Shettles Method!

Mommie05 · October 2013

Hi just curious if anyone has used the shettles method to influence gender and if it worked? We already have a boy so I am hoping for a girl! I tried it this time around can't wait I see if it worked!!

spacepotatoes · October 2013

Sorry, no. It took us over a year, with several bumps in the road, to conceive this one so we really didn't care about gender.

czarmom · October 2013

We tried it for this one because we already have two boys and would like a girl. So, I guess we'll find out!

akifyre · October 2013

We want a girl, but we will be very happy if they are a boy. I am hoping that statistics lends us towards a girl. There are only 2 girls in my ample circles of family and friends. Everyone seems to have boys!

spacepotatoes · October 2013

Last fall, I read The Impatient Woman's Guide to Getting Pregnant by Jean Twenge. She sort of takes a Mythbusters approach to a lot of the common ttc information and talks about what the studies actually show. There was a section about Shettles and it was kind of interesting. It hasn't really been studied in any reliable way but the most thorough of the few studies that had been done showed that it actually tended to produce the opposite result. But again, it's never really been studied properly so...who knows. You have a 50/50 shot

ErikaLynn75 · October 2013

There is a lot of evidence to show that the Shettle's method does not work, and a small amount of evidence to show that the opposite may be true. So don't get your hopes up.

I would link some stuff if I had more time, but the first place I read about it was The Impatient Woman's Guide to Getting Pregnant. I did some research on my own after that, and as far as I can tell, there is no way to influence gender on your own.

stm510 · October 2013

We tried it this time for a girl. I did alot of reading and thought why not try it. I didn't think we would concieve because we BD 4-5 days before O. Who knows if will actually work - clearly not putting much stock in it, but we were not in a rush to conceive so tried it for a month and BAM! I do feel like because I tried for a girl, I will end up with a boy. Oh, and before people get all "you should be happy with either" - we also have very high odds of congenital heart defect which is 4x more likely in boys. So, why not try and avoid what we went through with my son.

busterbeagle · October 2013

We didn't specifically try to have a girl but based on the only time we DTD and how she measured at our first u/s, the swimmers were hanging out for 3-5 days before conception with DD. So at least anecdotally, sex several days before ovulation followed by abstinence did result in a girl for us. I think the Shettles method only tips the scale very slightly in one direction or the other, but then again I don't know too much about it because we've never tried for one sex or the other. I think the only for sure way to get one sex over the other is IVF with PGD.

czarmom · October 2013

Speaking for myself, I know that Shettles could be a shot in the dark. I tried it for the hell of it, can't control the outcome either way and am still interested to see if we have conceived a girl. That being said, it was really funny to instruct my husband to put his balls in a hot tub for thirty minutes. If anything, I get to take away that keepsake from the whole experience

TheBeeCharmer · October 2013

We never really "tried" for one or the other. BUT....it did seem to work based on our timing. With DD we tried on o-4,0-3 O-2 and o-1. With DS was o-1 only. This one was more girl timing so we'll see. But, as others have said I think it only influences minimally if at all.

czarmom · October 2013

I think the OP question was, has anyone tried the Shettles Method? If you haven't, there is no need to respond with negative comments or opinions. To each his own.

Mommie05 · October 2013

Thanks for all the feedback ladies well said czarmom!!

IBackBevo · October 2013

I think that subsequent studies have shown that the science that the Shettles theory was based on (boy sperm were smaller/faster/died more quickly and girl sperm were bigger/heartier/slower/lived longer) actually was not true. Also, I believe that at least some of his studies were done in the context of IUI so that could potentially throw off the results. Further, even if you believed his theory, it still was only about 55-60 percent accurate. Therefore, "swaying" only increased the odds very slightly in your favor.

With that said, I don't believe that the idea that perhaps that some factor influences sex is totally bogus. It has been shown that in certain professions where the men are exposed to environments that would decrease their sperm count that these same men have a disproportionate percentage of female offspring--hence, that would be consistent with Shettles theory that female sperm are heartier. And I know way too many families that have all boys or all girls. I know a family in my hometown with 12 (yes 12!) boys and 0 girls. Statistically, the odds of that happening if every time you had a 50/50 shot of getting one sex or another are astronomical. And I know multiple families where they have 3, 4, 5 or even 6 children all of the same sex. I even was once contacted about a study when I was pregnant with DS out of some university in CA where they were studying the idea that maternal occupation could influence sex...the idea being that women with innately higher testosterone levels gravitated towards certain professions and these women also had higher percentages of male offspring. I did not enroll in the study.

flowerx2 · October 2013

I'm curious to find out if this baby is a girl or not. We only hit o-5 and o+1. We were not trying for a specific gender. I ran out of opks and I had a super long cycle so I kind of gave up halfway through my cycle. I was shocked when I got my positive.

miniray · October 2013

We didn't try this method for either pregnancy. I was charting with DS and we hit 0-3 and 0-2 and he is a boy. I really think your chances are 50/50.

jesstellina · October 2013

We tried for a girl and got our DD.

I don't think there's anything in the Shettles method about soaking balls in hot water... It's just about the timing of intercourse related to ovulation.

IBackBevo · October 2013

jesstellina said:

We tried for a girl and got our DD.

I don't think there's anything in the Shettles method about soaking balls in hot water... It's just about the timing of intercourse related to ovulation.

Under Shettles, (at least I think it is Shettles), anything that would lower sperm count and kill off the less "hearty" male sperm would sway girl. I don't know if there is anything to it, but I think that is what his theory states...or, at least, there is some gender sway theory to that end.

sisterjanet · October 2013

The only method I know of where you can guarantee the child's sex is adoption, and even then you might get a baby faster if you're willing to give it a 50/50 shot.

CandaceMarie321 · October 2013

We have three boys, and everyone in the house (save the 2 year old) really wants a girl. We tried Shuttles and the girl diets(and prayer) I know they have very little scientific basis, and maybe my odds are now 51/49, but it seemed worth a try to us. We'll hopefully find out in December.

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