Does the same sex babies run in the family?

Hi all!
Just curious, I have been wondering, if you have 1 child of 1 sex, are you more likely to have the same sex for the second child? I have heard something like after you have had 2 children of the same sex, you are 75% more likely to have the same again? Also, does family history have much say in it too? For example, both myself and my husband have mostly boys in our families. Does that mean we are destined to have only boys??

Just curious! Im 16 weeks pregnant, and am kind of hoping for a little girl. Just wondered what my chances are???? :lol:

The sex of your baby is determined by the sperm, so it's all up to your DH!! Other than that, it's dependant on the timing of sex & the vaginal environment as it makes a difference to which sperm can get where they're needed. I guess there could be something in it, as in if you have particularly acidic (or alkaline I can't remember) cervical fluid you may end up with more boys.

I've heard so much conflict about this. I've hear that every time you fall pregnant you have about a 50/50 chance of either. The I have heard that your chances of conceiving one gender over the other increases if you have more of one than the other. I suppose it's one of those real mysteries!!

Did you have a first trimester scan?

Tanya

Well, from what I've gathered from sex ed and all the pregnancy books, the male pretty much chooses the sex.
So, just from my DP's family alone, I have a really good chance of another boy. LOL!
Here's the gist of it. My father in law has 2 brothers, no sisters. He had 2 sons, 2 daughters. In that order. His first brother had 2 sons then a daughter, again, in that order. The other brother, on the other hand, has a pretty even amount of boys and girls. I don't remember exactly how it goes as they have like 7 kids, but I think they were girl first, then boy.
On my side, we were girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. And that sounds nice to me!;)
And.. me and DP had a boy first! I kind of hoped for a baby girl this time round, but I don't really care anymore, I'm just glad this one stuck around:)

Hope you get a girl!:crossfingers:

DH has 1 sis and 1 bro (who was a twin boy as well)
I have 1 sis
Mum had 3 sisters
Dad had 7 brothers 1 sister

My sister had 2 girls then a boy.
I had a girl then hopefully this time a boy

So both familes are hit and miss.....at the end of the day..DH has the last word in the sex of our new bubby!

I can tell you from a genetic POV that every single time you concieve you have a 50/50 chance of it being boy or girl

Picture tossing a coin - just cos you have 2 heads from the last 2 tosses, doesn't mean that you have any less than a 50/50 chance the next time.

If you do it enough times you should end up with an even amount of heads & tails.. of course, we don't have enough children to see statistics play itself out... just like you might get 4 heads in a row, you might get 4 girls in a row - but each and every time you had a 50/50 chance of having a girl or boy.

That relies on the fact though that you have an equal amount of 'male' sperm and 'female' sperm to truely give yourself a 50/50 chance.


I think thats where the debate about diet, envrioment (vaginal i mean), overall enviroment etc come in.. If you only had 10% of sperm being able to produce a female (see below) reach the egg, than you obviously don't have a 50/50 chance.

By male and female i'll give you a brief rundown on genetics - sorry if you know this, and if you have any questions please ask. Each of us have 23 pairs of chromosomes (this is your diploid number), so 46 in total. You have a double of every single one, i.e. 2 lots of 'chromsome 1', 2 lots of 'chromsome 2' etc. The last pair (chrosome 45 and 46) will determine your gender. XX is a female, XY is a male. This is what you will find in every single cell in your body.

In ones egg and sperm though, we only find 23 chromsomes - 1 of each and in a female always an X (because if you split the cells in half you can only end up with this), and in a male it is 1 of each pair and either and X in there or a Y. When this sperm meets up with an egg, if it had a Y (what i called a 'male sperm') you will get a boy, and if it had an X in there, you will get a girl.

So, no matter what the female does, she can only contribute a X and the male will always determine the gender.

You can have problems with the number of chrosomes - you can have 1 to many of a particular number (3 lots of chromosome 21 will result in down syndome).. A lot of extra chromosomes are not viable, and will result in spontaneous abortion. You can also have 1 too little chromosome (i.e. only 1 number ...), but again most of these are not viable. You can also have 3 complete sets instead of 2, but not viable in humans. They are sought after in agriculture though, those extra huge strawberries that look like siamese twins - they have 3 complete sets of chrosomes.

In general there are a few specific chromsome numbers (1-46) that we typically see more or less of one chrosomes. The ones most likely to survive are in the X or Y chrosome. However, a lot of conditions make the individual sterile.

Interestingly, males can have a genetic mutation where they produce an offspring that is genetically XY (male), but is actually female because it is missing the gene that actually makes somebody make (the TDF gene). So although the should be male they are not. The male could also have an extra sex chromosome problem from the paragraph above, and thats why no children of a particualr gender are produced.

But this is all genetic theory - i would not worry about having a problem like that (very rare, and you woudl probably know from other things anyway), its more likely not enough children produced to see the stastics straighten themselves out, or that you are for some reason producing more of one type of sperm than the other.

Hope that all made sense and i didn't confuse anyone that much. :)

I have always sort of thought that with the men deciding the gender, that sometimes they can be predisposed to throw more of one than the other. I know families of 5 boys and one of 5 girls etc and a lot that have a good mix. If you are only ever going to have 3 children then in all probability you are more likely to have 2 of one and one of the other.

The way it has gone in our family; DH has 1 bro, 1sis. His father (Cause it is the male that determine the gender) only had 1bro. His grandfather had an even # of boys and girls. On my side My father has two of each (myself, 2bros, 1sis), He has 1bro, 2sis (again two of each) and my grandfather had 6bros, 3sis (10 in the family)

Together Dh and I have two of each (2nd boy is baking :) ) I did try to sway this one a little, and made sure we only DTD the day before O and on O itself and I made sure that I climaxed each time to make the vagina more favourable to boys (girls like it acidic apparently) and it appears to have worked for us.

Wow Yael, that is fasinating stuff, so you are saying that no matter what I try I cannot change that fact that I will have one sex over the other it is just pure coincidence that people conceive a certain gender with a method they have tried? I wanted 4 girls and no boys but obviously nature had another idea and I have adjusted to it already, I would now be happy with one girl and I will die trying or just wait until one of my boys comes home with a girl ;)

I don't know if this is an old wives tale or not, but I was told that male sperm live swim faster but female sperm live longer. So if you have intercourse a day or two before you ovulate your more likely to have a girl, or if you have intercourse the day you ovulate or the day after your more likely to conceive a boy.
Don't know how true it is, but it sounds to me as though it could be.

In my family, it's majority girls. My parents have 2 daughters, one son, 4 granddaughters, no grandsons.

I have kind of resigned myself to the fact that we're more than likely having another girl, I truly don't mind and would be thrilled with two little girls, I just want a healthy baby this time, but I think my parents will be a bit disappointed in their heart of hearts because this little one is more than likely their last chance!

I'll be honest and say I'm feeling the pressure, even my MIL keeps going on about me having a boy "for my dad's sake" - hello, unfortunately, it's kinda out of my hands!!

I am middle daughter of 3 girls... My Dad is oldest brother of another brother & a sister, My Mum is 1 of 11 there were 6 boys & 5 girls, My oldest sister had 2 boys (1 dec) & a girl, I have 2 girls & baking a boy, my youngest sister has a daughter.

My hubby is oldest son of 3 boys & 1 girl, my Mil has 3 sisters & 2 brother & my Fil has 4 brothers & 2 sisters...

So I have NFI!!!!!

My older sister was the first girl in 3 generations on my dad's side. They then had my brother and then me. So i dont think it really has anything to do with family history.. just which sperm wins the race really ;)

The genetics of sex determination is still a very new field (well, genetics is a new field in general), but i remember it being my most interesting class from human genetics.

The things about males sperm swimming faster , i've heard it too (but never seen any studies to back it up), but like i said above, that would all come into warping the stats so to speak before the egg is fertalized (i.e. more male sperm around the egg than females, hence changing the 50/50 chance).

But by pure theory - same with tossing a coin - if you do it enough times (100, 1000, 5000 etc) you should see it straighten out in the absence of any genetic mutations or envriomental influences...

If you are only talking about families of 3 - 4 kids per generation, its just not enough incidences to see a trend.

My mom comes from a family of 7 - 4 boys, 3 girls. My dad is from a family of 5 - 3 boys, 2 girls. Together, they had 8 kids, 5 girls, 3 boys. My sister and I have two kids each, both girls. DH's family has 4 kids - 3 girls, 1 boy.
Don't know if that helps at all. :) I'm really hoping to have a boy this time, but we'll see what happens. I think it's nice to have two of the same sex together, so that they have a friend and playmate.

Well my mum had 3 girls, grandma had 4 girls, great grandma had 2 girls.
My dads side, he is one of 3 boys and that is all I know, I think my grandma is one of 2 girls but I can't be sure.
Juz is one of 3 boys, grandma on dads side 1 boy 2 girls, on mums side 2 boys 2 girls.

Looks pretty 50/50 to me already and that isn't going back too far. Just give me a baby that is healthy and I will be happy. Not what I was saying before I found out Noah was a boy and has clubfoot, :crossfingers: it is all he has. I would still love a girl though ;)

Here is a way of influencing the sex of your baby.

It is the Y sperm that produces a boy.
Y sperm do not like acid
So here are some tips to favour a baby boy

1 Deep penetration
Your vagina has a higher acid level at the entrance

2 Douche with baking soda and water just before sex

3 A woman’s orgasm reduces the acid in the vagina

4 Do not have sex for 4 days before ovulation then have sex 12 hours before ovulation
Y sperm are faster swimmers but do not live as long as X sperm

This is all theory and I do not know of any research that says this is true

Thanks Guys!!!
Guess I'll just have to wait the 2 weeks until my scan! The days are going to take forever! ................ :)

In our family it was pretty even till it got down till me and my brothers.

My Great Grandmother had 3 boys and 3 girls
My Grandmother had 1 boy and 1 girl
My Mother had 2 boys and 1 girl
My Oldest Brother had 2 boys
My 2nd Oldest Brother had 1 boy
I have 3 boys.

So between me and my siblings there is 6 boys and no sight of any girl cause we are all done with having kids. But on my Dad's side all the girls born a "Jolly" had girls first. I broke that :)

Love

becky - it is the sperm that determines the sex of the baby, so i was worried that i would never have a girl due to my DH's family history (four boys in his family, no girls, and two grandchildren so far - both boys)... so i was very excited to find out last week that i am pregnant with a girl - woo hoo!!
good luck for your scan, and if this one is not a girl, then at least take comfort in the knowledge that it doesn't mean that your next child won't be! you are still capable of conceiving a girl!

You would need to track down the genetic line of the fathers family, sticking to the male side only. If you can see a realy strong corrilation of one gender then it may impact on the likliehood of you having a particular gender, however as others would have said it als depends on the sperm and timing of intercourse and ovulation.

However My DH male blood line is very strong. His grand parents had 2 boys and a girl.
His uncle had 2 boys, he is the oldest of 2 boys and a girl, and we are now expecting our first, a boy, that;s either genetics or plain freaky. I would love to go back further through his history and see if the pattern continues.

just a note on the sex determination thing - i have researched the scientific literature quite extensively and both the vaginal environment theory and the "speed/longevity of sperm" theory have absolutely no peer reviewed evidence to support them, they are only theories - and with lots of holes in them! obviously some people find it works for them, but plenty of others have found it haven't worked! there are just so many millions of sperm that it really is the luck of the draw which one is successful.

I'm one of 5 .... 3 girls and 2 boys
DH is one of 2 boys - and there are mostly boys on his side (all cousins bar 1 are boys and there are heaps)
We have since had 2 girls

Think it's just the luck of the draw :)

My family is kinda all over the place;
My mum had 6 kids...boy 1, girl 1, girl 2, girl 3 , girl 4, boy 2
My oldest brother...girls x3
Sister 1...girls x2
Sister 2...boy. girl
Sister 3...girl x2 plus 1 on the way (so 3 all up)
Me..boy, plus girl on the way
Little brother..girl, boy

so the odds were kinda against me getting a boy if you go by your family but my DD has 3 brothers and only 1 has kids but he has 6...3 of each!!!!

I know that sperm decide whether its a boy or a girl. My DH is 1 of 2 boys. His dad is 1 of 2 boys (his brother has 2 boys) and I'm pretty sure their dad was 1 of 2 boys.
Doesn't look good for me!
Can't wait to find out if its a boy or a girl!!!