Why is it more likely for 3 of the same sex???

Hi,
I've read and/or heard from friends' obs that if you already have 2 children of the same sex, that you're more likely to have a third child of the same sex?
Does anybody know why that is? There was an article in the weekend Age a few weeks back and the author's obs said she would have an 80% chance of having a third boy (and she did). But I've never found out what's the reasoning behind this and are the odds really that high?
I must have bucked the trend when we got DD after two DS.
Anybody know?

Pretty sure it's 50% each time...

I have heard a theory that it is more likely, not sure I would have thought 80% more likely though.....

But basically I think the theory is if you have the same environment 3 times (same sperm with the same characteristics i.e. some people say male athletes are more likely to have girls, so something about their sperm makes it more likely to have a girl, same pH level in the uterus, other variables the same) then the same sex sperm is likely to be successful each time.

But personally I would think that these types of things would only have a really really small impact (if any at all) on what sex you get :)

You would think it was 50% each time but it's not. Once you have 2 the same the odds of number 3 being the same go up. I've read that men with stressful jobs are more likely to have daughters and if you can diet to sway it's possible that you do so unintentionally

The odds are on the in-gender website -- take a look...

I have three of the same!! Apparently after two of the same your chances are higher for the sex you already have..... I will have a look and see if I can find where I read that!

I remember reading an article about this years ago, mentioned it to family and got my head bitten off for being 'so stupid. Everyone knows its a 50/50 for each'. I thought it was something like 80% chance of the 3rd being the same sex and 97% chance of the 4th being the same again :dunno: Obviously there is always the 20% or 3% for each time. But yeah, it would change if you have a different partner etc. Its pretty interesting IMO

I have 3 boys everyone including dr's thought ds3 would be a girl lol. Didn't it shock a few people i had one family member buying pink! Chances are having the same sex again are slightly higher but only like less then 5% of 50/50 but swaying a few things can bring those odds back to 50/50 and maybe slightly better?

I always just thought it was luck of the draw..
But look at myself and AmandaJ, we both have 6 kids, but she has all boys and i have 4 girls and 2 boys....so yeah i dunno how it works lol

Maybe this is why DH is so determined he doesn't want another baby - cause he'd have a higher chance of another girl :( (personally I don't care what sex it was!)

Your also more likely to have the opposite gender after 3 girls than you are after 3 boys.

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Your also more likely to have the opposite gender after 3 girls than you are after 3 boys.

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Oh really??? You got me interested in this again now Freya.... Where did you read this?? I just keep thinking we will have 4 girls as we have s many already!! Not that I care, but I do find it interesting how the % changes!

Its so interesting. I thought the odds were slightly higher to have a girl than a boy first time? 51% to 49% or so? As this is the difference in women vs men alive on earth.

What is the chance 2nd baby will be the same sex?

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I have heard/read the same. As you can see I have 4 boys so I knew my odds for a having a girl weren't very high, even with trying to gender sway.

Freya I hadn't read about having 3 girls more likely to have a boy, but that being said I see a lot more of that combination. in my area there are a lot of us that have 4 boys.

I have heard that each time you have a boy the chemicals and hormones change so you are more likely to have another boy. That said we have two girls and a boy and so does my SIL, same combo girls first. Dh's grandparents have 21 great grandkids and only 3 are boys so that seems to hint at something!

I was told 50/50 for first child, 60/40 for second child and 80/20 for third child, in favour of the first gender born then it goes back to 50/50 for subsequents. No idea how true that is.

I had three girls (bliss) - and then, 8 years later, a boy!

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Oh really??? You got me interested in this again now Freya.... Where did you read this?? I just keep thinking we will have 4 girls as we have s many already!! Not that I care, but I do find it interesting how the % changes!

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Will have to do some google later but it was some research done last year I think, there was a story done on it but cant remember whether it was on TV or magazine. They had been studying gender dynamics in families and worked out that you have better chances of having a boy after 2 or more girls than having a girl after 2 or more boys. I had a friend link me to it because we have 3 boys, but now I cant find the link.

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I have heard that each time you have a boy the chemicals and hormones change so you are more likely to have another boy.

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I wonder if this is permanent or if you have a big gap does it 'reset' back to being neutral?

My Ob told me approx half an hour after the birth of DS2 that if we decided to have a third we had a greater than 60pc chance of having another boy! Well, here we are with a third boy on the way ;) Not sure what the reasoning is but presume it may have something to do with my body being more accepting of boy sperm?? Having said that, we didn't try to gender sway with the timing of sex or anything else.

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I wonder if this is permanent or if you have a big gap does it 'reset' back to being neutral?

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Good point Onyx.

My mother would say it does, she had my sister and I 2 years apart and then later went on to have my brother 5 years after. She keeps telling me if I have a big age gap she would bet money that I have a girl. My age gaps are no bigger than 15mths so it would be curious to see if we go on to have another with a 4+yr age gap from the last boy what gender it would be.

My mother in law has 1 girl (first child) and over the next 19yrs had 6 boys with varying age gaps. I would love a little girl but am preparing that I'll probably end up with 3 boys. Ah well, will be happy with whatever little blessing I get.

I'm pregnant with my third boy! About the gap my student midwife is one of 6 - 3 girls all 18 months apart... Then years later her mum decided on more and bang, bang, bang 3 boys back to back!

the first two girls were 2 1/2 years apart but then I had a six year gap before another girl, but with a different partner. My ex is a chef and apparently chefs are more likely to father girls because of the heat near the testies. I assumed after two girls and a new partner I would have a boy, but no, my biggest surprise happened another girl.
Then I started to wonder is it my body that favours female sperm?? I recently had two mc and started to wonder were they boys and I could not carry them??? We will try again soon, and I really would be chuffed either way, how amazing to have four of the same sex.... and how amazing a boy after all these girls... I do find all of your replies very interesting indeed!

This is genetics at work :) and unfortunately us girls have no say on it. Geneticists think they have found a gene that has three alleles that explains this. It means some guys have more male than female sperm, the opposite, or a 50/50 split. The beat way to predict it is to look at your partners family tree. Look at him And his siblings, more boys than girls, girls than boys, or even? And you can also look at his fathers siblings for the trend, and also any brothers of your partner that have children. It gets more complicated and hard to see in small families, and those who have needed ART. My partners family are 50/50 but he is in a stressful job and exposed to radiation on occasion, so my guess would be that we are more likely to be girl producers. It's also a noted trend in the defence forces to have more girls..... we have, out of the 8 babies born to friends, never seen a little boy!

I was told when pregnant with my third that my chances had changed to 70-80% of having the same gender again.... I did have another girl. I was also told that if I were to have a forth my chances would go back to 50/50.

On the gap thing, gaps between my children are 18 months, 21 months and 18 months.

I am now 8 weeks pregnant so I suppose I will be able to add a little more to the conversation in 10-12 weeks.

Either way we are happy, I don't really see how gender changes anything, although it is still exciting to find out :D

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This is genetics at work :) and unfortunately us girls have no say on it. Geneticists think they have found a gene that has three alleles that explains this. It means some guys have more male than female sperm, the opposite, or a 50/50 split. The beat way to predict it is to look at your partners family tree. Look at him And his siblings, more boys than girls, girls than boys, or even? And you can also look at his fathers siblings for the trend, and also any brothers of your partner that have children. It gets more complicated and hard to see in small families, and those who have needed ART. My partners family are 50/50 but he is in a stressful job and exposed to radiation on occasion, so my guess would be that we are more likely to be girl producers. It's also a noted trend in the defence forces to have more girls..... we have, out of the 8 babies born to friends, never seen a little boy!

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I think that some men just have more boy/girl sperm and some have 50/50 too.

That said, we have even amounts of boys/girls on both sides of family (including hubby and I having 2 sisters and a brother between us) and yet we have 3 boys!

Ooooo this doesn't help with my wanting another baby atm :) i so could go another girl!

Ive heard the chances increase but never seen the studies behind it, we tried swaying number 3 but odds must have been too high already :)

Can someone organise a poll for all BB members with 3 babies - did they have all 3 same sex or what combinations did they have ....we could do our own little study ?
I am hopeless with doing the polls and only have 2 babies 2DS so I am keen to see what our BB group study will tell us...then I will decide to try for nos 3 myself :lol: (based on our own study!!!!)

Can someone do this as it would be fun to see the results of such a poll :)

My Dh is from a very boy heavy family - someone figured out (before we had kids) that in six generations, only 2 girls had been born into his family and 40 odd boys. My family is evenly split between boys and girls and has been for generations. My MIL insisted when I pg the first time that I would be having a boy. I had a girl - just to prove her wrong! DS arrived 2 years later. DD2 was 5 years after that. Just to prove MIL wrong again...

Both my family and DHs family have 2 boys to every 1 girl. In fact most of the cousins, in-laws etc have three kids with either boy, boy, girl or girl, boy, boy.

We are a little different we have boy, girl, boy and now a new boy. (we are the only with 4kids)

So yeah both sides of family are boy heavy. 2 to 1 odds.

There is just myself and my sister. Dh's family there is 4...2 girls and 2 boys.
Dh older sister had 2 girls
Dh younger sister had 1 boy
Dh younger brother no children yet.

Dh and myself have son, daughter and son.

My younger sister has one if each.

I really think it is luck if the draw!!

My grandma has had 8 children 4 of each gender, all within 1.5 years if each other.
My mum had me, 7 years later a m/c, then 6 mths later fell preg with my sister and a year later my brother.
Both DH and I have even numbers of genders on each side. DH has 4 sets of twins, each generation, non identical. I have 2 sets of twins on my family side, 1 from great grandparents side and 1 from my cousin, both non identical.
It is all very interesting, genetics, that is!

My mum had girl boy ten year gap girl girl boy
Dh mum 2 boys after 6 generations of girl only
My grandma 5 boys 2 girls
Brother 3 boys
Sister 1 of each

Seems to be pretty even on my side will be interesting to see what we have this time we already have 1dh

I am not sure of exact statistics but in my Husband's family there are hardly any girls. His sister being the only grandaughter (she did have a baby girl herself though). My side of the family there are seems to be a no set boy or girl trend.

A friend of mine has 2 sisters and they have all had girls....no boys at all in their immediate family. So maybe something to do with what the female is receptive too and what genes she has does come into play.

My SIL (who was a twin herself but never knew because she was adopted) had twins and was told that she would have an 80% chance of another set of twins so didn't go again.

I have heard that there are more boys born than girls in the world but lifestyle choices (more risky behaviour) means more of us Females survive.

Interesting. I had 2 girls, a boy, then another girl. All with pretty much the same age gaps & the same father, but he did do different jobs when the kids were conceived. DS was conceived while he did a much less physical job.

My dad & his 2 brothers all had a girl, then a boy. Dad followed with another girl, but the others only had 2.

Mum's family was also girl boy girl, same as she had. Dad did the same strenuous job the whole time.

I'm currently on my 6th pg, and I've had boy, 2 chem pg (so no clue what they were), missed mc (girl), boy & now pg with a girl. So from the Pg's I have confirmed gender it's 50/50.
My mum had 3 girls with roughly 2 years between us then a boy 3 years after. She then had a 11yr gap and had a boy then a girl to a different partner. There are more girls then boys in my family, and everyone (mother, aunts, grandparents & cousins on my side) have girls first. I've never swayed for any of my Pg's and I've had sex on ovulation day every time so I don't know if I believe in the shettles method.

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I wonder if this is permanent or if you have a big gap does it 'reset' back to being neutral?

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Good question Onyx. I had 2 boys to my XH, then 15 years later another boy to my new partner, pg again now to my partner but don't know the gender. So is this technically my 4th baby or 2nd after being re-set and with a different partner from my first 2?? :o Everyone thinks(or perhaps hopes) this is a girl, I personally just think it will be a boy, I didn't know about increasing odds of the same gender, but just thought it seems like I only do boys lol time will tell. I am curious if stat wise I am on my 4th or 2nd :think:

So I wonder what your thoughts are now Willow?

I was so sure We were having another girl. We did nothing different at all and no big gap in years.