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The Sunday Oakland Press - Front Page - May 24, 1998
Picking YourBaby's Sex
By SUZIE ST. JOHN
Deciding to start a family is a milestone. Couples envision precious little girls, irresistible little boys. And while most say all they want is a healthy baby, and they don't care about the child's sex, many secretly have a preference.
What if there were a way to medically enhance the chances of having the daughter you want or the son? What if there were a way to create an 83 percent chance of conceiving a boy and a 78 percent chance of conceiving a girl?
For Help
Couples interested in finding out more about sex selection can call the Midwest Fertility Center at 248-669-5255 or find it at www.selectagender.com on the Web. Gametrics Ltd. is www.childselect.com on the web.
These are the odds Dr. Ronald Zack is producing through the Midwest Fertility and Sex Selection Center in Lathrup Village.
The center uses a technique developed by Ronald Ericsson, Ph.D. of Gametrics Ltd. The former Western Michigan University Professor of reproductive physiology devised a method of separating and concentrating sperm. He patented the technique and licenses clinics around the world to use it. There are 33 sex selection centers in the United States as well as centers in Canada, England, Hong Kong, India, lsrael, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Palestine, and Panama.
Zack opened his center in 1984 with a focus on infertility, but also sees regular OB/GYN patients. Midwest offering sex selection. Zack says he was amazed at the number of calls he got asking about methods of conceiving one sex over the other. For years there have been old wives' tales circulating about methods of conception, but there had not been anything scientific to back up until Ericsson's technique.
"You can't believe how many times we were asked about it. I had read about Ericsson and knew about his work before I opened the clinic, and we just sort of took it from there," Zack, 50, said. The clinic doesn't do any advertising and relies solely on referrals, yet the number of sex selection patients coming to Midwest has increased each year.
The center averages five new patients a week and performs about 50 inseminations every 3 months. Zack said about 60 percent of his patients are trying for boys, 40 percent for girls.
"We have a fairly large Middle Eastern population in this area, and they lean more toward boys," Zack said.
During a couple's first appointment, Zack does a history and exam of the woman and explains how to keep track of her ovulation cycle. The couple then returns on the woman's most fertile day and the husband or partner donates a specimen of semen. If a couple choose to do this at home, it must be brought directly into the office due to the life-span of the semen.
"The sperm count has to be good - at least 80 million. That's the minimum, but it's usually much higher," said Jennifer, Midwest's medical technologist. "A higher count doesn't necessarily mean a higher success rate - it's the viability that counts. How does the procedure work? Here's the simplest version: the medical technologist washes the sample to clean out the dead sperm and the miscellaneous matter. The washed sample is then put through a filtration series that separates the X and Y sperm. Depending on what gender the couple is trying for, one solution enhances the X chromosome and deters the Y and vice versa. The treated specimen then goes through an incubation time of one hour and 45 minutes for boys and one hour and 30 minutes for girls. At the end of that time the reworked sample is artifically inseminated. It's an intra-cervical insemination for girls and intra-uterine for boys."
From start to finish, the procedure takes about three hours. Then the
waiting game begins. if the first insemination does not succeed, the couple
can try again during the woman's next ovulation cycle. Some couples chose
to try again in the same cycle. The cost of the insemination is less when
done in the same cycle. The cost is $500 for the initial consultation,
examination and first insemination, $400 for the second and $300 for the
3rd and each subsequent insemination. Same cycle inseminations cost $150.
Zack said on average, couples spend $1,200 to $1,500. (These fees reflect
the fees before 2000. Please note current fee
schedule.)
Considering the cost of the conventional method of conception is zero,
what would make a couple want to spend this kind of money to improve their
chances of getting the gender they want?
"This meant my mom was a definite carrier so that gave me a 50 percent chance of being a carrier," Harris, 36, said. "My husband and I talked to a genetic counselor and nobody could give us any answers. Finally, someone at the muscular dystrophy association said, 'I'm not going to say this works, but here's another way to go,' and she gave us Zack's number."
The couple started seeing Zack in 1989 and after one miscarriage, Katie conceived in April 1990 and gave birth to a healthy baby girl, named Erin. It took three inseminations before she conceived.
"The first insemination was so quick," Marris recalled. "Dr. Zack put on his gloves and two minutes later was already taking them off. I said, 'That's it? wham bam thank-you ma'am - here's your 500 bucks!' but I don't care because I got my baby."
The Harris's had always planned to have two children. So they headed back
to the center in 1992. Daughter Kelly was born in July 1993.
"I call Kelly my Visa child," Katie Harris said. "I borrowed from my mom, then I borrowed from my dad and finally I borrowed from my Visa."
While some patients keep the sex selection a secret from family and friends, the Harris's are just the opposite. "I tell everyone about it. I know some people are probably using it for the wrong reasons, but I'm not playing God," Katie Harris said. "I'm really, really pro choice and my husband is really, really pro life. We just figured that we've done everything in our power to ensure it's a healthy fetus and now it's up to God. Even if it was a boy with muscular dystrophy, we wouldn't have aborted."
Zack said he can't think of any patients who have terminated their pregnancies
because the procedure did not produce their selected sex.
"I'm not saying that it hasn't happened, but the couples who come here really want a baby," he said. "It's just so nice when it works. Virtually everyone sends us a letter and a picture."
Other reasons couples opt for sex selection may be that they've had two or three children of the same sex and are going to try one last time for the other sex. Or it could be a case of wanting only a certain number of kids for financial reasons and definitely preferring one sex.
That was the case with Cynthia (not her real name) and her husband, who asked they not be identified.
"Our biggest reason was that financially we didn't want five kids, we only wanted two and we wanted one of each," said Cynthia, who had already given birth to a little girl and used the sex selection to try for a boy.
Cynthia and her husband spent $1,350 for two inseminations in her first
cycle and three in the second. Zack added them to his list of success
stories when their son was born earlier this year.
"When we had the ultrasound done, we knew right away it was a boy," Cynthia said. "We were thrilled, but we still would have been thrilled with a girl - anything healthy. We were comfortable with our decision."
Although Cynthia did a lot of research prior to going through with the procedure, and said she would do it again in a heartbeat she hesitates when asked if she would recommend it to other couples. She and her husband haven't even told any of their family members about it and have no plans to do so.
"I think it's a generational thing. We could have afforded more children, but it's a question of lifestyle, and what we wanted to give them," Cynthia said "There are a lot of moral and religious issues associated with this and in a sense you are playing God."
"I think a lot of people are doing this and you just don't know about it. But if everyone started determining the sex of their baby, it would throw off the natural process."