enough alot of people are coming on saying those tests were wrong. If I had to guess more than 50%. I think they are more for fun while you are going through the grief of waiting to know what it is and feeling absolutely terrible in the first trimester. A nice distraction I guess.

I say go to another Doctor! It's a bit extreme, but ultrasounds should be done routinely to check on the baby's development. If you are not satisfied with what they are doing at your clinic I think it is worth it to switch. I had three ultrasounds done as part of normal pregnancy checkups, and I had a fourth to make sure his heart was okay...not because there were any issues...just as a precautionary measure because my sister's children had heart issues. My midwife ordered it without a second thought. And I'm glad she did because I really wanted to know the sex as well and when the other ultrasounds were done he was either too little or faced down so we couldn't see his genitals. Calling a school is a great idea. I bet you could find other schools to have it done at too besides Argosy. Also some family centers do free ultrasounds to discourage people from having an abortion, but personally to do that I would have to be really desperate. Either way your clinic should be doing them for you

Why on earth is your hospital refusing to do an ultrasound??? Are they refusing to do one just to see the sex or are they refusing to do one at all during the course of the pregnancy? What about checking to see if your baby is formed and healthy? I would be switching doctors/hospitals immediately personally. Even our tiny rural hospital does a routine ultrasound to check for abnormalties and to age and size the baby. I'd be really concerned about a hospital refusing to give an ultrasound unless they gave you a REALLY good reason.

The home test was right for us, but I wouldn't start decorating based on it. I am disturbed by the no ultrasound. I had mine yesterday and they found a marker for trisomy 18. This was very, very important information for me to have. Despite what some people here have said there are important diagnostic reasons for ultrasaound. I would be changing doctors if I were you, but I have strong feelings about what part I play in my healthcare. Did they give you a good reason?

Most doctor's do at least one ultrasound to make sure there are no birth defects before the baby is born. Some things would show up such as the cord being wrapped around the baby's neck, heart problems, etc. I would switch doctor's or at least insist on going somewhere other than your own doctor for an ultrasound. This can also determine the baby's sex.

I just read an article about those home gender tests and it claimed that they are 85% accurate. So it might be fun to do one (or a couple) but I wouldn't stake my life on the results.

I think the first thing that should concern you is that your doctor will not to an ultrasound. You do an ultrasound at or around 20 weeks to measure the growth of the baby and they check for all of the other anomalies that your baby could have such as Spina bifida, cleft palate, club foot ect....... But I don't know anything about the test you can do at home but the Chinese birth chart was right with my son.

I swear by the Chinese gender predictors found on the internet. You must go to a website that calculates your lunar or Chinese age first. For example, I am 30 years old, but when I calculated my lunar age I am 32. These charts and calculators are meant to be fun, but I am always right when I use them to predict mine and my friends' babies!

Is there a reason why your doctors office won't give you an ultrasound? I find that amazing. I don't know anything about the home test that you are talking about but I was going to suggest maybe going and having a 3D/4D ultrasound done. Even though they are technically not supposed to give you medical information about the baby most likely they will tell you the sex - they did with me (I already knew though). Besides finding out the sex it also very cool to see what your baby looks like inside the womb. The place I went was Premiere 4D Imaging in Bloomington and it costs about $100 to do. You could always call and ask to see if there is anyway they could help you out. Good Luck

Wow, I am shocked that the doctor's office will not do an US....what is the reasoning???? There are sooo many things they can and should be checking for; my main reasoning was to make sure there was nothing like Spina Bifida (which is very rare these days) that would require a planned c-section, or other things that would warrant making sure appropriate specialists were available during/after delivery. I am surely NOT trying to scare you. I am just completely shocked! Unfortunately, I do not know about the home kits for finding out gender--even with our US's we chose to be surprised with that both times! Good Luck!

I'm with others-how come your doctor won't do the u/s?It's a law-at least one around 20 weeks-not only to see the baby's sex,but mostly for the potential problems.
And back to your question-I did that test for fun(intelligender was the name)I even sent the picture of my result to them to help me to figure out,because we couldn't agree with my hubby what the hell we see! -and guess what-they told me ,it seems 50/50-LOL!

If you really want to know then your best bet is an ultrasound which you can get done but you will have to pay a rather large sum if it isn't considered medically necessary and isn't covered by insurance. I just read an article about how one of these baby sex predictor companies was sued for fraud because the test was in no way accurate or even possible. But the tests are like $35 so you might as well try it for fun. However, I wouldn't paint the baby's room pink.