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Throughout history people have been trying to fall pregnant with a baby of their chosen gender so trying to put the odds of conceiving a boy or girl, whatever your preference may be, into your favor is nothing new. Fortunately we now know a lot more about how the body and especially conception works so these days we don’t need to rely on wives tales or myths about what we need to do.
This article will focus primarily on some of the strategies and methods for conceiving a boy using natural methods (rather than laboratory techniques). While choosing the gender of your child via a laboratory is usually more successful (although there still have been many cases of couples not getting the child they thought they were getting), trying methods at home, such as the Shettles Method is safe and doesn’t cost you anything.
Since I’ve already mentioned it, the Shettles Method was introduced in the 1970’s by Dr Landrum Shettles MD PhD and is probably one of the best known methods for falling pregnant with a child with the gender of your choosing.
He discovered that the sperm carrying the X chromosome (female sperm), while stronger and larger, was slower than the sperm carrying the Y chromosome (male sperm) which tended to be faster and lighter but didn’t last as long.
He then surmised that to take advantage of these characteristics, to increase your chances of having a boy baby that you must have intercourse as close to ovulation as possible so that the male sperm would reach the egg first and fertilize it.
Interestingly the Shettles Method is far more successful in producing boy babies (they claim an 85% success rate for males) than it is for girl babies (only a 77% success rate) which is believed to be because it is easier to pinpoint ovulation as it happens rather than 4 days beforehand.
Of course this method is still not 100% guaranteed but it does seem very effective for conceiving a boy baby, so let’s look at the method in more detail.
The Shettles Method for conceiving a boy:
Because timing is important for the Shettles Method, you need to know when the woman is just about to ovulate. This means testing with ovulation predictor kits (OPK’s), body basal temperature methods (charting) or ovulation saliva monitors to pinpoint when you are due to ovulate.
Then you should aim to have intercourse as close to ovulation as possible. The Shettles Method says to start trying 2 days before you ovulate, right up to your ovulation day.
Theoretically this will ensure that the faster male sperm will reach the egg first and be ready to fertilize it before the female sperm have a chance to reach it.
He also has said certain positions favor a boy including any that deposit the sperm right at the cervix so they don’t have as far to travel. These positions include any deep penetration, like the doggie – rear entry positions.
Shettles also advocated that the woman should orgasm either before or at the same time as the man, since this not only helps push the sperm further up the uterus, but also creates a more alkaline pH environment in the woman which makes it easier for the sperm to live longer.
To Try the Shettles Method:
- Have intercourse everyday starting from 2 days before your expected ovulation day right up to the day you ovulate.
- Use the doggie style or other deep penetration position.
- The woman should have an orgasm
- If possible keep the pH levels of your vagina as alkaline as possible – orgasm should take care of that, but also eating thing like red meat and salty snacks will help.
- Men should avoid wearing tight clothes or having hot showers.
