Shettles Method

ShaunaT25 · August 2016

I always find this an interesting discussion.... Have you ladies ever heard of the Shettles Method? I was introduced to the theory by a friend of mine, who's sister and wife used AI to conceive their two daughters. They wanted to increase their chances of having girls, researched, and found this method.

Boiled down to it's basics, it is theorized that male sperm, are weaker, smaller, but faster than female sperm, who are larger, stronger, but take more time to get to where they are going. Based on this, Dr. Shettles theorized that if you were to have sex (or in my friends sisters case, AI) 2 or more days prior to ovulation, that the male sperm would essentially die out, and you'd be left with a higher amount of female sperm, and therefore increase your chances of conceiving a girl.

The theory also talks about vaginal PH, and positioning for increasing your chances for one sex or the other.

It's all very interesting, and apparently worked for my friends sister, but I had never heard of it before. Of course it is a theory and not a proven method.... but always an interesting discussion!

Here is a nice coles notes summary haha

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/conception/gender-selection-shettles-method/

jmacd22 · August 2016

Interesting. I had sex 2 days before I ovulated and on the day I ovulated so I'll never know lol.

wintersong · August 2016

For me it's not worth trying to select a gender by reducing your chances of conception overall. Seriously we tried for 10 cycles to get pregnant, and we had week times sex at least three times in our fertile window every month. To consciously skip days would be torturous for me. Plus I feel weird about assigning value to one gender by trying harder for it? Thats probably more a me issue than a moral one though.

ShaunaT25 · August 2016

longliveregina said:

For me it's not worth trying to select a gender by reducing your chances of conception overall. Seriously we tried for 10 cycles to get pregnant, and we had week times sex at least three times in our fertile window every month. To consciously skip days would be torturous for me. Plus I feel weird about assigning value to one gender by trying harder for it? Thats probably more a me issue than a moral one though.

Oh I completely agree. We had been TTC for a full year with this little one. DH works away 3 weeks at a time, and then is home for 5 days, so it made it very difficult. My cycle also decided to switch from 28 days to 36 when he got a two month leave home... it was all very stressful.

I guess after my dating ultrasound yesterday it came back into my mind, as we would have conceived 4 days after his last visit home. It will be interesting to see come March what this little one is. It is just not something I had ever heard about until my friend shared her sisters story with me.

Edit: due to a glitchy phone that didn't want me to finish my train of thought.

DrillSergeantCat · August 2016

There's always a 50/50 chance so I don't put much credence into these theories.

ShaunaT25 · August 2016

DrillSergeantCat said:

There's always a 50/50 chance so I don't put much credence into these theories.

I think this is just the only one I've come across that has reasoning behind it that makes me go, huh, interesting... I don't think I've ever read about the differences between X and Y sperm before, that is all. There are so many theories that make me roll my eyes immediately, where as this one made me think. I spent a ton of time on the bump boards last pregnancy and heard every theory out there... but never this one.

Schumerator · August 2016

My brother and SIL tried this to get a boy, got a girl. It truly is 50/50 and whether there are differences between male/female sperm, you're gonna get what you're gonna get. I also was just trying to get pregnant in general, and not trying for a certain sex.

DrillSergeantCat · August 2016

ShaunaT25 said:

DrillSergeantCat said:

There's always a 50/50 chance so I don't put much credence into these theories.

I think this is just the only one I've come across that has reasoning behind it that makes me go, huh, interesting... I don't think I've ever read about the differences between X and Y sperm before, that is all. There are so many theories that make me roll my eyes immediately, where as this one made me think. I spent a ton of time on the bump boards last pregnancy and heard every theory out there... but never this one.

It is nice to actually have some science behind the theory. I didn't mean to sound so dismissive.

librarymom917 · August 2016

I had friends try this and they ended up with whatever sex they wanted, however some others who swore they timed it right got the opposite. We decided to try for another a week before my last period, we had ONE shot before DH would be gone 5 hrs away at work during my ovulation so it was either get it done this time or wait another 5 or 6 months. We didn't want to take any chances of missing the window so we did it every single day, even though I think we'd like a boy this time we didn't want to miss the opportunity by skipping any days. I got pregnant with DD the day OF ovulation , I know because DH was actually at work that week, got 24 hrs off and came home to surprise me, she was an "OOPS!" so I know exactly when she was conceived.

Skyjewell23 · August 2016

So technically all of us who were charting would get boys, based on this theory? I don't know anyone who is charting to TTC who would purposely skip having sex on the day of ovulation. Obviously you might miss O day for other reasons, but not intentionally.

I guess we can test this theory in a few months

ShaunaT25 · August 2016

I work with these lovely ladies who both have old wives tale methods they make their predictions on. They are lovingly dubbed the work witches. They have a pretty good track record, but it will always be a 50/50 chance. I enjoy the science behind this more than I do their string tricks. Hahaha.

It's all in fun. We we see soon enough, as long as it's a human and not a panda I'll be happy!

jem89 · August 2016

DH and I never tried these things out but my cousin's wife told me that she believes in this and exclusively does it doggie style when ovulating (it was so weird because it was at my baby shower in front of a lot of people and I barely know the chick). Anyway, this girl has 4 boys! She says she hates girls (which is also so bizzarre to say to someone who has 3 girls and no boys but some people are lacking social skills).

anonellis · August 2016

I believe this one more than I believe the old wives tales, because of the actual science involved, but I don't actually think it translates into anything you can control. If anything, it would lead to less sex, and no one wins when you have less sex (both for getting pregnant and just for life).

Gators&BoSox · August 2016

This one has always been interesting to me. I like how it's not guaranteeing a boy or girl just saying that by doing these certain things you might improve your chances. It could have some truth behind it, who knows.... Way more research would need to be done I think to definitively decide

disneybaby84 · August 2016

I will admit I looked up several theories before TTC and did my best to follow s few of the theories for the gender we were trying. Next week my doc gives me my gender results from the blood test, so we'll see if it worked

bradleerick-2 · August 2016

My Mom swears by this. My parents had me, my sister, then was diagnosed with endometriosis and had trouble TTC for 6 years because of it. She went through hormone therapy for a couple of years and the whole time was reading up on how to conceive a boy. She ended up with a boy after using this method. Her MD advised to start trying right after my brother was born if they wanted another child, so they used this method again and had my second brother.

BaylieGirl · August 2016

Well I'll be a good one to test this theory on... We only DTD 5 days before ovulation because so I was traveling for work so we'll see if it's a girl.

BelcherEars · August 2016

Honestly, this "method" has intrigued me because it does have some science intermingled with theory. That being said, I wonder how one would conclusively prove this theory. Like PPs have said, most people will try multiple times during their FW to maximize their chances of conception. How do you know which day's batch of sperm are the ones that reached the egg?

On a side note, DH and I weren't necessarily back in the swing of TTC after our MC, so we had unprotected sex literally one time. Based on my EDD (which was confirmed by my OBGYN) 99% sure our one hit wonder was day of O. So based on this method, we'll be having a boy. Guess we'll see in 8 weeks.

jem89 · August 2016

@BelcherEars Can I just say that's amazing!? How cool is it when it just happens and you know the exact day? Congratulations!

CanadianintheSouth · August 2016

I was on vacation sans husband for 5 days leading up to my O date (which was late thankfully) so I know this LO was conceived the day of ovulation which was confirmed by my dating ultrasound. So based on this, looks like boy for us according to this method! We shall see

kap1988 · August 2016

It seems kind of ridiculous to me to skip having sex on certain days to try to get the baby to have the sex you want. Even if the method really works, there is no way to know when you are going to ovulate before you ovulate. I'm pretty sure you have a 50/50 chance of it working. I ovulated twice in 16 months, with the help of a lot of medications, so I definitely did not have the luxury of trying this. Aside from that, I feel icky about actively "trying" for one sex over the other.

Ivorytower2 · August 2016

This theory was not true for me with last baby, we'll see with this one!

houseofsetters · August 2016

After 16 months of trying, I can't imagine decreasing my chances of conception just to have a preferred sex, which I also think is kind of ridiculous. If this baby is healthy, it's exactly what I want.

That said, I think Shettles came up with all this in the 1960s. With more advanced technology, recent studies have shown no physical differences between male and female sperm.

CBS7 · August 2016

As far as I've read, the science on this one has been disproven. This theory came out back in the '60s. More recently, with more advanced sperm analysis technology, scientists have concluded that there are no apparent differences (including swimming time!) between X and Y sperm. Even though the science doesn't support it, it's still fun to try to guess and see if you are right though! I definitely find mysel doing that with all sorts of things I've read (still waiting to find out the sex of our baby so no idea if any of them have been true).

pandalily · August 2016

@ShaunaT25 a panda would be pretty awesome though...LOL

mrsyimster · August 2016

i was charting, so according to this its boys! honestly i don't care if they are boys or girls or one of each

RunBooRun · August 2016

We had way too much sex during the fertile window to test this...

Image: https://i.makeagif.com/media/6-09-2015/MdEwOO.gif

Liss_37 · August 2016

this theory wasn't true for my DS, so we'll see when it comes to these two!

ihateusernames* · August 2016

Lol why are people so obsessed with baby's genitals?

your 2nd or 3rd child will have a different personality regardless of their parts.

If if I get my third boy, it won't be, "oh another boy". It's a brand new person that we get to discover and learn about.
which is exciting and wonderful.

my vagina is a part of me. It is not me.
You're not having a boy or a girl. You're having a little person.

sorry for the rant. My neighbour has been driving me nuts saying, "it better be a girl" so I'm pissy about that

jem89 · August 2016

@ihateusernames* I don't judge those who have a slight hope for one or the other but I just feel like they don't understand how unique every priceless person is. I have three girls. They are so wonderfully unique that I now know it's not about sex at all. People are just really cool! I would still like to see a baby boy that resembles my husband but it's not like I am stuck on that.

ihateusernames* · August 2016

Ha sorry, my rant was really grumpy.
If it weren't for so many dumb comments from people in my life, I probably would have just kept scrolling

jem89 · August 2016

@ihateusernames* I get it. People think that me finally getting a boy will fix my life. Totally annoying. I wasn't trying to argue with ya!

Schumerator · August 2016

@ihateusernames* FWIW, I think your rant was spot on

MrsBinPA · August 2016

If you have sex multiple times in the fertile window isn't this all just horseshit? You have no idea which days sperm was the "winner".

The notion of sex on a single specific day is just dumb for TTC. If you got knocked up that way good for you, but I want going to lower my chances with that nonsense.

After 3 back to back losses I pray every day or a healthy take home baby. Ramzi, this and the Chinese gender charts are redic.

Wishilivedinflorida · August 2016

@MrsBinPA

I

you.

ShaunaT25 · August 2016

I honestly don't think people who have the option of lots of sex during the fertile period who are ttc would use this. For obvious reasons. maybe if they know they're super fertile and have multiple of one sex and would like to try for the other. But that's not my business.

My friends sister and her wife had one shot (literally) to AI and wanted to increase their chances (not guarantee) for a girl for their own personal reasons. My dh was only home four days prior to when I ovulated, which is why it was interesting to me. As much as I would have loved to be able to increase my chances by having sex multiple times during a fertile window and it not have taken a year for us to conceive, his work schedule of being home four days a month doesn't allow that, nor did my wonky cycles.

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