Most parents prefer to know the sex of the baby before it is born, and although this can usually be found on ultrasound during the second trimester of pregnancy, knowing it usually requires invasive tests. New research confirms that a blood test can predict the sex of the baby in the first trimester of pregnancy.
This is a procedure that is already unprecedented and has been investigating for some time in various parts of the world, and has also been tested.
Current research, conducted in South Korea, reveals that several proportions of two enzymes that can be extracted from the pregnant woman's blood indicate whether the fetus will be a boy or a girl. This way of finding out their sex would constitute an analysis that would be one of a kind.
The method developed by the team of Hyun Mee Ryu, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Cheil General Hospital at the Kwan Dong University School of Medicine, in Seoul, South Korea, is capable of significantly reduce the need for invasive procedures in pregnant women, and can also clarify ambiguous readings made by ultrasonic methods.
Actually, as a "defender" of not knowing the sex of the baby until birth (although I have not been able to carry it out with my two daughters), I do not find this method too useful, unless it is associated with detection of possible problems in the fetus. But it would undoubtedly be a good option for those parents most eager to prepare for the arrival of the baby.
The study has been published in the latest edition of The Faseb Journal and reveals that maternal plasma is an effective indicator for the early detection of the sex of the fetus. The Korean research team analyzed maternal plasma of 203 women during the first trimester of their pregnancies.
Although more research and development work must be done before the new test is ready for widespread clinical use, the work done so far demonstrates that it is feasible to predict the sex of an embryo within a few weeks of starting pregnancy.
