Nuts and Bolts of Swaying LIBRARY - Basic How-to, for PINK and BLUE [Archive]

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:03 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/science-behind-gender-swaying/1562-what-real-differences-between-x-sperm-y-sperm.html
What are the REAL differences between X sperm and Y sperm??

Conventional wisdom claims that X sperm and Y sperm are very different critters. Sure, they split from the same cells and matured in the exact same environment for 90 days prior to ejaculation, but somehow according to some of these theories, the second they leave a man's body, they begin to behave in dramatically different ways. Let's take these one at a time and see what the science has to say.

1) X and Y sperm are different sizes and shapes. MOSTLY FALSE - It is true that X sperm are ever-so slightly bigger than Y sperm, because they carry 2.8% more genetic material (that tiny little arm of the X chromosome that is not present on the Y) and as a result their heads may be as much as 1% wider across or no different at all depending on the individual sperm. (sperm come in a variety of sizes). To put in perspective of how very small a difference that is, each sperm has 22 full sized chromosomes and then the 23rd which is either an X or a Y - the size difference is just that one tiny arm of the X. Everything else is the same between the X and Y sperm. (there's a good picture here Karyotype - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype) - half of those chromosomes pictured are in X sperm along with the slightly bigger X chromosome, and the other half are present in Y sperm along with the slightly smaller Y chromosome). Not much of a difference.

Researchers have investigated this idea extensively in a series of studies and most have found no difference between the size and shape of X and Y sperm - not head length, not width, not area, tail length, or in any size or shape. And they checked this in both men with normal sperm and unhealthy sperm and found the exact same thing - NO discernible difference in size or shape (aside from the very small 2.8% difference in genetic material, of course)

Dimensional assessment of X-bearing and Y-bear... [Fertil Steril. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16412741)
http://www.andrologyjournal.org/cgi/...t/22/1/119.pdf
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bit******/10...ND21967926.pdf
Quantification and classification of human spe... [Fertil Steril. 1988] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3384107)

Here is one study that did seem to prove there were some subtle differences and that X sperm do seem to have a 1% larger head radius than Y do, but on balance, most researchers have not been able to find major differences between X and Y sperm.

http://molehr.oxfordjournals.org/con.../1/61.full.pdf

Where did this idea come from? Our old friend Dr. Landrum Shettles, who over 40 years ago looked at sperm through a microscope and noticed that there were some with fat heads and some with pointy heads and after trying to count chromosomes in them and giving up, jumped to a rather large, if understandable conclusion, that the fat heads were X and the pointy heads Y.

However, a good deal of much more advanced technology has been invented since then and researchers have since found that what Shettles believed were X and Y sperm, were in fact uncapacitated and capacitated sperm - sperm have to lose their round ends in order to fertilize an egg and undergo a process called "capacitation" after ejaculation.

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/con...4/880.full.pdf

There is NO way that anyone can look through a microscope and tell which sperm are X and which are Y. In fact, research on sperm is made very complicated by the fact that in order to observe sperm by basis of genetics, you have to alter them by using fluorescent dyes that may alter their actual characteristics. Keep that in the back of your mind whenever you read anything about sperm and how they behave, because a lot of researchers have been studying sperm that wasn't counted in advance of studying them (so who even knows what the percentages of X and Y sperm were there to begin with), weren't counted accurately after experimenting on them, and/or may have been altered in some way by the process of observing them.

2)X and Y sperm swim at different speeds - FALSE. Once Shettles decided that big and round = X and small and pointy = Y, he was off to the races. He decided that ~if~ X and Y were drastically different in size, that meant that X sperm were slow and Y sperm were fast and that is why he came up with his timing method. That's right, the ONLY reason anyone ever thought that timing intercourse mattered in gender ratio at all was because of one man's mistake.

Now Shettles could be ever so slightly right, Y are just a wee bit smaller. But as anyone who has ever watched the Olympics knows, athletes come in many sizes and shapes and just because an athlete is 1% larger than another athlete, does not mean that he/she will be 1% slower. Size can bring with it advantages as well as disadvantages.

Also, research indicates that while sperm do swim, the cervical mucus has currents in it that actually help move the sperm around to where it needs to go and that these currents may actually do more to bring the sperm to the egg than the motion of the sperm itself rendering any theoretical difference in speed largely meaningless anyway. In fact, some of the fastest-swimming sperm are dead on arrival and incapable of fertilizing an egg!! Given that 140-160 males are conceived for every 100 females, if Y sperm really were significantly faster than X, this is not what you would expect to see if Y sperm were really superfast and superfast sperm are incapable of fertilizing an egg.

3) X sperm are strong and live a long time and Y sperm are weak and susceptible to damage - FALSE. Again, Shettles, believing that the uncapacitated sperm were X sperm, assumed that since these "X" sperm were bigger, they were also stronger and hardier than Y sperm. Since this was all based on his misinterpretation of what he viewed, this idea is also completely false. Both timing and pH theory rely heavily on this completely disproven idea.

In fact, research suggests that Y sperm may actually survive longer than X sperm in vitro. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...1.00427.x/full

That having been said, X and Y sperm ~may~ capacitate at different rates and theoretically this could have something to do with gender ratio. It doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility that timing intercourse or pH could play some part in this process. Elsevier (http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/ar...251-9/abstract) Cambridge Journals (http://journals.cambridge.org/action...ine&aid=183247)

4) X and Y sperm swim differently - TRUE. When observed in vitro, X and Y sperm do seem to swim differently, even though they swim at the same speed. (IN COWS.) But it is not known how that translates to in vivo (in your body) conditions. Also, the numbers of sperm onhand seemed to affect how the sperm swam.

pH is often suggested as having something to do with this process but in the study below, pH is not mentioned.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...O;2-L/abstract

MOST of the action that moves sperm to the egg has nothing to do with the sperm itself. Muscle contractions, cilia lining your Fallopian tubes, and the movement of cervical mucus throughout your reproductive tract are all much more efficient ways of moving sperm than how the sperm swim anyway.
PART TWO -

5) X and Y sperm "like" different pH levels - UNKNOWN BUT DOUBTFUL This is another idea straight from Dr. Shettles. He surmised that if X were bigger and Y were smaller, then X would therefore be stronger and Y would be weaker. Thus, an acidic environment would kill off mostly the Y sperm and the X would stay behind to fertilize the egg. He suggested douching with vinegar to aid in conceiving a girl and baking soda for a boy. Many, many people have expanded upon this idea over the last 40 years and run with it and you can buy various preparations that are supposed to help you conceive your desired gender. In fact, patents exist for some of these products and are often presented as "scientific evidence" that pH affects X and Y sperm differently. A PATENT IS NOT SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. In fact, a patent can prevent other independent researchers from testing the product/method to see if it even works.

Most of the at-home high tech methods you read about online such as "modified swim up", "swim up" and "the turkey baster method TBM" are variations on this theme as well. These are based primarily around the research of Dr. Ronald Ericsson. Ericsson method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson_method) http://www.in-gender.com/Gender-Sele.../Ericsson.aspx Dr. Ericsson's spinning technique is based partially around pH, partially around the idea that X and Y sperm swim at different speeds, along with spinning sperm (using the supposed larger weight of X sperm to separate them out). The Ericsson method uses different solutions to encourage sperm of different genders to swim to certain levels in a test tube and from there they can be weeded out and used to impregnate people. Problem is, there are TONS of studies that refute Ericsson - Ericsson himself is pretty much the only person who's ever gotten his method to work reliably (aside from the many licensed clinics bearing his name, of course) and if highly trained researchers in multimillion dolllar labs can't do it, it seems very unlikely that people at home armed with toy centrifuges can.

Further casting doubt on Ericsson's claims, after all this spinning and separating sperm, the ratio of sperm left behind is STILL 50-50. Ericsson admits this but claims that despite this seeming contradiction, the sperm in question goes onto conceive children in the proper gender ratios 70-80% of the time. IF this is true, that still doesn't prove that pH has anything to do with it.

Anyway, returning to the matter at hand, pH - if Dr. Shettles was wrong to begin with, then WHY would pH really matter that much? (not saying it doesn't, just pointing out that the entire idea of pH is based on a flawed premise and incorrect information). ~If~ X sperm and Y sperm are pretty much the same size and swim pretty much the same speed and live pretty much the same time and are pretty much equally hearty, HOW does pH matter?

Corollary to this question is an observation that I have made - in the vast majority of people without serious medical issues, semen and EWCM (at ovulation) are both slightly alkaline (in the 7's) and sperm goes from semen to EWCM and then swims through it to fertilize the egg. Yet most couples manage to conceive children of both genders without requiring baking soda or Crystal Light. WHY would God/Mother Nature require pH any different than what is normally there, in order to conceive a baby of a certain gender? WHY would low pH = girls and high pH = boys if medium pH is best for ALL sperm to survive in? It doesn't add up to me.

6)X and Y sperm have different electrical charges. FALSE. Originally, in the late 80's/early 90's, some researchers believed they had discovered a difference in electrical charge between X and Y sperm. Some even went so far as to suggest that the egg alters its charge to attract different gender sperm depending on several different variables. However, these studies were later invalidated, firstly because the method the researchers had used to differentiate between X and Y sperm was fount to be inaccurate (VanKooij and VanOost 1992 I cannot find this actual study online but it is widely cited). Surface heterogeneity of bovine sperm revealed by aqueous two-phase partition - Springer (http://www.springerlink.com/content/w148x71v8762r2wn/) (I don't even understand this study but it is widely cited as debunking the electrical charge idea) http://www.ucm.es/info/genetvet/pred..._DNA_pools.pdf and http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/38/3/603.pdf also debunk the idea that electrical charge is different between X and Y sperm.

The existence of Microsort itself is evidence against the "electrical charge" idea. The way Microsort works is, sperm are colored with a fluorescent dye and forced through a flow cytometer one at a time. They are encased with a tiny drop of liquid that has an electric charge and then separated out using an electrostatic deflection. IF different-gendered sperm had these charges to begin with, why would Microsort simply not separate them with electrostatic deflection? Answer - because they can't, because it doesn't work.

Some companies are more than happy to take your money to do this, but the reason why none in the United States do it is because IT DOESN'T WORK and the FDA does not license products that don't work. http://www.choicebabyconcept.com/choicemethod/lab.html

7) X and Y sperm "like" different amounts of electrolytes (calcium and magnesium for girls, sodium and potassium for boys)in cervical mucus because of their electrical charges, and these electrolytes are what attract them to the egg. FALSE. If X and Y sperm don't differ in their electrical charge (see number 6 above) then there is NOTHING supporting this idea. This doesn't mean that there is nothing to the idea that changes in diet can alter the gender ratio because that idea actually has a lot of scientific support. But it's almost certainly NOT because your egg is charged a certain way or cervical mucus is filled with positive or negative ions due to the amount of electrolytes in your diet.

8)X and Y sperm have other, different surface properties and these when combined with chemicals present in semen and CM may alter gender ratio in some way. PLAUSIBLE BUT UNKNOWN. http://www.bioscirep.cn/bsr/011/0265/0110265.pdf seemed to find two populations of (unsorted) sperm that had different surface properties and hope was raised that these two populations would later be found to be X and Y sperm. However, in a follow-up study done two years later by the same researchers, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...40313/abstract it was later found that these were actually two different groups of Y sperm that were carrying different antigens.

Other subsequent studies that looked for differences in surface proteins and antigens that were presorted for gender prior to study, all failed to find any differences (I won't cite all these because there are a lot of them and they are not really helpful but here are a couple Comparison of detergent-solubilized membrane ... [Mol Reprod Dev. 1996] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8916045) and A search for sex-specific antigens on bovine... [J Reprod Fertil. 1997] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9306971)). A major problem with presorting sperm prior to studying them is, it is VERY likely that any differences in surface qualities are altered by the flow cytometry used to sort the sperm. Some other very small peptides such as the H-Y antigen (previously found on sperm with mixed results in terms of gender ratio) are so tiny that they are very difficult to detect. That does not mean that the differences are not there, just that they are very hard to find.

In an outstanding metanalysis, http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences...rence/dc19.pdf researchers Melissa MacFarlane, Angela Maschiari, and Richard Pursley explain why they believe differences in the cell surface of X and Y sperm do not exist and will never be found and I totally agree with their logic. To paraphrase: Sperm are formed from one cell that divides into two (please see my essay http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-X-AND-Y-SPERM!!! for more about this process). As sperm divides from one XY cell into X sperm and Y sperm, the X and Y stay connected for some time while the genes swap genetic info between the set of genes that are going to end up in the X sperm and the genes that are going to end up in the Y sperm. In a process known as crossing over, some of the genes your husband inherited from his mother trade places with some of the genes he inherited from his father, ensuring that both sons and daughters will inherit a diverse amount of genetic info from both their paternal grandparents. The cells do not divide until AFTER all this genetic transcription has taken place, X and Y sperm are really just one big megasperm wearing the exact same skin, until after all this swapping has occured. They are really the same cell until all this happens, and then and only then do they divide into two. This seems to indicate that whatever is on the outside of both sperm is basically the same.

It is certainly possible that there could be some mechanism that kicks in after the sperm are separated but there is no evidence to support this.

NUTSHELL VERSION - X sperm are very slightly larger than Y sperm but appear the same in most other ways. X and Y sperm have been observed to swim slightly differently in a test tube. Most of the supposed differences between X and Y sperm are based solely on the mistaken ideas of a well-meaning and actually quite brilliant man who was completely wrong and has been proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:06 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/10156-jellybean-factory-%96-understanding-sperm-count-frequency.html

The Jellybean Factory – Understanding Sperm Count and Frequency

People have a hard time wrapping their brains around how frequency patterns sway. Here’s an analogy that can maybe help us visualize the process a little bit.

Imagine that your husband’s entire body, but particularly his testicles, are a jelly bean factory, making jelly beans every day. By using the raw materials he gets/makes from the foods he eats, this jelly bean factory makes one big XY jelly bean that then divides into two X and two Y jelly beans in a process that take about 72 days for his jelly beans to mature. This process repeats itself millions of times a day.

AT the bottom of the jelly bean factory is a big glass jar – or two, but just to make it easier to picture we’ll imagine one glass jar (proper name – epididymis) where sperm are stored. At the end of the jar, is a spout that dispenses the jelly beans (I think we all know the proper name for the spout LOL). Every time he ejaculates, you get a ‘serving’ of jelly beans that have been deposited there over the course of several days. Some are older, some are newer. Some are X, some are Y – and NOTHING you can do can change that fact – both X and Y are ejaculated in roughly 50-50, every man, every time.

As the jelly beans age, they begin to turn into licorice ones that taste bad and even when dispensed, usually no one wants them and they just get thrown away – these ‘licorice sperm’ tend to be poor swimmers, don’t survive long in the female body, and they’re the least likely to fertilize an egg. After a while, the oldest and unhealthiest licorice ones get too stale and the materials in them are reused to make new jelly beans. There are NOT separate compartments for each day’s sperm, nor are there separate batches of sperm…the factory is always running, always depositing more layers.

As the sperm are made, they are added to the glass storage jar. For the sake of illustration, imagine that the jelly beans he makes every day are different colors and as they’re deposited, they kind of form layers (which they almost certainly do to some extent). Each scoop or layer, is sperm that DH is making on a daily basis. So one day he makes purple, one day he makes green, one day he makes yellow, different amounts each day depending on how well the factory is functioning, how full the glass storage jar is, and the amount of raw materials he has available. Among these layers, about half are marked with a tiny X and half are marked with a tiny Y (because remember, that first big jelly bean he makes is a big XY that then splits into 2 X, 2 Y jelly beans) and nothing you do can change that proportion.

The newest layers of jelly beans are deposited on top and over time, the oldest jelly beans tend to sink to the bottom and get used up while more new ones are dropped on the top. They are not strictly segregated, however – just like when you dispense anything from a dispenser, it’s totally possible that some old ones get pushed up against the sides and never manage to come out the spout, and also possible that some newer ones manage to jockey their way down a little faster than you might expect and “take cuts” ahead of some who’ve been waiting longer (you know how that sort of whirpool effect happens and the stuff in the middle sometimes gets pulled down faster than the stuff on the sides can.)

On average however, the older jelly beans tend to get dispensed sooner and the newer jelly beans, later. You’d probably never get any of the newest jelly beans in a batch, because they haven’t had the time to sink to the bottom of the dispenser, and you’d never get only the oldest layer of jelly beans because at least some other layers would get mixed in there as well. And it’s very likely that you NEVER are able to get all the jelly beans from any one layer or have any batches that are just one layer created on one day. Some will always get pushed up against the sides and turn into licorice and eventually be recycled into new jelly beans. So pink swayers, if you’re worried about the day your husband cheated on his diet and went to Kentucky Fried Chicken or blue swayers, if you’re remembering how your husband sat in a hot tub after you told him not to and are trying to count back 72 days to find out when exactly that day’s sperm is going to come out so you can just not BD that day, don’t!! It doesn’t work that way.

Further complicating matters, he doesn’t just make or dispense a set number of jelly beans on any given day. The amount of jelly beans he makes/dispenses depends on several different factors. Firstly, there is a limited amount of room in the dispenser. If the dispenser starts to get full and stays full for a really long time, he will start to make fewer jelly beans (he may experience testicular pain as well), the jelly beans may accidentally dispense themselves usually while he’s sleeping , and when you do dispense a batch, a LOT of jelly beans will probably come out because they’re under some pressure from the other jelly beans trying to get out. Since the jelly beans aren’t getting used up regularly, more of them will turn into licorice jelly beans, and the ones on the bottom will end up being a quite high percent licorice – but probably not all licorice. The whirlpool effect will probably ensure that some newer jelly beans make it out along with the licorice ones.

Obviously, this is how abstain works. Many men report they actually have very large batches of semen after abstain and people have been concerned about this for their pink sway, but more of the sperm are bad and incapable of fertilizing an egg. Net result – fewer edible jelly beans, fewer sperm able to swim to/fertilize the egg. Lower VIABLE sperm numbers = more girls.

Since it is a jellybean factory that is going 24-7, there are always more layers being deposited constantly, half X and half Y, and the more you take out (the more he ejaculates) the sooner the layers on top will make it to the bottom and get dispensed, so you can guarantee that if you take out servings of jelly beans pretty regularly, all your jelly beans will be fresh and tasty with very few licorice ones. At the same time, you don’t want to take out SO many jelly beans that there are hardly any left. This why you want to BD every 2-4 days for blue - max numbers of nice fresh jelly beans/sperm, and large amounts of healthy sperm = boys. Please understand, there are STILL about 50-50 X and Y sperm regardless, but more and healthier sperm, both X and Y sways blue for reasons we do not yet understand.

Blue swauers, if something happens and you go 5 days between BD, or would like to have more than one attempt in your fertile window/microwindow and BD every other day or even 2-3 days in a row, that’s FINE! That will not ruin your sway even tho it is not the strict, 'every 2-4 days' suggestion. You can see it’s still very, very different from what pink swayers are doing and is nowhere near enough to deplete the numbers of jelly beans.

At the same time, the jelly bean factory only has a limited number of ingredients for making more jelly beans, so if you scoop out lots and lots all the time, over time there start to be fewer and fewer jelly beans per scoop (which is how FR and compressed FR can sway pink.) The factory never shuts down production, so there will always be a FEW jelly beans being made. In fact, since demand seems to be high, the factory may even increase production to some extent but by constantly dispensing the jelly beans as quickly as they can collect, you ensure that numbers stay low. Lower sperm numbers sways pink even tho both X and Y are being dispensed in roughly equal numbers.

Sometimes pink swayers wonder about switching from abstain to FR, or continuing with straight FR after missing a day. The reason why this is not the greatest idea, is all about supply and demand. With abstain, the factory does kind of shut down production but then when you have your abstain BD, it’s usually a big batch that helps to ‘clean the pipes’ and get rid of a lot of the licorice jelly beans. All of a sudden there’s a lot of room for fresh jelly beans, and probably quite a bit of spare raw materials that the factory can use to make more very quickly. So production may go up suddenly and then if you BD again after your abstain, you may end up with a big batch of some leftover older sperm (the factory is still trying to get rid of those!!) and a nice big batch of fresh sperm, net result, higher sperm numbers than with just abstain + 1 attempt. With FR, production may even be a bit higher still, because demand is higher, so if you miss a day, you end up with fresh healthy sperm that may add up quickly. In both instances, it’s better to switch to compressed FR (2-3 releases in a 12-24 hours, using only the last batch for insemination) because you’ll be able to better deplete numbers that way. Keep in mind that neither of these two situations is make or break – you’ll still get about 50-50 X and Y sperm regardless and if you’re swaying (pink especially, but also blue sway tactics like BSF, BSD, and Shettles timing), you may actually NEED more sperm because so much of swaying can be harmful for sperm survival.

Like any factory, things can break down and go wrong – heat/pressure can cause good jelly beans to turn licorice before their time, high levels of chemicals (even things like nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine) and hormones like estrogen can both reduce the factory’s production and also increase the proportion of licorice jelly beans, some men are just born with factories that are a little less effective than they should be or their factory has become less efficient over time from aging, injury, lack of sleep, stress, or disease. All these things can reduce production and sway pink regardless of frequency of BD.

If you limit the amounts of ingredients the factory has coming in to begin with, your husband just cannot MAKE as many jelly beans as he would be able to under ideal circumstances. And too many ingredients can be just as bad as not enough – too much sugar, fat, and certain nutrients like zinc can cause the equipment to malfunction, even tho under ideal circumstances they actually help make jelly beans!!

For swaying blue you just want to get the factory running as efficiently as you can, provide ample amounts of high quality ingredients but not so much that the equipment gets overwhelmed (esp. with mineral supplements, more is not better!), take out regular (every 2-4 days) but not overly frequent batches of jelly beans/sperm to ensure steady production and freshness. As long as the batches are regular, not too many or too few, and DH is in good health and eating right, the odds are good that you will get large amounts of fresh jelly beans. Have him avoid stress, get plenty of rest, avoid heat and pressure from bike seats or tighty whiteys, limit alcohol and caffeine and STOP SMOKING, and if he works around industrial chemicals or radiation, he should take precautions to limit his exposure as much as possible. Make sure he is treated for any underlying testicular injury or disease (and having a very high pH 9+ can actually be a symptom of underlying infections that are actually BAD for sperm and will sway pink regardless of pH, so if your husband has high pH naturally, don’t celebrate, blue swayers - he needs to see a doctor to rule out any infections that are causing his pH to rise while making him shoot excess numbers of licorice jelly beans!!))

To sway pink, you have to take out A LOT of jelly beans frequently (once a day for 7-10 days or even more, OR 2-3 times a day for 2-3 days, dumping all batches, then 2-3 times a day using only the last batch for insemination), or else not take any for a long time (abstain for 7-10 days, up to 14 but no longer) and let the licorice ones add up. You may also want to limit raw materials (esp. saturated fat and cholesterol for DH) and keep the equipment in less than ideal condition by having DH wear tighty whiteys, take hot baths, use licorice root, getting less sleep, ride a bike, etc. He does not need to stop drinking or give up caffeine for swaying – and if he smokes, of course for his health it’s better to stop but it’s not better for your sway.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:07 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/5636-frequency-bd-pink-blue.html

frequency of BD for pink and blue

FREQUENCY OF INTERCOURSE - an overview

The amount, pattern and frequency of intercourse is an important part of a good sway. It’s not really timing, but it may be the real reason why timing was once thought to sway, because couples were advised to DTD in these patterns AND on a certain day for timing. Timing has been investigated thoroughly and both genders are conceived in roughly equal numbers on every day, so it's unlikely that timing alone is swaying - it's probably the frequency patterns that sway.

Let’s take a closer look at this sometimes confusing sway strategy. I include the strategies for both girl and boy swaying so you can read them and know what NOT to do as well.

Anything that increases fertility of a couple overall and most important, the numbers of sperm of BOTH genders that survive to make it to the egg, sways blue. Anything that decreases the fertility of a couple overall and limits the number of sperm that makes it to the egg (while still allowing enough to achieve pregnancy), sways pink. This is not about killing off more X than Y or vice versa, because we don’t know how to do that, and it is probably not even possible to do that (please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...rm-and-Y-sperm.

With that in mind, here is more about the frequency of intercourse and how it is best included in a sway.

Frequency strategies for pink: These strategies will lower sperm count overall, leaving less sperm to go onto the egg. As a result, they may reduce your odds of pregnancy, especially if you are doing a lot of other things to sway. If you cannot get pregnant, you have zero shot at your DG. Remember, there is no law that says you HAVE to include any of these things in your sway, so if you’re in a big hurry to get pregnant or something just doesn‘t feel right for you as a couple, keep in mind that you always have the option to forgo any sway strategy - there is no ONE way to sway.

Frequent Release: DH releases (ejaculates) every day, at least once a day and more often whenever he can, for 7-10 days or more if he can. You can use frequent release with one attempt, with a cutoff of 2-3 days, at ovulation, with an O+12 attempt, or with a combo of these. Please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...toff-with-O-12 for a more in depth explanation of how you might combine timing with frequency. For this strategy, he will release outside your body and only use the last batch of semen to inseminate you.

Frequent BD, either with a cutoff or through O: For those in a greater hurry to get pg, it is possible to DTD for 7-10 days rather than having your husband release outside your body. You can use frequent BD either with a cutoff (so stop DTD 2-3 days prior to ovulation) or you can BD through O for higher odds of pregnancy. (this will raise pH, but if you use RepHresh/Acijel to lower pH, you may be able to counteract this.)

You can also mix these up and have him release outside some or most of the time as well - as an example, you might have him release outside your body until you’re nearing O (either you get a positive OPK or you begin 2-3 days before you expect to O) and then begin to have him release inside, or release inside every other time, until you’re sure you’ve ovulated. This might be a good option if you want to get pg quickly but you’re worried about pH.

The important thing is, that he HAS to release every day at least once and pref. more, for at least 7-10 days prior to when you BEGIN your BD attempts...it can't just be 7-10 days before O itself if you attempt starting at a cutoff timing because that means there will be sperm from only 5-7 days FR, and that may sway blue for some men.

Abstaining: DH will need to abstain for 7-10 days prior to one attempt. Some people even do super-long abstains of 14 days or more. You can have this attempt with a cutoff, with one attempt at ovulation, or with an O+12. Warning - abstaining has been linked to bad sperm quality, and a slightly increased risk of birth defects in men over 35, so this def. has some downsides. It may prevent you from getting pregnant all together and remember, if you can't get pregnant, you can't get your DG.

Combining Abstaining and FR: You can use this as an emergency tactic when 1) you ovulated early or late and were not able to complete a full 7-10 day abstain 2) your husband had a nocturnal emission or a moment of weakness and can no longer have a full 7-10 days of abstaining before you O.

Or, you can do it by design to increase your odds of pg and fit in more than one attempt. The sperm count will be diminished by the long abstain and then will never have a chance to recover if you switch to very frequent BD immediately.

To do this method, abstain from the beginning of AF to either a cutoff timing (2-3 DBO) or to when you get a positive OPK. DTD with the first ejaculation after the abstain and use that for insemination. Then, have your husband begin to release as much as he can. You can use all of these for insemination (using RepHresh or another jelly to lower pH if desired) or you can only use the last one prior to ovulation/cutoff - so you would use the first ejaculation after abstaining, and then a second ejaculation after DH had released himself as many times as he was able to in a day or two or three.

To illustrate for more clarity, let’s say Swayer 1 wanted to have a cutoff. She could have her husband abstain for 7-10 days, then 2, 3, or even 4 DBO they would BD once, with ejaculation inside (since they will be DTD more than once, they may want to begin with a longer cutoff than a couple doing only one attempt does). Immediately afterwards, they could DTD a second time inside, OR her husband could release and they could dump that batch. He could continue releasing as much as he could and they could choose whether or not to have him ejaculate inside or to dump them, depending on how in a hurry they were to conceive and what else they were doing to sway. A couple that is doing a lot of sperm-unfriendly things to sway, might want to have more attempts inside, while a couple that is mostly relying on frequency of intercourse to sway and not doing jellies or antihistamine, might prefer to stick with only one or two attempts inside, dumping the rest. A couple in a big hurry to get pg might want to do all the attempts inside and not do jellies/anthistamines. Then, at 2 DBO they would stop attempting and wait for the egg to be released and hope that the sperm already deposited, will go onto fertilize it.

Swayer 2 wants to BD through O, so she might abstain until she got a pos OPK, usually 12-36 hours before ovulation. They could DTD once that day inside, then as soon as DH was able to, they could DTD again, either inside or dumping it. The next day, they could DTD once in the morning and again at night, and again the day after that. Sometime on that third day, it’s probably O+12 timing. The sperm count never really has time to recover from the abstain, so it stays on the low side throughout, but they’re still upping their odds of pg, esp. if they’re doing a lot of other things to sway. They could also just use the first abstain and then have DH release as much as he could and use only the O+12 batch for a second insemination if they wanted to, or use one batch per day and dump the rest.

To illustrate a couple of emergency situations, let’s say you were expecting to O on CD 14 and you DTD on CD 12. But you don’t get a pos OPK until CD 16. Your odds of pg are very low at that point. But if you have your husband switch from abstaining to FR after your first attempt, you can try again at any point and still feel pretty good about it. Or, you find out that your husband had a nocturnal emission on CD 10 and you wanted to have your attempt on CD 12 - that would be a frequency of 2 days, which is ideal for raising sperm count. As soon as you learn of the “whoops”, have him begin to release 2 or 3 times a day, then go ahead with your attempt on CD 12 and again, you can feel good about that attempt because the sperm numbers had no opportunity to recover.

Compressed FR: You can use this as an emergency tactic if you were trying to go for FR but something came up and you missed a day here or there, or if you have a very irregular ovulation or a very long cycle (which does happen sometimes when you begin to sway pink, even if you‘ve always had a regular cycle) and the idea of FR for 3 and 4 weeks or even longer is daunting. Or, you can do it by design for those husbands who really cannot manage either FR or abstaining.

DTD in whatever pattern you prefer until you get a positive OPK. (you could potentially use this with a cutoff, but if something happens and you O late, you could end up with your DH having to release for several days in a row and that’s what you’re trying to prevent by doing this technique.) Then, have DH release once and dump the first batch - DO NOT use this batch for insemination, no matter what. As soon as he is capable, have him DTD again…you can use this second batch for insemination or dump it, too. By the time the third batch rolls around (again, as soon as he is able to), the count will be a lot lower than it was and you can use all subsequent batches for insemination. Keep DTD as much as you can until you’re sure you have Oed and the egg is gone. Or, you can use only one batch for insemination if you prefer.

To use this as an emergency tactic, let’s say that you were going for FR but one of your kids got sick in the night and ended up in your bed and then your MIL stopped by unexpectedly on another day. So you missed a couple of days in the middle of your 7-10 day FR. You’ve only had 2 days in a row of release and now you’re going to O in 2 days. Don’t panic. Have DH release once and dump it, then as soon as he is able, DTD again and use that second batch if you like or wait for a third batch. Keep DH releasing as much as possible through O, using or dumping batches depending on your preference. If you’re doing a lot of other things to sway, you may want to finish inside every time, or if you’re not doing much, then you may only want to use one or two of these batches.

NOTE: taking licorice root may lower sperm count too far if doing abstain, and it also can make frequent release very difficult for some men to accomplish.

For blue, it's much simpler. For maximizing sperm numbers, you want to BD every 2-4 days from AF-O. You can have DH release outside your body if you like, but some evidence indicates that actually DTD helps to increase sperm count and raise male testosterone.

One attempt at O: Traditionally, people TTC a boy with one attempt on O day. In order to do this, you'll just have your husband release (either by himself or using a non-spermicide condom) every 2-3 days until you get a positive OPK, and then DTD once the day after your positive OPK, using that batch for insemination. The downside of this is that if you ovulate on a day other than you were expecting, you might end up with only a 1 day turnaround...so if you DTD on CD 13, expecting to O on CD 14 but instead Oed on CD 15, either you have a 2 day cutoff (some believe this sways pink) or else you have to DTD 2 consecutive days in a row, on both CD 13 and 14 (may lower sperm numbers and sway pink). If this does happen to you, remember that the pink swayers must DTD 7-10 days for frequent release to work or else DTD several times in only a few days. DTD two consecutive days ~probably~ does not sway pink for most guys and the supps your DH is taking for sperm quality, will only help him.

Dual attempts: Some people will want to fit in more than one attempt in their fertile window and I believe this helps sway blue by increasing overall sperm numbers that survive to make it to the egg. In addition, it also raises pH. For example, one couple might O-2 and then again on O, or O-3 and O-1, or even DTD three days in a row, O-2, O-1, and again on O day - this should not diminish your husband’s sperm count and sway pink because it takes 7-10 days of frequent release to do that for most guys (don't do any more than three consecutive days, though). Others will prefer to stick with the traditional timing and have only one attempt on O as described above.

Good luck!!!

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:09 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/9736-how-many-attempts-should-i-do-when-pink-blue.html

How many attempts should I do and WHEN?? For pink and blue.

How Many Attempts Should I Do and WHEN??

One of the most common questions on the site is about how many attempts to do, why, and how. Let’s take a closer look and see if we can remove some of the stress and confusion from this topic.
Before we begin, I want to state very clearly that I do not think number of attempts sways very much if at all and we have NO reliable scientific evidence proving that number of attempts and when to do them, sways in any way. Yet for some reason, people seem to expend more worry over frequency patterns and when to BD than any other sway tactic out there.

How many attempts should I do?
It depends! (you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you??) More attempts in the fertile window means greater odds of pregnancy, higher sperm numbers may mean more sons conceived, higher pH in the vagina (semen will help raise vaginal pH) may also favor male conceptions, but at the same time, a lot of ineffective releases prior to the fertile window (see below) may lower sperm numbers overall and lead to more daughters conceived. It is a balancing act for each couple to find the right amount of BD to conceive while still swaying.

Why would number of attempts sway?
We don’t know, quite honestly (you probably knew I was going to say that, too!). It may be that there is some primitive communication between sperm that sways in some fashion (perhaps Y sperm are better able to band together to gain some advantage in penetrating the egg and/or CM while X are better at going it alone or with only a few more sperm to assist), more sperm may signal Y sperm to capacitate more quickly than X or vice versa, more or a higher number of dead sperm, may cause changes in CM consistency that allow Y sperm to make it thru more easily than X (or vice versa), or it may be that the very tiny difference in size between X and Y sperm enables the slightly larger X sperm to penetrate the egg with less assistance while the smaller Y sperm may need more assistance.

You see, it takes the work of more than one sperm cell to penetrate an egg shell – if the egg shell is sufficiently weakened, a slightly smaller-headed sperm (Y) may have a momentary advantage over a larger-headed X sperm due to surface tension (for the same reason a sharpened pencil can be poked thru a piece of paper more easily than an unsharpened pencil.) Fewer sperm at the egg may confer a momentary benefit to a larger-headed X sperm because due to their larger size, they may be better able to push their way into the eggshell prior to it being totally weakened (the sharpened tip of a pencil is much weaker than the blunt tip of an unsharpened one). Or, it may be some combination of all of these things.

But these are “proximate mechanisms” that explain how something might work. They don’t really answer the underlying question of WHY would the number of sperm on hand sway to begin with?
I have wracked my brain to come up with an ultimate mechanism as to why sperm numbers could confer any evolutionary benefit to one gender over another, and I think I have a couple of decent possibilities. Please understand that this is sheer speculation on my part based on a half-dozen studies and some evolutionary biology books I have read, is discussing general trends and possibilities with plenty of exceptions, and is not meant to be in any way offensive to anyone. I debated on leaving this section out all together because I do not want to offend anyone, but I think one of the reasons why people like this site is because we do try to figure out the deeper reasons behind gender swaying rather than just going off blind faith that these tactics actually work for SOME reason. It also demonstrates how both very frequent and very infrequent intercourse might sway for both DH and DW, which I know is a sticking point for some people.

1)Dads Vs. Cads theory: When a guy is having a LOT of sex or NO sex, it sends the same signal to his body – he may not be in regular possession of a woman. This is often true in primates and also in many other mammals and some human cultures as well. Either he’s servicing a lot of women/one woman several times in a row over the span of a few days/weeks, possibly in the short term in a “hit and run” fashion, and may not be around in the future to provide protection and food to the family. Or, he got a one-time opportunity at a woman that he does not normally have access too, and again, may not be around in the future to provide protection and food to the family.

Female offspring tend to have better rates of survival than male offspring do (in nature, in primates) even when there is not a biological father around, firstly because they need fewer calories and less protein to survive/reproduce and their dietary needs can be better met thru gathering, which is typically a female endeavor, but also because when a new male takes over the troop/tribe/clan, he often kills all the male offspring while allowing the females to survive.
In a committed, long term relationship on the other hand, intercourse tends to occur regularly but not every day. Married couples under 30 report having intercourse 2 times a week on average; by 50-59 this rate falls to an average of once a week. Those between 30-50 fall somewhere between the two (link). Intercourse twice a week or so, averages out to be pretty close to the every 2-4 days that equates to max. sperm numbers and health and sways blue.

We have human studies that indicate more sons are born to people in stable, long term relationships (link) and even one that indicated that families with more sons were less likely to divorce than those of all daughters (link). That having been said, many of the families I know with all daughters are in very loving and stable relationships and my now-husband and I were kinda rocky and not very committed when we conceived our first son, so I stress again that there are PLENTY of exceptions and this is not meant to be applicable to everyone or offensive to anyone.

2)Single Moms Need Daughters theory: When a woman is having little/no sex, it may send a signal to her body that there is not a man around regularly and as a result, there may be no protector/provider and a girl offspring would have a better chance of survival for the same reasons mentioned above. We have one study that indicates that this is true (single moms do have more daughters than the population as a whole) and actually Charles Darwin himself studied the issue in his book The Descent of Man and came to the same conclusion . (link)

Women who are in short term, whirlwind relationships that may not be fully committed tend to have more sex in the short term than committed couples do, and so frequent intercourse may also signal the body that a girl offspring conceived during the haze of a fledgling relationship would have a better shot at survival, because the male has not proved himself to be a good protector/provider at that point. Our bodies may “know” on some subconscious level, that intercourse every 2-4 days may mean that a father is around to provide meat and protection to our sons.

Additionally, women may be able to sense and respond to the hormones that a partner provides and may even become more fertile in the presence of a male to whom she is not genetically related (link). Some research indicates that in a home with a stepfather, young girls even enter puberty at younger ages due to these hormonal signals. Things that increase fertility tend to sway blue.
Daughters themselves ~may~ be more of a helpmate to single mothers than sons are. In some primates and many species of birds (human mating patterns closely resemble that of many birds), teenage and adult daughters remain at home helping their mothers to rear siblings, while sons oftentimes are driven off. Primate daughters rear their offspring alongside their mother’s, while dutiful bird daughters actually forgo starting their own families to assist their mothers!!! This assistance from daughters may help to keep her mother and her siblings alive, so the timely birth of a daughter may help to ensure that the entire genetic line has optimal chances of survival.
Enough speculation!! Cut to the chase! What’s the best number and timing of attempts for blue?
For blue swayers, the answer to this question is very simple. Have your husband release every 2-4 days starting at AF, then do several attempts in your 5 day fertile window (O-3, O-2, O-1, O, O+1 – virtually all pregnancies occur from intercourse on these days.) Your best odds of conception come in the three day microwindow (O-2, O-1, O – majority of pregnancies occur from intercourse these three days, O-2 and O-1 more so than O Day. Most blue swayers will want to avoide O+1 because very few conceptions occur that day, and also to eliminate risk of O+1.

As a result, you may want to focus primarily on these three days – three attempts, one on each day of the microwindow, is a great option (you can even skip the O Day attempt if you like because BD on O Day offers rather low odds of conception). On the other hand, since BD every other day may allow sperm numbers to increase inside your husband’s body before ejaculation, you may wish to alternate days instead if you feel more comfortable with that – such as, an attempt on O-3, 2 attempts on O-1, one on O day; or a 2 attempts on O-2 and then 2 attempts on O Day. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

Limiting yourself to a single attempt at O for blue is (apologies Shettles fans) a terrible idea that may even sway PINK by limiting numbers of sperm and sending a signal to your and your husband’s bodies that a girl may have a better chance at survival. Timing doesn’t sway! (link) .) If at all possible, YOU need to be having frequent orgasms and if you are having them WITH your husband during intercourse, that may help.

Blue swayers, do not worry about having 2-5 releases in a short time because you have heard that frequent BD sways pink. First of all, it’s much more likely that frequent release for many days in a row followed by a limited number of attempts, sways pink, not BD 2-5 times in the fertile window. And DTD even 5 days in a row is NOT frequent BD anyway. Frequent release/BD has to be 7-10 consecutive days OR 2-3 releases for a few days before BEGINNING attempts (you may wish to read the directions for pink swayers so you know what NOT to do). There is a big difference between frequent release where a person’s DH releases 7-10 consecutive days in a row before doing only one/a few attempts inside, and having 3-5 attempts INSIDE (or even more) after having had DH release every 2-4 days to maximize sperm numbers for many days before beginning attempts. In the first case you start off with lower sperm numbers and in the other case, you maximize numbers and then add to it!

People who don’t really understand the basic principle of why FR sways (lowering sperm numbers) worry that by having so many attempts, they somehow give X sperm the upper hand. But this simply isn’t true, because it’s not about altering the numbers of X vs. Y (impossible!), it’s about lowering vs. maximizing sperm numbers. Both X and Y sperm are produced and released in equal proportions no matter how many attempts you do, so by doing more attempts, blue swayers, you’re adding more and more sperm to the amount being stored in your reproductive tract.

Not only that, but when you are swaying blue, you are doing everything in your power to up sperm survivability. Your husband is taking supps and releasing every 2-4 days to maximize sperm production, and you are taking supps, dieting, and altering your lifestyle to improve CM and up sperm survival rates. Not only are you starting off with more and healthier sperm coming from your DH to begin with, you’re then adding sperm by doing more than one attempt, and then you’re keeping the most sperm alive that you possibly can! Doing more than one attempt, in your fertile window (esp. the microwindow) under those circumstances WILL sway blue by upping numbers of sperm.

The one thing you do need to beware, blue swayers, is wasting a lot of effort on ineffective releases. It’s not a good idea to assume, well, if more sperm = more boys, we should start our BD at CD 1 and have sex every day thru ovulation. That may actually tend to sway pink because your earliest attempts cannot achieve pregnancy and all those sperm will simply die because your reproductive tract is hostile early in your cycle. Your husband’s sperm count will go down after several days of release, and then when your fertile window opens, it’s likely that he will no longer be producing as much sperm as he was at the beginning of the month, so even if you do more attempts to add more sperm, you’ll be adding fewer sperm than if he had released every 2-4 days before your attempts. It’s best to have your husband release every 2-4 days from CD1 thru when you want to begin your attempts to maximize sperm production, then limit your unprotected attempts to the fertile window.

Shocking advice – during the time when you are having your husband release 2-4 days, not only is it a great idea to have intercourse WITH him and have an orgasm, you may want to assist him either vaginally without a condom (as long as you’re not fertile right then) or orally (and swallow if you can!!) Some data has indicated that women are sensitive to chemical components in male semen and may even possibly be able to differentiate between semen of different partners – in other words, your body may be able to tell you are having regular intercourse with a consistent monogamous partner. This may help to send the signal to your body that a father figure, protector, and provider is around to guarantee survival of male offspring.

So what is the best number and timing of attempts for pink?

Pink swayers, things are a little more complicated for you. What works for one couple to lower sperm count enough to sway pink, in another couple will make it impossible to conceive. Deciding how many attempts to do can be like an episode of the Price is Right – you are trying to ensure you have enough sperm to conceive, without going over!! (you may want to read the blue section as well so you know what NOT to do.)

In order to decide how many attempts to do, first ask yourself these questions.

How big a hurry am I in to get pregnant? If you have a long time to try, you may wish to start off doing fewer attempts or even just one. Obviously, if you have only three months to conceive due to work or other issues, you will want to have more attempts to maximize odds of pregnancy.

What is my age and my husband’s age? If you are older, you need to get pregnant as quickly as you can because your fertile window – meaning, the months and years left to you to conceive before menopause, not the days of the month you are most likely to conceive in - is closing rapidly. It may even take you longer to get pregnant doing nothing at all to sway because you may have to await a healthy egg if your body is not producing one every month. Older women’s eggs may not live as long, and their shells may be harder for sperm to penetrate. If your husband is older, his sperm count may be lower, his sperm may be less healthy, slower swimming, and may not live as long. Older couples may NEED more than one attempt to conceive at all.

What else am I doing to sway? Unlike blue swayers, pink swayers are doing myriad things that lower sperm numbers and reduce sperm quality such as licorice root, hot baths, tighty whiteys, jump and dump, and abstinence/FR/CFR; reduce sperm survivability in the female reproductive tract such as jellies, antihistamines, douching, lime tampon, diet/supps, at home HT methods like EGS and TBM; and sometimes even lower odds that sperm will even meet the egg to begin with, such as timing methods like cutoff and O+12. You may need to do more than one attempt in your fertile window to allow the sperm a fighting chance.

Note – you may have read online fantastic tales about people who allegedly did every sway tactic under the sun 110% and claim to have gotten pregnant very easily despite this. Please take these stories with a grain of salt. This is the Internet and we have no way of knowing how truthful these reports are, not to mention that every couple is different and one person’s body may be so good at producing sperm/CM that they are able to conceive (and conceive opposites) despite doing a lot of other things to sway. Other people may have to forgo almost all sway tactics to conceive. This may be true for you even if you have conceived other children before very easily.

If you are on Clomid, you must do whatever it takes to get pregnant as quickly as possible, including doing more than one attempt in your fertile window, because it’s not healthy to stay on Clomid in the long term.

How much weight do I have to lose and how easy is it for me to stick to diet? - If you have a lot of weight to lose you may want to start off doing a very strict sway with one attempt and be prepared to get BFN at first. Others have next to no weight to lose and need to get pregnant immediately because they cannot be on diet more than a few weeks, so should start off doing more attempts. Some people enjoy the LE Diet and are happy on it for months, while for others, it chafes at every meal and the risk of cheating skyrockets with every day that passes. If you are doing IGD or FGD, you can only stay on those diets for 6 months tops before having to take a month off anyway. You should consider all these things when deciding how many attempts you choose to do.

How helpful is my DH? If your DH is not supportive of swaying and you are fearful that at any second, he’ll pull the plug on the entire let’s-make-a-baby adventure and drag you to a therapist, it may behoove you to do whatever it takes to keep him happy. If that means doing a lot of attempts in all the wrong patterns, DO THEM. Pick your battles – if you can’t get pg, you have no shot at your DG and you can’t get pg alone. There has been more than one occasion where the husband simply had enough with swaying and said, “No more.”

At the same time, if your husband is super helpful and taking his licorice root, wearing tighty whiteys, taking hot baths, riding a bike, abstain or FR, and so on, you may NEED to do more than one attempt to get pg because his sperm numbers will be so much lower than they were to begin with. Anyone whose husband has low sperm count to begin with, also needs to do more than one attempt to improve odds of pg.

How devastating will it be for me to get a BFN? Most swayers start off thinking that it will be ok to get BFN. Some even make claims that they are willing to go from now until menopause getting BFN rather than compromise on their sway. But as the months begin to go by, it really takes a toll to see those BFN pile up. You can have the most beautiful sway on the planet and if you do not get pregnant, it is all for nothing – you may as well save your effort and take a birth control pill. People get opposites even from “perfect” sways all the time unfortunately, and it may be a good idea to get pg sooner, rather than later, because there are no guarantees. It would suck to take two years to conceive and still get an opposite (and yes, this actually did happen to someone.)

Sharing my perspective, I was in a big hurry to do my attempt when swaying for DS 4 due to my age, and got pg very quickly while many others, even other older moms, who were swaying at the same time as I was, went for all “7 sway factors” and took much longer on average to conceive than I did (some never did conceive, unfortunately). I heard thru the grapevine that some thought I deserved what I got because I “compromised” my sway by being in too big a hurry to get pregnant, but in the end I had time to try again and did get my girl (and a truly spectacular little DS 4 as well!)

If I had wasted even a little more time swaying with DS 4, getting pg with DD would not have happened for me. This is especially true for those moms who are in their mid to late 30’s – swaying cannot guarantee 100% success no matter how thorough a sway you do, and so it may be wiser to compromise in favor of conception, rather than squandering months/years trying to have a “perfect”sway, since even “perfect” sways may produce opposites. You’ll ensure you’ll still have time to try again (even if you don’t think you will, at least the option will be there).

This is actually something to consider seriously even in your early 30’s. I know it’s hard to believe at 34 that you don’t have a lot of time left, but it really is true. 2 years of swaying plus 2 years pg/recovery can easily put you at 38 years old in the blink of an eye. Please don’t waste precious time from your fertile window, chasing after sway tactics that may not even sway much if at all.

By now, pink swayers, you probably have a pretty good handle on the number of attempts you’re going to aim for, so I’ll lay out some examples and options

Firstly, you will want to have your husband reduce sperm numbers by frequency patters (link) IF he is willing to do so. If not, that’s ok, you can have a great sway and many people have conceived girls doing boy frequency. And remember, you are not locked into any of these tactics. You can start off doing a very strict sway and then loosen up over time, or you may find that something you thought would work for you as a couple, you or DH simply do not enjoy doing. Feel free to switch, it’s not written in stone!

What are the options for pink swayers?

Abstain + 1 attempt: If you choose to do abstain, you are pretty much limited to one attempt by definition. I think it is best to time that attempt for maximum odds of pregnancy (timing doesn’t sway!) Your best odds of conception are at O-2 and O-1, and since BD at positive OPK (O-1) tends to be much less stressful for people rather than blindly guessing at O-2, my advice is to BD once at pos OPK with abstain.
If you are really sold on Shettles, then you’ll want to try for an attempt on O-2.

When swaying pink, your internal environment is so harsh to begin with that it is very difficult to get pg with BD on O-3, but if you’re not doing anything else to sway, you can give that a try. I really don’t recommend that, however. You may be able to use a fade in on your OPK to help you pinpoint O-2, but these are not always accurate or even present.

If you’re sold on O+12, BD 48 hours after a positive OPK (this is the least stressful method of O+12). Again, I do not recommend this method, particularly with abstain, because sperm just may not be very healthy or capable after many days of abstaining and may not be able to make it to the egg in time, and it limits your odds of pregnancy drastically because many eggs don’t even live much longer than 12 hours past ovulation.

Note – you may notice I am skipping BD on O day for anyone doing just one attempt. The reason for this is nothing to do with timing, but simply because BD on O Day has significantly lower odds of conception than BD on O-1 or O-2. When you’re doing one attempt you need to time that attempt for best odds of conception and BD on O Day does not give you best odds. Plus, since it’s traditionally a blue sway tactic, it seems doubtful that anyone being strict enough to limit themselves to one attempt would even want to BD on O Day. Even tho timing doesn’t sway, I know that many people do want to keep it in the mix.

FR + 1 attempt: If you choose frequent release instead, you may wish to limit yourself to one attempt. I personally believe attempt at pos OPK is easiest, but you have equally good odds of conception on O-2. Have DH release 7-10 times before your attempt. Do NOT count your attempt in the 7 days (see below).
Since sperm are generally healthier with FR than abstain, you may even wish to push it to O-3 for the first month or two – not my advice, but it is possible.

O+12 may have better odds of conception with FR than abstain – not my preferred method by a longshot but it may be slightly easier to conceive doing O+12, with FR, rather than abstain.

FR + many attempts: If you read the TTC blue section, you may recall the fertile window – the 5 days around ovulation where intercourse is most likely to yield conception. (O-3, O-2, O-1, O, O+1.) And you may also recall the microwindow (O-2, O-1, and to a much lesser extent, O Day) which are the days most likely to yield conception. If you are doing FR, you have the option of having attempts on more than one of these days in the fertile window in whatever pattern you like. 2 days, 3 days, all 5 days, alternating days, 10 attempts in 5 days – it’s up to you. There are so many options (prob. with as much difference between them as a dime vs. 2 nickels) that I won’t even list them, but I do strongly urge you to BD on either O-2 or O-1 or both for the best odds of pg.

Be sure that you have your DH release 7-10 days in a row before your FIRST attempt. There is nothing magic about just DTD 7 days in a row, you have to deplete his sperm numbers by having him release 7-10 days PRIOR to attempts. Some people have thought to include their attempts in this 7-10 day time period, but this has the potential to sway blue because DH will only have a couple of releases before the earliest attempts that might get you pregnant. His sperm numbers will just not be depleted enough without the FULL 7-10 days of release before the earliest attempt in your fertile window.

Compressed FR + 1 attempt or many attempts: You can use this as a technique itself, or as a rescue if something happens and either abstain or FR goes awry. For CFR, you will need to begin the process at least 2 days before the earliest attempt that can get you pregnant. Earlier in the month, have your husband release every 2-4 days to ensure there will be a good amount of sperm production going in – no need to abstain or do regular FR beforehand and it may even deplete sperm numbers too far to do so. The first two days of the CFR cycle, the 2 days prior to your earliest attempts, have your husband release 2-3 times (or even more if he can, more is better) and dump all these batches.

The third day, have him release once in the morning and dump it. If he CAN, have him release right when he gets home from work (or in the afternoon if it’s his day off) and dump that. Then, that evening, have your attempt, either a single attempt or the first of many. If you want to do many attempts with CFR, at some point you will want to drop the mid-day release. Your husband probably will not be able to keep up with that much releasing and also it may reduce sperm numbers too far.

To use CFR as a rescue with abstain + 1 attempt, if something happens (nocturnal emission or a moment of weakness) and the abstain is interrupted, have him switch to CFR 2 days before your planned attempt. Have him release 2-3 times for 2 days, then have your attempt, with a release in the morning, a release at midday, and then an attempt that evening. Since you’re only doing one attempt, you may want to skip the midday release.

If it’s the last minute and your attempt is within 48 hours (not enough time to complete the CFR cycle) please see “Hurry-Up CFR” below.

To use CFR as a rescue with FR (illness, exhaustion, you got interrupted one night by children, inlaws, or zombies) if you miss a day, have him release 2 times for 2 consecutive days and then resume the normal FR pattern. If it’s the last minute and your attempt is within the next day, please see “Hurry-Up CFR” below.

Hurry-Up CFR: I don’t love this technique because I think it may lower sperm numbers too much to overcome lots of other sway strategies, and it’s also very hard and stressful for some men to do (esp. while on licorice root!) BUT, it is a viable rescue method, as a last minute technique if you suddenly decide to attempt in a month you were planning to skip, and may be something to consider if your husband just really cannot or will not do any other frequency strategies. If you do decide to go with H-CFR, keep in mind that you may not want to use any jellies, might want to skip antihistamine (at least the day of your attempt) and you prob. should not do a jump and dump, to make sure that something is able to survive make it into the cervix. It may not be very much of a deposit and may not have as much semen to protect the sperm (also fewer in number) and so you need a less harsh environment for the sperm to survive in.

To do an H-CFR, DH should release once and dump it, then as SOON as he is possibly able to, you should have an attempt. Don’t go any more than 3-6 hours between rounds and sooner is better. This will yield a small batch of semen with fewer sperm in it.

Abstain then CFR: Again, this is not a strategy I personally love, for the reason that abstaining and then getting a lot of sex may kick sperm production into a higher gear for some men and so then your subsequent attempts run the risk of being higher in sperm numbers than they might have otherwise been (and it will all be super fresh and extra healthy, because your husband’s body had shut down most sperm production during the abstain). But for people who want to include timing and have a cutoff AND O+12, it is a way to keep abstain and timing both in the mix if you are a big believer in those strategies, while still improving odds of pg. Please be aware, if you go this route with O+12, the odds are quite high that it will be the first batch of sperm that gets you pregnant and not the O+12. If you LOVE O+12, then you need to do just O+12.

For abstain with cutoff plus O+12 (link) have your husband abstain for 7-10 days prior to your first attempt. Have your first attempt on O-3 or O-2 with the abstain batch (do NOT have him release and then dump it, use the abstain batch for your one attempt). Have your husband immediately switch to CFR and begin releasing 2-3 times a day for the next couple of days. Dump all these batches. 48 hours after a positive OPK, have another attempt using the second batch of that day (dump the first.)

For abstain and then BD thru O, have your husband abstain for 7-10 days prior to your first attempt. The timing of your first attempt is at your discretion. O-3, O-2, O-1 are all viable options. You may even wish to have two attempts back to back within 3-6 hours (see Hurry-Up CFR above). The next day, have DH release 3 times, dumping the first two and using only the last batch for insemination (it is possible to use the second batch instead, but with this method it’s best to at least TRY for three releases the first day, anyway). Repeat for as many days as you like, keeping in mind that any attempts past O+1 will be wasted. If at some point after a day or two, he can’t keep up the pace, you can switch to just doing 2 releases, but it’s best for at least the first couple days after the abstain, to try for 3 releases, using only the third.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:11 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1143-best-sex-positions-babies-particular-gender-just-getting-pregnant.html

Best sex positions for babies of a particular gender, or just getting pregnant!

Or just conceiving, period! Remember that everything that seems to help with fertility, seems to sway blue! So if you're just trying to conceive, take a closer look at the recommendations for blue swayers, because they can help you get pregnant. I will list the benefits and detriments of each.

Positions that increase fertility and probably sway BLUE

Missionary position with DEEP penetration and ejaculation - Allows for deep penetration which helps distribute EWCM throughout the vagina and if the ejaculation is deep, it deposits sperm right at the opening of the cervix. It also allows DW to lie still for 30 minutes after DTD to keep sperm and semen inside the vagina for longer, which also helps increase fertility and sways blue.

If you put your legs over DH's shoulders, it can allow for even deeper penetration! (Thanks TTC5 for this handy hint!!)

Some women have difficulty reaching orgasm in this position, and orgasm is great for TTC blue because it increases CM. Old wives tales say that the missionary position is good for TTC PINK. Who knows why, but I would suspect it's because the man has a lot of control while in the missionary position. He can penetrate very deeply or very shallowly. A very shallow deposit while in the missionary position WILL sway pink because most of the semen and sperm will come out almost right away and whatever is left will have to pass through the lower pH, more hostile vagina before making it safely to the cervix. I don't think it's 100% trustworthy for swaying though, because a shallow deposit is pretty hard to get just right and there are too many other variables at play to make it dependable for swaying pink.

Doggy style - Allows for deep penetration and ejaculation. Dr. Shettles believed doggy-style was the best way to conceive a son.

In order to lie down and keep maximum sperm inside, DW will have to do a lot of maneuvering after BD. Also, many women have a hard time orgasming in this position and some couples feel like it diminishes intimacy. Intimacy sometimes gets diminished too much as it is while TTC.

Spooning - This is my personal fave for TTC blue and I very likely conceived both DS 3 and 4 this way (with DS 3 I didn't know any better and with DS 4 I was on a swaying break and I ovulated unexpectedly). It allows for deep penetration and deep ejaculation and it allows the woman to lie still after DTD. You can even fall asleep that way after BD and the semen and sperm will stay near your cervix all night!!

It is hard for some women to orgasm in this position.

These positions are not as good for conceiving, and seem to sway pink.

Missionary position with very shallow penetration and ejaculation. Not penetrating very deeply keeps the EWCM from spreading throughout the vagina and a shallow ejaculation means that the sperm will have to survive the hostile environment of the vagina before making it safely to the cervix. Also, a lot of the semen comes out right away.

Hard for the man to control the depth of penetration and ejaculation and easy to screw up on. The woman is lying down when ejaculation takes place, and the force of gravity will pull some semen towards the cervix, even if she immediately gets up afterwards.

Woman on top. Gravity will help keep the semen and sperm away from the vagina. It is possible to avoid very deep penetration/ejaculation. It's easy to do a jump and dump right afterwards.

It is very hard to control the depth of penetration and ejactulation - too easy to screw up. Gravity will help pull EWCM into the vagina. Also, many women find this to be an arousing position and may make more EWCM and find it difficult to not orgasm.

Standing up - My personal fave for TTC pink. Penetration tends to be shallow, gravity is on your side, and you're already standing up so doing a jump and dump is very simple. Many women find it hard to become aroused while standing (but that may work for swaying pink!). Men sometimes like it as a change of pace and it can help spice up otherwise boring swaying sex!!

If you DTD standing up in the shower, even better! Hot showers are rumored to be good for swaying pink and if you wash yourself ahead of time, you will wash away a lot of CM (be careful not to use soap as it is alkaline.)

It's hard to do and gravity will pull EWCM into the vagina. Men may find it difficult to orgasm in this position. Injuries have occured Old wives' tales say it is good for TTC a boy.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:12 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/3187-big-girls-little-girls-baby-girls-boys.html
big girls, little girls, and baby girls (and boys!!)

Let's take a closer look at weight, body type, and gender ratio.

One question that seems to arise frequently is, if weight loss truly tends to sway for girls, why is it that bigger women often have many girls (an observation made by several people both on IG and GD sites, completely independent of each other - not trying to generalize or offend anyone). And how can a ridiculously thin woman like Victoria Beckham have 3 boys?

Before we revisit the idea of why very thin women and women eating reduced calories might have more girls, let's ask perhaps a more important question. DO thin women and women eating reduced calories truly have more girls? The answer to this question seems to be yes, they do.

Maternal eating disorders influenc... [Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2008] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18720046) In a study involving almost 40,000 women, anorexics and bulemics have more daughters while binge eaters and women with EDNOS-P, defined here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_...wise_specified which is anorexia/strange eating patterns where the BMI does not go below normal and the menstrual cycle is not affected, have more sons. The Oxford study also found that women who eat lower calories http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o.../1661.abstract do indeed have more daughters than is statistically expected.

There are actually several reasons why this may be the case.

LOW PROTEIN - If you eat less calories, you may tend to eat less protein. A vegetarian diet has been shown to sway pink in humans http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ave-more-girls. A high protein diet has been shown to skew the gender ratio towards males in gilts. http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/2/329

LOW FAT - Again, less calories tends to mean less fat inake. A high fat diet has been shown to skew the gender ratio towards males in mice. http://www.pnas.org/content/100/8/4628.full.pdf

LOW BLOOD SUGAR - Thinness and weight loss both reduce blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, making your body more efficient at eliminating sugar from the blood. There are hundreds of links about this on Google, too many to post. Skipping meals also keeps blood sugar low, so a habitual meal skipper may inadvertently sway pink regardless of any other factors in their diet.

WEIGHT LOSS - Weight loss itself might sway for several reasons. When a person eats an inadequate amount for their level of activity, their bodies quickly burn off the available blood glucose and glycogen (the form of glucose stored in liver and in muscle tissues). Then, in order to manufacture the glucose a body needs for its metabolic functions, the body begins to cannibalize its own muscle tissue, breaking down the protein into its basic components, one side effect of which is releasing acids into the blood******. Add in frequent intense exercise that produces other acids as well, and it is easy to see how crash dieting and over exercise can make your body very acidic.

Also, weight loss can also lower muscle mass, lowering testosterone, and lower testosterone is hypothesized to be one mechanism that might sway gender. Here are three of dozens of studies/articles on this topic. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/...01Dom/Dom.html http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/con.../5/1133.2.full Paternal HLA genotype and offspring sex ratio. [Hum Biol. 2001] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11446432)

Losing weight also lowers blood sugar levels and improves insulin response even if you do not do any other thing to control blood sugar in any way.

HORMONE LEVELS - Fat cells make estrogen, and muscle needs testosterone to build/maintain itself so the more muscle you have, the more testosterone your body produces. Estrogen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrogen) http://www.ehow.com/about_5173145_te...e-growth_.html So it logically follows that at any time your body has more/less and/or fat/muscle (fun with grammar) that the levels of hormones in your body will be altered in response.

MINERAL LEVELS - If a person is eating less food overall, their intake of sodium ~may~ be lower (the Oxford study found that moms who had sons both ate more calories and had a higher intake of sodium and potassium than moms who had daughters.) AT the same time however, it also seems that their intake of calcium and magnesium may be lower (particularly in anorexics and vegans) due to lower food intake, and it also seems that potassium intake might be higher in vegan/vegetarians than in women who eat a more animal-food based diet, since potassium is found in large amounts in fruits and vegetables.

That having been said, since skim dairy is often a staple food of dieters it may be that even on a very low-cal diet, at least some very thin women still have a high cal-mag intake if they include a lot of dairy products in their diet. Skim dairy has also been shown to lower fertility overall while full-fat dairy raises it, so it may sway pink in that way.

But none of these things really explain how BOTH heavy and very thin women might have more daughters.

While it's easy to envision a scenario where a woman who eats more calories takes in more calcium/magnesium, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Oxford study found that moms who had the highest caloric intake and the highest calcium intake, had more BOYS, which flies in the face of the mineral theories, but the French Gender Diet claims that it's the ratio of minerals that matters and not the intake itself.

Hormones are almost certainly of a different composition in very heavy women, although they may also have lower muscle mass (as a percentage of body mass), so they may be more like very thin women in this regard.

Heavy women may also follow certain diets/eating patterns like lowfat diets or skipping meals that contribute both to their weight issues and also inadvertently sway pink.

One thing both very heavy and very thin women absolutely with 100% certainty do have in common (in terms of swaying) is reduced fertility.

LOWER GENERAL FERTILITY - One of the commonly accepted truisms of swaying seems to be that whatever increases overall fertility seems to sway blue, and whatever diminshes fertility seems to sway pink. BMI out of the normal range in either direction has reduced odds of successful IVF http://forum.lowcarber.org/archive/i.../t-100727.html Obesity has been shown to reduce fertility in both men and women http://journals.lww.com/co-endocrino...tility.11.aspx (one study of MANY) as does being overly thin. http://www.preconception.com/article...conceive-3727/ Even just sudden weight loss can be enough to wreak havoc with the menstrual cycle, as many of us already know.

Now let's talk real world applications. Why might a heavy mom have more daughters???

It may be that her natural setting is more pink friendly. She may have lowered fertility due to her weight, altered hormone levels, have a higher cal-mag intake, and in addition, she may eat a carb-heavy, lowfat, low protein diet, the likes of which was recommended for weight loss for many years and which was proven to sway pink in mice (see above for link).

A high intake of refined carbs also contributes to a crash-and-burn scenario where blood sugar actually plummets after eating sugary foods. When a person eats primarily quick burning, empty carbs like white bread, candy, pasta, and so forth, their blood sugar goes up very high and very fast. This triggers an insulin response; the body releases large amounts of insulin to counteract the sugar in the blood. And then the blood sugar drops even lower than it was to start with - the body runs out of its preferred quick burning glucose/glycogen and begins devouring its own tissue for energy. This leads to intense cravings for sugary foods and just perpetuates the entire cycle again and again.

Also, an excess of sugar in the blood feeds yeast and other microorganisms that release acids as they digest those sugars, so anyone eating a lot of sugar is pretty much turning their body into an acid factory.

A diet high in sugar/refined carbs may actually cause low blood glucose, signaling to the body that a girl pregnancy is desirable and contributing to an acid environment. If this seems farfetched, you may be surprised to hear that researchers lowered blood glucose to dangerous levels in test animals by feeding them nothing but sugar (I have the study for this but I can't find it right now!!).

Conversely, she may go on a crash diet just prior to when she plans on becoming pregnant and inadvertently sways pink with every pregnancy without realizing it. If this sounds farfetched to you, I know several people who have done just that on numerous occasions.

She may also be married to a heavy guy and being overweight has been shown to lower sperm count and testosterone levels in men, while raising their estrogen levels. Overweight men are more likely to father daughters.

Why might some thin women have many sons?

If being thin sways pink, why do I (my friend, my sis, my mom) have so many boys?

Remember, it's not what you look like on the outside that counts in swaying. It's what is happening within your body. Your weight and even your diet is irrelevant if your overall body chemistry is more friendly towards a particular gender. If you're superthin and yet highly fertile, you are going to be more likely to conceive boys regardless of your weight or anything you put into your mouth.

Many women stay thin because of their eating habits, not in spite of them - a diet of lean protein, healthy fats, and lots of fruits and vegetables is going to sway blue even if you wear a size 0 and it will keep you thin as well. Muscle mass takes up less room on the body and burns way more calories than fat does, so you can be quite lean-looking and yet still have large muscles and be able to eat/burn more calories than a heavier person does - and with more calories, may come higher sodium/potassium/protein/nutrient intake and steady blood sugar levels. Also, some genetic factors such as height, make a person more apt to have muscle regardless of diet - a tall thin person can have much more muscle than a short thin person and still seem quite slender.

The testosterone factor cannot be overlooked either - the amounts of testosterone women have in their bodies is miniscule so you do not need to be big, burly, or mannish to have higher testosterone levels. In fact, some very thin women are highly driven and competitive due to higher testosterone and that is WHY they are able to stay so thin - they may be athletic, lift weights, and be very careful to follow a very healthful diet because they have the tendency to be a bit obsessive, competitive, and ever-so-slightly a control freak.

One thing that I have observed and I don't mean this to be in any way offensive to anyone struggling, but there seem to be a very high number of women recovering from eating disorders amongst the moms with many boys. It seems well within the realm of possibility that women who have had eating disorders may be naturally higher in testosterone than women who haven't (the desire for control and tendency to obsess seem to play a part in eating disorders). Also, if food was very restricted but is now more plentiful, it may inadvertently signal the body that times were hard but now they're better (even if you're not eating very much food, as long as you're eating more) and your body may take that as a cue that a boy would have an improved chance for survival. If you have ever struggled with an eating disorder, PLEASE be very careful with diet in your sway, not only for your health but also to avoid the rise in testosterone that comes with obsessiveness. You can still have a good sway WITHOUT diet if you need to.

Some women who are on the thin side, may also begin to eat very healthfully prior to conceiving, and end up swaying blue without even realizing it. I did this with one of my sons and I actually ended up gaining 3 lbs the month before I conceived!! Other thin women may actually have to gain weight just to be able to conceive. One of my friends from IG who used to be a model (seriously!!) has conceived 4 boys and she always has to gain weight before she gets pregnant or she cannot conceive.

You also have to consider what the male brings to the equation...I think we all probably agree that men like Tom Brady, David Beckham, and Gavin Rossdale just LOOK like they should make a lot of gorgeous athletic boys just like themselves (rawr...is it getting warm in here??) and there are scientific reasons like testosterone to back it up but let's just picture them without their shirts on instead.

Finally, ask yourself this question and be honest - ARE you (your friend, mom, sis) really that thin? I know that I'm not. Personally, I look thin because I have a small chest but I'm packing a lot of extra pounds on my legs and bum and I've never conceived at less than 125 pounds (which is kind of a lot for me because I"m short) and for 3 of the 4 I was more like 130-135.

So, in the case of Victoria Beckham, she may just be maintaining at a weight that is natural for her. Some people are naturally very thin, and their body chemistry is just accustomed to supporting their metabolism at that weight. She clearly spends a lot of effort maintaining her physique, so she probably eats very carefully and works out, probably with weights by the looks of her. Perhaps she even gains a bit of weight for health purposes just prior to TTC. Or she may just have very high testosterone naturally (and she claims to have PCOS so this may be the case) and this naturally high T level makes her more likely to have boys. And of course David brings something to the table as well.

Ok, so if both ways work, why don’t we just eat a bunch of sugar and gain weight to get girls? Health issues aside, it’s because each individual’s body chemistry is just too different. Anyone with insulin resistance (meaning their cells aren’t very responsive to insulin‘s effects) might raise their blood glucose levels and end up conceiving a boy when they wanted a girl. But since every person’s blood glucose levels drop when they eat less sugar, lose weight, and exercise, in addtion to the benefits that weight loss has on lowering testosterone and reducing overall fertility, it seems like that is the more reliable path to take when TTC a girl.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:13 PM

the calcium conundrum - CONTROVERSIAL http://genderdreaming.com/forum/trying-conceive-girl/610-calcium-conundrum-controversial.html

Apologies in advance for rocking the boat, but I really want people to get their desired gender. We must be willing to take a hard look at even the most universally accepted ideas behind gender ratio if we want to unravel the mysteries of swaying.

The conventional swaying wisdom has been to take high levels of calcium to sway pink. In fact, the French Gender Diet claims a staggering 80% success rate from diet and supplements alone. This has never felt 100% right to me because I've always eaten a lot of dairy and have 4 boys, and several other ladies have had the same experience. After my sway failed while I was taking truly massive quantities of calcium, magnesium, and Vitamin D and I witnessed several other similar failed sways I began to really question this.

Firstly, there are entire cultures that eat lots of dairy/very little dairy and everything in between, and yet the rates of boys to girls worldwide stays right around 50-50, with always a few more boys born than girls. If a high-calcium, magnesium, Vit. D, low sodium/potassium diet was a magic bullet for conceiving girls (or even had 80% success rate), shouldn't we see at least a slight variation in gender ratio between a culture where dairy foods are rarely eaten (should have at least SOME more boys than statistically expected), and one in which they are a staple (should have at least SOME more girls than statistically expected), even if the ratio never shifted from around 50-50. In fact, the opposite is actually true. Scandinavia, where dairy foods are a staple, has one of the highest boy to girl ratio of anywhere on the planet, with 106-108 boys born for every 100 girls.

Secondly, humanity didn't even begin to evolve the ability to digest dairy products until 8000 years ago. Until that point, no human adults were physically capable of digesting the lactose in dairy foods. We had not even domesticated animals much prior to that, and it's mighty difficult to milk a wooly mammoth even if you could digest their milk. Lactose actually aids in calcium absorption, so even if they were getting calcium through other foods, it was more difficult to absorb than the calcium in dairy. Yet, both males and females were being born throughout antiquity - if they hadn't been, the human race would have died out long ago.

Only within the last 100 years did we even begin to have the refrigeration capability to store dairy year round anyway. Even among people who could digest lactose, until quite recently, milk was not the dietary staple it is nowadays. Once the cow stopped giving milk, that was it for the year - folks couldn't just run to the corner store to pick up a gallon of milk. High-sodium cheese (forbidden on the FGD) was much more likely to be eaten than milk and even that was eaten sparingly.

Yogurt was an anomaly in many cultures until the 1970's - my great-grandma who gave birth to 6 daughters, never tasted it in her life. You youngsters may not believe this but I actually remember the first time I tasted yogurt and I am only 40 years old. My mom bought it at a health food store because it was so unusual that the grocery store didn't carry it!!!

Another point to consider is that most of the world is STILL unable to digest milk products. According to Wikipedia, 75% of ALL adults worldwide are unable to digest lactose to a greater or lesser extent. 90% of people of African and Asian descent are unable to digest dairy foods, as are a significant number of Hispanic and Native American people. Yet there is very little variation in the gender ratio...it still hovers right around 50-50 regardless of ethnicity. In fact, studies have found that people living around the equator, who tend to be of African, Asian, and Hispanic heritage and therefore largely incapable of digesting dairy, actually have MORE daughters than people who live in colder climates, many of whom have dairy as a dietary staple.

The FGD claims it is the ratio of calcium to sodium that matters, and so some have suggested that perhaps in some of these cultures, they eat so little sodium that even though they eat little calcium, the ratio of calcium to sodium is still high and that's why they have more daughters. That is completely unsubstantiated by the facts. In fact, people of African descent actually have a gene that causes them to retain high levels of sodium in their bodies, as a defense against dehydration and malaria. So not only are most people of African descent genetically incapable of eating dairy foods, they also have higher levels of sodium in their blood than people of Northern European descent, who eat the most dairy, do. They also eat more fresh fruits and vegetables year round and get more potassium than many in Western countries do, (as do Asians and some Hispanic countries). Their cuisines are based around fruits and vegetables and whole grains, all very rich in potassium. Yet the gender ratio in most African countries (and among African Americans as well) is much lower than the countries that eat the most dairy.

It has also been suggested that this paradox can be explained by increases in Vitamin D intake - people who live around the equator may absorb more Vitamin D through sunlight (humans manufacture Vitamin D from sunlight), and therefore are able to absorb more calcium than people in more northern climates. However, dairy products in the United States, Canada, and many European countries are fortified with Vitamin D, but they are STILL having more boys despite this.

At the same time, people with darker skins (in equatorial countries where more girls are being born) actually have some trouble absorbing Vitamin D, despite living in a sunnier environment. Rickets is a big problem in Asia and Middle Eastern countries and parts of Africa, and many Middle Eastern women are severely Vitamin D deficient because they are never exposed to sunlight due to their clothing. They may not even be getting much Vitamin D, and therefore absorbable calcium, regardless of where they live. Shouldn't they be having way more sons??

Some intriguing studies have been published recently, stating that slightly more baby girls were conceived Feb-May and slightly more baby boys were conceived in October. These studies were done in Italy, where Vitamin D levels would be lowest in Feb-May and highest in late fall (after a summer spent storing up Vitamin D) when the most boys were conceived.

Since Vitamin D controls calcium absorption, this seems to indicate that more girls were conceived during a time period of lowest calcium absorption, and more boys were conceived during a period of highest calcium absorption. In Italy, between 20-50% of all adults (70% of Sicilians) are lactose intolerant so it is unlikely that they were simply drinking lots of milk. Cheese is a large part of the Italian diet, but most cheese is not Vit. D fortified, and my understanding is that they don't traditionally eat much yogurt there either.

If calcium really was of critical importance in conceiving girls, wouldn't we expect the exact opposite to occur? As Vitamin D levels went up in summer, wouldn't more calcium be absorbed and more girls be conceived and as they dropped in the winter, wouldn't calcium levels drop and more boys be conceived?

According to the Trivers Willard hypothesis, high intake of nutrients sways blue, not pink, and it just seems highly unlikely that calcium would be the one exception to that. The findings of a study that tracked maternal nutrient intake http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o.../275/1643/1661, found that more nutrients across the board, including calcium = more boys conceived.

High fertility seems to equal more sons and full-fat dairy is supposed to help raise overall fertility. Full-fat dairy products are also very high in fat and protein and since evidence indicates we should shrink our muscle mass to lower our testosterone levels, the less protein and fat we eat, the better.

Personally, if I had my sway to do again, I would not take the cal-mag-Vit. D at all, but since most people want to hedge their bets, it may be best to only take cal/mag/vit. D in pill form and eating only limited amounts of skim dairy products, because you're getting more calcium while avoiding the protein and fat present in dairy products. (UPDATE - I did sway again and conceived a daughter after 4 sons eating the lowest amount of calcium I have ever eaten in my entire life in addition to higher sodium and adequate potassium.)

I'm not saying that calcium doesn't have some role to play, but just want everyone to be aware that we don't fully understand what mechanisms are at play, and that calcium is NOT a magic bullet. No one should rely on a high calcium diet ALONE to sway - the science may not support it.

ALSO PLEASE READ the second part of this essay - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/ttc-...-part-2-a.html

AND the third part of this essay - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/show...ucting-the-FGD

Also, you will want to read the discussions at the end of all three essays, particularly the third essay, for more info.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:15 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-girl-best-practices/642-calcium-conundrum-part-2-a.html
the calcium conundrum part 2

Please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-CONTROVERSIAL

Ok. So obviously I have some doubts about the "magic bullet" status of calcium.

That having been said, people HAVE been eating a high calcium diet as part of their sway, and conceiving girls while doing it. Results have been decidedly inconsistent, as many of us have learned to our dismay, but clearly, a high calcium diet is not a magic bullet for blue, either. Studies have been done, we've all read them...just as calcium does not seem to guarantee pink, certainly it doesn't prevent girls from being conceived, either.

Just because calcium is not a magical pink guarantee, that doesn't necessarily mean that eating dairy/taking calcium as part of a pink sway diet is the worst idea in human history and that we should all run away screaming from a glass of milk.

According to the Trivers Willard hypothesis, mothers in deteriorating condition, with less access to quality sources of food, seem to have more daughters. Any time when we switch our diet dramatically, our body takes note of this fact. A sudden switch from eating a balanced diet with lots of different foods, to a very limited diet? How can our bodies ignore that? It may be that just by virtue of eating less variety of foods, (switching from our everyday diets to one centered around grains and dairy) we send a pink signal to our bodies.

Again, keeping Trivers-Willard in mind, it may not be what we're eating, but what we're NOT eating. Less potassium and sodium, in particular. The "You are what your mother eats" study http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o...1643/1661.full found that moms who conceived boys DID take in more sodium and potassium. Maybe just eating less of these nutrients is enough to help some people conceive a girl, regardless of whether or not calcium/magnesium intake does anything at all.

Weight loss is another thing that your body might interpret as a signal that times are tough and a girl pregnancy might have a better chance of success. Many people find that they lose weight on the traditional TTC pink diet, because there's so few foods they can eat (and this was true before anyone ever heard of the Trivers Willard hypothesis).

Calcium has been found to help promote weight loss in several studies, regardless of caloric intake.
Calcium and Weight: Clinical Studies (http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/21/2/152S)

Dairy is promoted in the media as a health food, but high calcium intake in and of itself, may not be terribly healthy for everyone or absorbed equally well by everyone. Oddly, osteoporosis is HIGHEST in countries that eat a lot of dairy foods, and this is a mystery that researchers have yet to solve. Around the world, most people take in less than half of the calcium that Western countries do, mostly from sources other than dairy foods. Yet their bones are actually stronger than ours are, even into old age.

It may be that overly high calcium intake actually causes us to absorb less calcium into our bones, so our body may be tricked into believing we are eating less calcium than we actually are. Or it could be that the calcium found in dairy products (and supplements) are in some form, or lacking some co-nutrient, that renders it less able to be used by our body. Net result, our body thinks it's getting less useable calcium even though we're eating more.

Also, people have allergies or sensitivities to the proteins in milk. Cow's milk has 5kinds of proteins KNOWN to cause allergic reactions. If you were fed cow's milk formula as a baby, you may be particularly sensitive to these proteins. This sensitivity can lead to autoimmune disorders - your body produces antibodies to these proteins for many years and can become cross-sensitized to naturally occuring proteins in your own body and end up attacking itself. A milk-protein sensitive indivudual who suddenly dramatically upped the amount of dairy in their diet, might have a physical reaction to dairy foods that might sway pink OR blue, even though it had NOTHING to do with calcium at all.

Others are unable to digest milk sugar, aka lactose. You may be slightly lactose intolerant for years without ever realizing it. Suddenly increasing the amount of dairy in your diet may trigger terrible stomach issues, or minor ones that you may not even really notice. The inability to digest the lactose means, that if you're getting the bulk of your calories from dairy products, you're not digesting at least SOME of your food. Less calories, less nutrients = more girls conceived.

It may be some other ingredient in dairy products that is swaying. Any connection with calcium may be sheer coincidence. Cows are treated with hormones, antibiotics, and various other medications. Not only that, but cows giving milk ARE full of female hormones because they're breastfeeding. It isn't beyond the realm of belief that some of these elements may sway in some way. Antibiotics are believed to sway blue and have been proven to get into the milk supply. Pesticides are believed to sway pink and are used extensively in agriculture.

Cheeses, yogurts, kefir, etc. are laden with good bacteria and in some cases, flavorings and preservatives, that may sway in some way, in addition to whatever was in the milk they were made from.

Also, dairy products are typically fortified with other vitamins, particularly Vitamin D. Vitamin D may raise testosterone. http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ter.html?cat=5 So even if calcium DID produce more girls, perhaps the addition of Vitamin D to dairy products undoes some of that by raising testosterone and swaying blue.

Research has demonstrated an intriguing connection between lowfat dairy intake and reduced fertility, and intake of full fat dairy and increased fertility. Reduced Fertility In Women Linked To Low Fat Dairy Food (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/64192.php). Since pretty much everything that seems to lower fertility seems to sway pink, and everything that increases fertility seems to sway blue, it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume for now, that perhaps there's some interplay between fat and calcium intake. Maybe calcium without fat somehow interferes with fertility. Perhaps it's as simple as, a high calcium/low fat intake = more girls conceived, and high calcium/high fat intake = more boys conceived. Adding some full fat dairy to a blue sway may very well be a good idea.

We can't know until more research is done, if any or none of these things have any affect on gender ratio whatsoever. But, we do need to eat SOMETHING when we are swaying (heaven knows the pink sway is restrictive enough as it is!). Certainly lowfat dairy in moderation can be a good addition to a pink sway in addition to other sway aspects. But no one should rely on high calcium/magnesium/Vit. D intake alone, if you're trying to conceive a daughter.

Calcium needs to be removed from magic bullet status, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be a part of an excellent pink sway.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:16 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/science-behind-gender-swaying/4666-calcium-conundrum-part-3-deconstructing-fgd.html

the calcium conundrum part 3 - deconstructing the FGD

Since I sure seem to spend an awful lot of time discussing this, I think I better just address it for once and for all and then I can happily post a link from now on!!

Honestly, I hate to spend time arguing against the FGD because I DO think it sways. It's basically a low-rent, less effective version of the Low-Everything/High-Everything diet with an (unnecessary) focus on mineral content and leaving out the stuff about testosterone and blood sugar. But since people keep asking about it, here is my take on the FGD.

The roots of the FGD are rotten to begin with.

A house built on shifting sands, is at its foundation, unstable. The fundamental idea behind the FGD is based on some studies done back in the 30's on this species of marine worms whose sex is not even determined by genetics, but by their environment. They HAVE no sex when they're first born and then they all turn into girls unless there's another girl around in the neighborhood, at which point one of them turns into a boy. Bonellia viridis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonellia_viridis) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...22098183900254 An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/con...ent=a922379078)

If you shoot some minerals into their tanks it makes them turn different genders. It makes NO sense at all to extrapolate that to mammals, let alone humans, because they don't reproduce in the same way as us. A couple other researchers did similar tests that the FGD book references, in a couple different species of worms, one of which is also hermaphroditic like the Bonellia is, and one that has boy and girl EGGS, not boy and girl sperm Karyotype and sex determination in Dinophilus gyrociliatus (Polychaeta: Dinophilidae) - Springer (http://www.springerlink.com/content/mh3b4152940u13m8/).

One other study was done in amphibians but environmental factors have been proven to affect gender ratio in amphibians and reptiles but not in humans. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...16699589800312 refutes the idea that environment controlling gender (as it has been proved to do in amphibians and reptiles) can be extrapolated to humans.

Furthermore, as the following outstanding, relatively easy-to-understand article explains, human sperm are attracted to eggs by means of chemical attractants that are different between individual mammals themselves, let alone between species as far removed as humans and marine worms are, that are found in the follicular fluid when the egg is released, in addition to thermotaxis, which is a change in temperature. Muscle contractions and currents of CM also help guide the sperm to the egg. And along the way, mammal sperm must capacitate to be able to fertilize the egg. http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological...2006(P110).pdf Another couple of links that talk about this are http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological...ch/pdf/P83.pdf and Sperm guidance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_guidance)

Animals that live in the sea simply release sperm and eggs in massive quantities and while they do have chemoattractants that attract sperm to eggs, the job of these chemoattractants is much more difficult. The ocean is a (quoting Eisenbach from the study above) "a turbulent, aqueous environment that usually contains eggs and sperm from various species." So the egg and the sperm have to seek out and find each other in a very hostile environment, and not only that, but they have to prevent attracting the sperm and eggs of other species. Their sperm do not capacitate like mammalian sperm do - they are ready to fertilize the egg upon release, and they remain able to fertilize the egg.

The mechanisms and environment between species that spawn externally and internally are so different that you simply cannot compare them. Stolkowski, author of the FGD book, may speak of "an internal ocean" in the female reproductive tract, but that is poetic nonsense and completely unsupported by any facts at all. I promise that if you take a drop of human CM and a drop of ocean water, they are so freaking different that a beginning biology student could tell them apart with one glance at them under a microscope. And the needs of eggs and sperm in the ocean are VASTLY different than in mammalian bodies.

Furthermore, animals that live in the ocean simply do not have the same motivation to alter gender ratio that mammals do. Not only are many ocean-dwelling animals able to switch genders and are capable of releasing BOTH sperm and eggs, in some cases even fertilizing their own eggs (!) but they send out billions of sperm/eggs during their lifetime, most of which go unfertilized. Of the millions of conceptions that do occur, many offspring die before maturity. Having equal numbers of male and female offspring is a good "bet" for some animals in that scenario, and for other creatures, like the Bonellia described in the links above, it makes more evolutionary "sense" to have way more female offspring and only a few males and so they've evolved mechanisms to ensure that happens. There is no logical reason to extrapolate that to humans who need 50-50 male and females!

In the case of mammals and even more so with humans, they may only have one measly offspring that lives to maturity. So they are highly motivated (evolutionarily speaking) to ensure that their offspring has the best chance to live to adulthood and reproduce because we only get one or two of them. THAT is the reason why the potential for variation in gender ratio amongst mammals has even evolved to begin with, to give our offspring the best chances to grow to adulthood and reproduce. Again, there is simply no comparison to be made between what strategy works best for Spongebob Squarepants (who as anyone with small children knows, can reproduce by budding ) and we humans. Our needs and environment, even the way that our sperm and eggs function are totally and completely different from these animals that Dr. Stolkowski based his entire theory upon.

So those studies mean precisely nothing of help to us. NONE of these animals even have the situation where there are male and female sperm determining gender internally, like humans do. The entire idea of the FGD is based on a faulty premise and everything that comes afterwards must therefore be suspect.

Now let's talk about cows.

Ok, so even if the FGD is based on nothing but a silly idea, didn't the people behind the FGD do a lot of experiments that supported the idea that calcium = girls??

Actually, NO, they didn't. What they did do was a couple of "retrospective surveys" of the diets fed to cows on several nearby farms and found that on farms where the cal/mag/pot were "properly" (whatever that means) balanced in the feed, as many males as females were born. On farms where there was more cal/mag in the feed and less potassium, more females were born, and where there was more potassium, more males were born.

Now hang on a minute here. The way the FGD is described it is like based on these highly scientific experiments, conjuring up images of white-coated researchers doling out carefully measured portions of food with all possible variables controlled for, but that simply isn't the case. It's even mentioned in the FGD book that it was "rather difficult" to find farmers who would alter the feed of their entire herd - I don't think they could find a farmer on the planet who would do such a thing.

In short, these cows were raised on different farms, by different farmers, were probably different breeds, and fed different diets and just because the feed was analyzed after the fact and happened to contain different mineral levels, what does that even mean to us?

Not much.

Different feeds have different proportions of minerals to be sure but they also have different levels of other nutrients. Farmers don't open up a bag of "Purina Cow Chow - Now With Calcium" and feed it to their cows, while the farmer next door feeds precisely the same amount of "Moo Mix Plus Potassium". They feed their cows grass and hay and grain and silage in varying proportions, that they typically grow themselves on land that may have more or less of a certain mineral composition than another farmer's land does. And even though the diet of one cow may indeed differ in mineral content from that of another cow, they also differ in many other ways. Calories, protein, fat content - all vary between feeds and proportions of feeds in the cow's diet. Alfalfa and timothy may have different mineral content but they have different EVERYTHING content.

Not only that, but we don't know anything at all about the environments of these cows. One farmer may feed less than another farmer or at a different time of day, one breed may require more calories than another breed, one farmer may worm regularly while another farmer's cows were riddled with parasites and not getting maximum nutrition, one farmer may use antibiotics constantly while another doesn't. Most farmers only have one or two bulls they use for breeding so if one farmer's bull was particularly "set" to produce more of one gender than another, that could make a major difference in the results regardless of diet. NO variables were controlled for at all and therefore this info is really rather useless.

One final survey or study took place in which the researchers looked at Vit. D injections given to cows. It's really not clear WHY this Vit. D was injected into cows, whether it was at the behest of the researchers or for some other reason all together and the researchers got the info in retrospect. (in the FGD book it says the births were "obtained" which makes me think it was another retrospective survey.) Only 77 cows were injected with Vit. D and of these cows, 2/3 had females while 1/3 had males.

That is really not terribly different from what the standard gender ratio is to begin with and in that small a sample size, could easily be nothing more than a statistical variation. In the larger group that was NOT injected with Vit. D, the gender ratio had more males than females born but really not much different than 50-50. As the sample size increases, we should expect to see it be close to 50-50 just as a statistical fact, even if gender ratio has nothing to do with minerals at all, so that the ratio of the larger group was closer to 50-50 proves nothing about minerals at all.

Aside from the ridiculously small and unscientific sample size, there are too many variables at play to conclude anything from this. Why were those particular cows injected with Vit. D?? Was it because they were sickly or poor eaters? Were they on medication or was the farmer trying to bring them into heat out of season?? Did the farmers simply shake their heads at the crazy cow researchers and agree to inject some of their cows with Vit. D and then pick out their "worst" cows to inject??

Were they lower in weight? Younger? Older? Who knows, because we are totally relying on secondhand information compiled by people who were looking for evidence to support a particular hypothesis, that was gleaned from records kept by non-scientist people we don't even know, over 30 years ago, before the advent of computers, that may or may not even have been accurate.

Finally, even if the FGD science is 100% completely accurate and minerals are important to cow gender ratio, cows are NOT humans. They are herbivores. They have four stomachs. They come into heat usually only once a year, usually at the same time of year as all the other cows do. They live in a herd/harem rather than in monogamous pairs. You cannot compare an animal that eats grass, with a different digestive tract and different reproductive cycle entirely, with a human being that has evolved as an omnivore for millions of years and has monthly cycles and pairs off to mate, and draw any kinds of conclusions at all. Let's see some primate studies!!!

Another oft-cited "study" done by Stolkowski was in sows, but a subsequent experiment by other researchers could not repeat his findings. [Influence of mineral diet of the sow on the... [Reprod Nutr Dev. 1982] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7163616)

There are some intriguing studies in rats that are discussed in the thread below.

Until someone can point out some sort of evolutionary advantage as to why sodium/calcium intake would make any difference in gender ratio, and/or explain why countries with the highest dairy intake have more boys and why the nations of the world where most people are lactose intolerant have more girls and why people of African descent have the most girls of all even though they are much more likely to be lactose intolerant and have a genetic predisposition that makes them actually retain higher levels of sodium in their bodies than those of European heritage (please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-FGD-for-a-boy.), I'm going to need some more substantial evidence to go on.

Testosterone, blood glucose - those things make SENSE so I can let go that I don't have 50 studies to back them up (even though more are being done every day that are virtually all better done and from more reliable sources than anything that supports the FGD.) Calcium swaying pink does not make intuitive sense to me, it doesn't mesh with the real world, and so I want real evidence from an unbiased source and not people who are making money off of this theory (the Dutch study people). The only unbiased study (the Oxford study) actually found that calcium = more boys. That doesn't mean it isn't true and doesn't work, just that we can't treat it like an unquestioned given that cal/mag = girls.

If you like the FGD and you believe in it, then follow it by all means. Maybe it will work for you. But I just cannot support the following scenarios because I don't think people will get their DG that way and I REALLY REALLY want everyone to get their DG!!!

1)Pink swayers - Eating your normal diet and just taking cal-mag-Vit. D supps WILL NOT WORK. I saw several people do exactly this on IG - heck, I kinda did it myself - and NONE of them ever got a baby girl from it. Even when they "cut back" on salt they had opposites. (to my mind, this is further proof that it is the DIETS that are swaying and NOT the minerals, because when the diet is removed from the equation, the minerals do not seem to sway in any reliable way. If the minerals are swaying, they should sway at least SOMEWHAT for people even if they're not following the diet.)

2) Pink swayers - Drinking unlimited amounts of milk and eating unlimited amounts of "approved" foods on the FGD is another major no-no. People are drinking GALLONS of milk and eating tahini/yogurt by the barrel and including chicken/fish/eggs, and they are getting opposites. Both the FGD and IG diets limit dairy/produce/meats to what the alloted minerals are for that day. If you want to do the FGD or IG diets, REALLY do them and stick to the guidelines for minerals. You will find that it's not a lot of food and it actually resembles the Low-Everything diet pretty closely, even more restrictive in some ways. If you toss in skipping breakfast and lose a few pounds, even better.

3)Blue swayers - Eating your normal diet and just trying to eat more salt doesn't cut the mustard for blue. Please also increase calories, protein, fat, and nutrients across the board, do not skip breakfast, add some muscle mass, and keep your blood sugar high. Eat protein and carbs at every meal and don't rely on salt alone to sway. Not only that, but an overly high intake of salt over the course of months may even be bad for your health and fertility and might make you more girl friendly than you would have been even had you done nothing at all to sway. One rat study found that high sodium intake caused rats to conceive more GIRLS, not boys. http://e-jurnal.perpustakaan.ipb.ac....es/maryati.pdf

4)Blue swayers - Eliminating calcium completely, esp. over the course of several months is not a good idea. Cutting out an entire class of foods and one of the most important nutrients in your body, is not going to send a message to your body that times are good, period. Furthermore, eating full-fat dairy has been proven to enhance fertility and everything that raises fertility sways blue. (One rat study found that potassium plus calcium caused nearly as many males to be conceived as high potassium intake alone and the link is somewhere on this thread.)

Blue swayers are lucky in that even if you eliminate dietary calcium all together, your body still has an ample supply in your bones. On the FGD, when you drastically reduce calcium, your body starts stealing it from your bones and keeps a perfectly adequate level of calcium in your blood (otherwise you would DIE from the FGD), so it is extremely unlikely that the FGD even sways by altering the levels of calcium in your blood. You have some time, perhaps months, before you really do start to do harm to yourself and your fertility. But over time, it is going to take a toll on you, both in terms of fertility and in terms of your long term health and the longer it takes you to get pg, you may end up ruining your sway by running low on critical nutrients. If you choose to do the FGD, please don't tinker around with TBM, timing, etc and just hurry up and get pregnant as quickly as you can.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:17 PM

reserved cal conundrum 4

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:17 PM

reserved CC 5

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:19 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/11684-ph-pickle.html
The pH Pickle

pH is second only to timing as an unquestioned “truth” of swaying. But is it, really? Let’s take a look at pH and see how and IF it even makes a difference.

Biologically, pH serves a very valuable purpose in the human vagina. Many harmful microorganisms don’t like low pH and it makes it more difficult for them to survive. The naturally low vaginal pH of 4.5-5, is sort of a gateway mechanism that exists during most of the cycle to keep harmful invaders at bay…by killing everything before it can make its way up inside your uterus where it could cause a serious infection.

The problem is, sperm don’t like low pH either. NEITHER X nor Y sperm like low pH (less than 6), in fact it renders them immobile, if not dead. In one study, it was shown that when a woman’s pH was less than 6, she had no motile sperm in her cervix in the postcoital test. The pH of cervical mucus, quality of seme... [Clin Reprod Fertil. 1986] - PubMed - NCBI

WHAT?? Read it again ladies – pH of less than 6 = NO motile sperm in the cervix. Not X, not Y. X sperm DO NOT love low pH. No sperm love low pH. Low pH kills sperm. That is why the natural pH of semen is in the 7’s – that’s what sperm prefer and thrive in (note – they don’t like super high pH either!!). Infertility - A Couple's Survival Guide

Then how do we get pregnant at all? As we approach ovulation, we experience a gradual rise in estrogen that triggers not only ovulation itself, but also causes our our cervical crypts, endometrial glands (in the uterus), and special cells in the Fallopian tubes that grow every month for no other purpose than to make alkaline fluids, Fallopian tube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, to produce fluids that are higher in pH. This higher pH EWCM and the similar fluids inside our uterus and Fallopian tubes is ALWAYS between 6.5 and 8. pH regulation in the female reproductive tract Even the fluid that is released along with the egg at ovulation is high in pH.

As our cervix opens up at ovulation, this alkaline EWCM flows down and out into our vagina and raises the pH to enable sperm to survive. This CM creates a little path for the sperm to swim in to reach the safety of the alkaline cervix, uterus, and Fallopian tubes…when our husbands ejaculate, their semen is essentially a life raft of alkalinity that keeps sperm alive until they can find their way onto that path. It’s a gamble that our bodies temporarily take at ovulation – we risk temporarily raising the chance of infection in order to make it possible for sperm to survive to make it to the egg.

When Dr. Shettles came along, he did not have the technology to be able to go up inside a woman’s body and reliably test for pH. If you’ll recall (if you don’t recall, please read this essay to learn about Dr. Shettles’ BIG mistake http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...le-timing.html) Dr. Shettles believed (wrongly) that X sperm were big and slow and lived a long time, while Y sperm were small and fast and died quickly. So based on this erroneous conclusion, he then decided that X sperm were impervious to damage and looked back at some old information involving a veterinarian that claimed to get more boy horses than girl horses conceived by using baking soda douches. But it just isn’t true. Both X and Y sperm like alkaline environment. They both thrive in it. All low pH does is kill off sperm!

The underlying assumption of pH and swaying has always been, women who conceive girls naturally have a low pH and women who conceive boys naturally have a high pH and that this affects X and Y survivability and motility differently somehow, and that’s why some of us have boys and others have girls. But this simply cannot be true. If ALL sperm thrive in pH of the 7’s, high 6’s at the very lowest, if sperm actually become immobile at pH less than 6 and DIE, and ALL our female bodies are designed to provide a nice alkaline pH at ovulation and if we don’t we have a very hard time getting pregnant, HOW can it be true that X sperm “love” low pH and that all the girls on the planet were born to women who just so happened to have low pH because they ate a lot of cranberries?? IT CAN’T BE TRUE.

Now, given all that, let’s move on to the logic of pH and swaying. Does altering our pH REALLY make any sense at all whatsoever? People have used it to sway and seemingly had some measure of success at it.

Just for giggles, let’s assume that the traditional sway info is 100% right – we’ll pretend that X sperm love low pH and Y sperm love high pH. What would then happen if we shot a big bunch of low pH goop into our vagina at ovulation? If the pH of the cervix, uterus, Fallopian tubes, and even follicular fluid is in the 7’s, and X sperm ~really~ loved low pH, would not the X sperm simply stay in the low pH of the vagina? Wouldn’t the Y sperm flee the scene in terror as quickly as it could and head TOWARDS the egg if it was more alkaline up there? And if you were swaying blue, EW or BSF/BSD, with pH in the high 8’s-9’s...why would a Y sperm ever leave that environment to go into a LOWER pH? Wouldn’t it just sit there happily basking in the high pH while the X moved on to more acidic pastures? It simply makes no sense.

The argument goes, that this pH diffuses up into your entire reproductive tract, all the way up to the egg (and there are studies and patents out there, done as most swaying studies are, by the “I.M. Sellingsomething University of Vaguely Scientific Sounding Gibberish, Timbuktu Campus” that allegedly prove this) but this premise is equally nonsensical. If the pH of the vagina could diffuse up into your uterus and Fallopian tubes, then our naturally low vaginal pH would diffuse upwards and LOWER our internal pH at ovulation. But instead, the alkaline fluids being created up inside of all of us, assisted by gravity, flow down and into the vagina and raise vaginal pH!

Additionally, at ovulation, every square millimeter of our cervical crypts, uterine endometrium, the cells in our Fallopian tubes are busy churning out fluids with pH in the 7’s. Even if there is some diffusion into the lower part of the cervix from douches/jellies/egg white/BSF/BSD (which may very well be the case) that doesn’t mean that diffusion will amount to anything at the egg, where it really counts. The cervix is designed to keep things that aren’t supposed to be there, OUT. I’ve often used the example of gargling with baking soda water and then spitting it out, so I’ll trot it out again. If you swish with baking soda water and then spit, and then tested your mouth’s pH, it would def. be higher temporarily and it may even be higher in the upper portions of your esophagus thanks to diffusion. But it would NOT change the pH of your stomach acid in any appreciable way (which in your repro tract, would be akin to the Fallopian tubes where sperm meets egg.) Diffusion isn’t magic, it gets weaker the farther away you get and it gets diluted by whatever other fluids it meets along the way.

Perhaps a better example is if you have one of those horrible colds where your nose runs and runs…does it really make sense that if you put a moistened fingertip of baking soda inside your nostrils, that will do ANYTHING to change the pH up inside your sinuses? No, because your body is making so much mucus that it just keeps flowing down and out, not up and in.

pH has also been said to sway via “ions”, but the problem is that X and Y sperm have been shown not to have different electrical charges in recent studies. What are the REAL differences between X sperm and Y sperm?? Therefore they cannot be differentially attracted by ions in cervical mucus or by any electrical pull of the egg. Plus, acids themselves contain POSITIVE ions, not negative ones – so if someone could explain how bombarding yourself with negative ions “because X sperm prefer negative ions” (source IG FAQ) and then using acids that are chock full of positive hydronium ions (that’s what acids ARE, liquids with positive hydronium ions – read both pages, the second page has a nice graphic on it that clearly shows acids have positive ions and bases (alkaline) have negative ones Chem4Kids.com: Reactions: Acids and Bases and Chem4Kids.com: Reactions: Acids and Bases II ) makes any sense whatsoever, that would be great – I’m not a chemist and I freely admit I could be wrong or have missed something on this but it just doesn’t seem to add up.

Practically speaking, if any of the ion/electrical charge jazz was true, there would be no need for Microsort – Microsort is a procedure where X and Y sperm are differentiated by using dyes and then a technician adds a tiny droplet of liquid that contains an electrical charge and then the charged sperm are separated by electrostatic plates. If X and Y sperm had different charges to begin with, there would be no need for this complicated process, they could just separate them with the electrostatic plates! If pH is supposed to sway because of ions, science simply does not support it.

If pH really swayed in any way at all, it would have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by now. As one of the best known sway tactics there is, that’s actually been around longer than timing and I can guarantee you that most if not all reproductive endocrinologists have heard of it, if pH caused Y sperm’s “tails to freeze” or whatever the theory claims, then RE’s would have figured out a way to simply dump an egg and some sperm in an acidic or alkaline environment for a cheap method of gender swaying. They’d LOVE to be able to do this because they’d make a fortune at it. But they don’t, because it doesn’t work!

Yes, but Dr. Ericsson uses pH in his sperm spinning methods! There has been seemingly some success with Dr. Ericsson and others using “albumin gradients”, swim up/modified swim up, and sperm spinning, but there are some problems that have arisen with the Ericsson method. First of all, no other researcher has managed to replicate Dr. Ericsson’s methods independently (never a good sign for any scientific claim). Secondly, Dr. Ericsson himself admits that even after all the albumin and spinning business, the sperm are STILL 50-50 X and Y but claims that these sperm then go onto produce more boys or girls, according to how they’re spun. Thirdly, see the paragraph above. If pH ~really~ swayed in any strong, undeniable way (as in, put Acijel in your VJ as a magic bullet for pink, or BSF for blue), then WHY would Dr. Ericsson have to use all the “albumin gradients” and swim up/modified swim up and sperm spinning to get it a weak 70% results at best (that no other researcher can repeat). If true, we don’t know why it is – if it’s pH, spinning, or some other thing all together (such as the albumin gradients triggering different rates of capacitation than what normally occurs in the body.) BTW – while there has been some success using at-home HT methods on InGender for boys, for girls the method has yielded 50-50 results. Diet alone has yielded equal or better results!!

What am I testing with my Ph sticks then? People do start swaying and then see the number on their pH stick change, and I have a couple explanations for that. Firstly, a lot of people on IG did NOT understand that their pH would naturally fluctuate throughout the month because unfortunately the IG FAQ was not too good at getting that message out to the majority of swayers. When I was a forum mod, I saw tons of pink swayers who were thrilled that their pH immediately dropped to 4.5 (after starting their sway at the end of AF because that’s when people tend to start their sway; as it just so happens that’s also when their pH was naturally on the low side) and then freaking out when their pH went up at ovulation because they truly thought their pH was 4.5 because they were taking cranberry and not because it’s naturally low when you’re not fertile.

For blue swayers, if you start off testing pH NOT at ovulation, and then test at ovulation, it will appear your pH is going up but it very well may have gone up every other cycle of your life when you weren’t testing – including all the times you conceived girls. pH ONLY counts in the fertile window, because that’s the only time sperm can survive long enough to reach the egg, so any reports of low pH are meaningless unless we know for a fact that the reading was pH within the fertile window. So at least some of the pH claims, from IG particularly, are inaccurate and misleading because we don’t know when these people were even testing pH. Or how – pH from the lower part of your cervix will naturally be lower than pH from nearer your cervix and two different readings on two different sticks may indicate nothing other than different techniques. Not to mention that if you use a fingertip full of Acijel or baking soda and then test your pH right after, of course your pH will seem very low or high, accordingly. But all you’re testing is the pH of Acijel/baking soda – you’re not even necessarily testing your CM pH! Even CM pH tells you nothing about what is going on up inside where sperm meets egg.

Secondly, if you naturally have a lot of EWCM at ovulation and you dry it up via diet, supps, and antihistamines, OR if you typically have very little and then increase it via diet, supps, and Robi/Muci, then NATURALLY your pH will appear different. It does NOT mean that the actual pH of your CM has changed at all, just that there is less of it or more of it available for you to test. Since EWCM is what makes your pH go up at ovulation, having less or more (or thinner and watery vs. thicker and drier, than you normally do, will appear as an increase in CM pH even though your CM pH may be identical to what it’s been every other month of your entire existence. I personally believe that much of what is reported as rises and falls in CM pH is nothing other than more or less EWCM or CM that has taken on a more or less fertile consistency.

Thirdly, it is IMPOSSIBLE to alter your blood pH with diet. If your blood pH goes outside a very narrow range, you DIE. Acid/Alkaline Theory of Disease Is Nonsense The idea that you can alter your body’s pH through diet is completely untrue. I promise that regardless of the pH of the foods you ingest, the second they hit your stomach acid (very low pH of 1-2) they dissolve into a low pH slurry that is then neutralized in your duodenum before moving on to your intestines. You can seemingly alter the pH of your urine temporarily, and it ~may~ be that you can alter the pH of your CM from diet in a similar fashion although I’m not convinced of that because CM has nothing to do with the digestive tract whatsoever. In one study done in mice, mice fed an acid or alkaline diet, whose urine pH changed accordingly, did NOT have any different gender ratios of offspring. CSIRO PUBLISHING - Reproduction, Fertility and Development (http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/RD06053)

I find it much more likely that again, what you do to sway via diet is affecting the amount and consistency of CM and that the presence or absence of CM in the vagina is the only thing that actually changes at all. Example – drinking a lot of lemon water for blue, keeps you well hydrated and being well hydrated helps your body make CM, in addition to replacing some less healthy options such as diet sodas that some blue swayers may have drunk in excess when they conceived their DDs. Example 2 – LE Diet helps to lower estrogen and less estrogen means drier and scanty CM and so can dry up CM and seemingly lower pH.

If all this is true, atomic, then why do you keep pH in the sway at all? Two reasons - most importantly that people like it and feel like they need it or their sway will fail. I am certainly not the font of all earthly knowledge and if people want to keep pH in the mix, who am I to try and stop them? I have tried very hard to find the safest and best techniques that are safe both for health and for swaying and I feel that this is a great compromise between what people want and what I believe is best supported by the data. For pink swayers, RepHresh, baby aspirin, antihistamine, diet; for blue swayers, Preseed or Conceive Plus/EPO and fish oil, Robi/Muci, and diet.

Secondly, I actually DO think pH can sway. Not in the way that the traditional sway gurus claim – not because X “love” low pH and Y “love” high pH or because of ions or any other magic bullets, but because low pH kills sperm, and fewer sperm surviving to reach the egg seems to sway pink for reasons we don’t understand. High pH, on the other hand, may help sperm to stay alive in a hostile vaginal environment until it can make it into the safety of the cervix and beyond.

Some of the blue sway tactics that I believe to be sperm-hostile (such as egg white and baking soda douche/finger) the body is actually quite forgiving of, firstly because the sky high pH of egg white/BSF/BSD kind of average out with the low pH of the vagina to a more reasonable level, and secondly because when you insert anything odd into your vagina, it can trigger a reaction where your body produces alkaline mucus to try and wash the offending substance away so you actually end up triggering a big burst of mucus of normal alkalinity that gets rid of the super high pH stuff.. So blue swayers, even tho I still (VASTLY) prefer Preseed, if you’re already pregnant and you used egg white or BSD/BSF, please don’t panic, you still have a great chance at blue.

I hope this sheds a little light on a confusing topic! Please let me know if you have any questions or if anything was less than clear.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:50 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/7691-trouble-timing.html
The TROUBLE with timing!

Ah, timing. The glorious promise that, if only we have sex on the magical day, we will then conceive a baby of our desired gender. It sounds SO great, so easy. You can read about it a thousand places online and surely that many people can‘t be wrong…can they?

It even makes sense - X is big and slow, Y is small and fast, X must swim slow but live a long time, Y must be quick but die sooner. Of course! It explains EVERYTHING!

The trouble with timing is, IT DOESN’T WORK! Here’s why.

--Timing is based entirely on one man’s mistake.

40-odd years ago, Dr. Landrum Shettles (who was actually an incredibly smart man in pretty much every way and did wonders for the cause of infertility), took a look at some sperm under a microscope and noticed something that no one had ever seen before. Some of the sperm had tiny little heads and seemed to be moving faster, while other sperm had big fat heads and were moving more slowly. He immediately concluded that the fat heads HAD to be X sperm and the skinny heads HAD to be Y sperm. He began to perform and publish studies based on this idea, write books, and we STILL can’t get rid of the guy 40 year later.

The problem is, he was TOTALLY WRONG. What he was really looking at, was capacitated and uncapacitated sperm. The capacitation process had not yet been discovered when Dr. Shettles developed his timing theory. Capacitated sperm are sperm that have lost the protective cap at their tip and are all excited aobut it because it means they’re ready to fertilize an egg. Uncapacitated sperm are bigger and more laid back because they still have their protective cap. Eventually, they’ll lose that cap and be small and move around a lot more too, but they are BOTH X and Y sperm, whether they have a cap or whether they don’t. Sperm capacitate in waves and they seem to be able to communicate with each other on some primitive level to coordinate this process, so as long as there are living sperm present, some will be capacitated and ready to fertilize any cute little egg who happens to show up dateless at the party, and some will be waiting their turn.

Over the course of time, the capacitated sperm will die - capacitated sperm don’t live too long after they lose their cap. So when Dr. Shettles makes the claim that “Y sperm don’t live as long“, what he was really observing was the early deaths of capacitated sperm. Capacitated sperm DO die sooner than uncapacitated sperm, but X and Y sperm live the same length of time! It is VERY likely that there always going to be SOME X and SOME Y among the capacitated and incapacitated sperm (although we do not know this for a fact and this ~may~ be something that does sway gender.)

It is totally and completely impossible for anyone to look through a microscope and tell the difference between X and Y sperm. If they could, we would have no need for Microsort and PGD. Dr. Potter or Dr. Sher or any RE could simply, at a glance, pick out X and Y sperm (and they would LOVE to be able to do this because it would make high tech gender swaying much more affordable and bring them tons of new business!!) But they cannot tell the difference between X and Y sperm by looking at them through a microscope. It is impossible to do, which is why they use Microsort and PGD!!! So whenever you read anything about timing that claims that X sperm are big and slow and live a long time, Y sperm are small and fast and die quickly, it is ALL nonsense BS based on Dr. Shettles’ BIG mistake.

Interestingly, Dr. Shettles did manage to come up with a couple things that really DO sway gender - abstinence really DOES sway pink and releasing every 2-4 days really DOES sway blue, so it is very likely that his method was as succesful as it was because of this serendipitous suggestion. Sometimes, it is better to be lucky than good.

--X and Y sperm live the same length of time, swim the same speed, and are really pretty similar in size.

Seriously, for reals. The ONLY difference between X and Y sperm is the tiny little arm of the X chromosome which amounts to only 1% difference in amount of DNA. There are 22 other chromosomes in each sperm that are all pretty close to the exact same size - the arm of the X amounts to only ¼ of one chromosome!! If you don‘t believe it, read this What are the REAL differences between X sperm and Y sperm??

On some other sway sites, they make a claim that timing works not because of any size difference or life span but because X and Y sperm swim differently and many women claim to have seen this in a microscope. This idea is based on one study that was done in bull sperm, not human, and in vitro conditions that we have no way of knowing if they even translate into the body, and if so, how. Numbers of sperm in the sample seemed to have way more to do with how the sperm swam than any difference between X and Y sperm. The sperm were also sorted by Microsort before being studied and we have no way to know how much the Microsort procedure affected the sperm. Comparative motility of X and Y chromosome–bearing bovine sperm separated on the basis of DNA content by flow sorting - Penfold - 1998 - Molecular Reproduction and Development - Wiley Online Library

Not only that, but sperm by and large do NOT swim to the egg. They are mostly carried to the egg by currents of EWCM, muscle contractions, and the action of cilia lining the Fallopian tubes, and only need their swimming ability to make it into the cervical crypts and in a few areas like the junction between the uterus and Fallopian tubes. In fact, the fastest swimming sperm are often dead on arrival and incapable of fertilizing the egg.

This study is 13 years old and if there was anything useful in it, researchers would very likely have followed up on it by now (not even the researchers themselves seem to have followed up on this study??) Trained lab technicians with many years of experience cannot tell the difference between X and Y sperm (which is why they use Microsort). It is highly implausible that untrained laymen, especially ones who desperately want to see a particular result to "prove" that their sways are working, are able to see anything that highly trained experts in the field, are not.

--It doesn’t fit in with the biology and workings of the human body.

The entire female reproductive tract is designed to keep sperm alive inside of itself for as long as possible. It has lots of nooks and crannies for sperm to hide in, and all these little hiding places churn out tons of alkaline CM for several days before an egg even arrives. In this environment, sperm can live for 7 days and maybe even 10! The egg only lives for a maximum 24 hours after ovulation, and in many cases, more like 12 hours (and the egg deteriorates for some time before dying and may not be receptive to sperm). Given this design, it is likely that most of the people ever born on the planet were from sperm that was in the reproductive tract BEFORE the egg arrived. If humans could only get pg from BD right at ovulation, the reproductive tract would just be a straight tube with no nooks and crannies for sperm to get lost in, and the egg would come out very close to the vaginal opening.

If you could only or even just mostly conceive a boy from one BD right at ovulation, but conceived mostly girls the other days of the fertile window, the world would be disproportionately female-heavy, but instead, it’s actually the other way around, with 140-160 boys conceived for every 100 females, dropping to 106 boys born for every 100 girls.

Maybe people just DO IT more on O day trying to get pregnant, so that means more boys are conceived that day than all the other days put together ? Maybe not. Humans, unlike all other animals on the planet, have a little quirk called hidden ovulation. We don’t come into visible heat like animals do and we can have intercourse at any time. Because of this, people could not even PREDICT ovulation until very recently, so pregnancies occurred from BD on totally random days during a 5-7 day window when females are fertile enough to keep sperm alive until the egg arrives, rather than from a concerted effort at pregnancy on O day. Just from sheer statistics, even if double the amount of conceptions happen from BD on O day, that would leave all the other days of the fertile window for sex to take place on. That would still mean way more girls than boys conceived, if timing swayed in any way at all.

--But there are STUDIES!

Some studies seem to show that timing sways. However, there are also studies that show that DTD with a long cutoff makes more boys than girls. Other studies find more girls on O day. It is extremely likely that the reason why these studies do not agree, is because there is NO pattern there to find. Take 50 people and give them quarters to flip, and repeat this process several other times, and you will have MANY times when there are more heads than tails or vice versa! If there really WAS anything whatsoever to timing, these studies would all be in agreement. Timing is the most studied aspect of gender swaying by far and if there was anything to it, it would have been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt by now.

Beyond sheer luck, several of the studies that claim to support timing, used different protocols for couples who wanted boys and girls. For boys, the couples naturally ovulated and then had IUI done on O day (I assume to ensure that fertilization on O day really occurred.) For girls, the couples were given Clomid and told to have intercourse 2-4 days before ovulation. The problem with this is that IUI sways blue by bypassing the entire female reproductive tract (and sperm are washed and capacitated in advance, possibly removing some chemicals that may sway, and also recall that the capacitation process and primitive communication between sperm may sway in some way as well). Clomid sways pink by creating hostile cervical mucus that then sperm would have to live in for 2-4 days before the egg arrived!! You are supposed to CONTROL variables in studies, not introduce new ones!! The methodology used by the people who did these studies, is akin to telling people, ok Group A, you wear a blue hat and eat a lot of fatty foods and sugar, and Group B, you wear a pink hat and eat only vegetables and whole grains, and then concluding that blue hats clearly make you have heart attacks while pink hats are preventative.

Some of the other studies did not accurately pinpoint O (and even took place before it was really understood HOW to pinpoint O!!) or relied on self-reported information and these studies are TOTALLY useless. You cannot tell people (especially people who desperately WANT to achieve a certain result, like people with gender disappointment) that they need to do something that may be difficult to do (like abstaining for 14 days or temping every day) as part of a study, and then rely on the info that they then provide to be in any way accurate. Some people keep secrets from the researcher if they think the researcher will be “mad” at them, and others really legitimately want something so much that they may remember things wrong, so they may subconsciously decide they Oed a day later or earlier than they really did. If they forgot to temp one day, they may fill it in anyway in the pattern that they think it “should“ have been, if they DTD on the wrong day they may fudge that info or simply erase it from memory. Even researchers themselves have not been above altering and misrepresenting information.

Spending a day or two on the gender swaying forums will clearly demonstrate that even with a pretty high level of technology and understanding (BBT, OPK, and the ability to track our temps online), it is REALLY tough to pinpoint O even for those of us who are pretty knowledgeable about it. Most of these studies were done with antiquated technology that are not reliable predictors of ovulation anyway. Some even just had women BD on CD 14 for boys and we all know that is totally unreliable because we can O on many different days.

The best studies we have at our disposal do not find any correlation between day of intercourse and gender of baby conceived. MMS: Error

--But I KNOW some people who swear timing worked for them.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that these people really did get the timing exactly spot on (which they probably didn’t). Timing has supposedly seemed to sway for some people; whether that was because of luck or because abstinence and missionary with no female O sways pink and BD every two days, doggy style with female O seems to sway blue, who knows. IF timing sways, it has to be for some REASON and not a magical, mystical, quality of a certain day.

Maybe it’s dryer CM, maybe it’s sperm count, or many other things - because remember, it can't be that X sperm are big and slow and live a long time, that was Dr. Shettle's BIG mistake. Perhaps instead, it’s that the majority of women have hostile CM on certain cycle days and that sways pink, or that the majority of women who BD on O have more EWCM and that EWCM sways blue. Isn’t it smarter to focus on actually doing the things that really sway, instead of expending this massive effort trying to do timing? Because, if you’re not one of the people in that majority, if you have copious amounts of EWCM 3 DBO, and you rely solely on timing, it won’t work! If you have girls because you have low pH, dry, hostile mucus, you could BD on O day from now until menopause and get girls.

You cannot use your past cycles to predict what your future cycles will be anyway! So even if you really believe with all your heart and soul that timing will sway for you on the basis of all your previous cycles, start taking saw palmetto or L-arginine and watch your cycle change before your very eyes.

Not only that, but all the people who swear timing worked - we have no way of knowing what else they had going on in their lifestyles or bodies that may have swayed for them. The woman who told me about timing and swore by it, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer right after her daughter was born (she thankfully recovered). Seems very likely to me that the early stages of cancer probably sways a lot harder than DTD on any particular day ever could.

Point being, we cannot know how accurately people even DID timing, if it does work for some people it may not work for you, and it may only seem to work because the people who tried it, have other issues going on that swayed for them. Plus, we can accomplish all the exact same things that timing MIGHT do, in other, better, more reliable ways.

--It actually really DOESN’T make any sense at all. WHY would timing even sway??

Seriously. Think about it for a minute. I suppose Dr. Shettles chalked this up to just an accident of big and small sperm, but Dr. Shettles was wrong. Scientists now believe that the reason why gender swaying is possible is because it gives a small advantage to whatever gender offspring has the best odds of survival, a pretty awesome thing either designed into us by God or else fashioned over millions of years of natural selection. Why the HECK would the day you have sex, matter in any way whatsoever to the survival odds of your child? Boys need more calories and nutrients of all sorts from the moment of conception thru adulthood. If your body didn’t have enough calories to grow a healthy baby boy on Thursday, does it make any logical sense whatsoever that by having sex Saturday instead, he would be any better off?

Conception, pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding are VERY dangerous, risky, “biologically expensive” undertakings for the female of any species. It was not at all uncommon for women to die in childbirth even as little as 100 years ago and it was just as risky regardless of whether you delivered a big, healthy baby or one that didn‘t have such a good chance at survival (infant mortality used to be unbelievably high - more than half of all babies born, died before they turned one). Our genes did not survive for countless generations by taking such a major risk to our lives based on something as arbitrary as the day of the week you had sex on.

Virtually everything our bodies do, is for the reason of keeping us alive and helping us pass down our genes to future generations, and keeping that fact in mind, timing makes NO SENSE because it could actually KILL you to conceive a baby with no shot of survival - a huge risk for no benefit! ANY baby could kill you as little as a century ago and so your body didn't want to take that risk for a child with less than the best shot at survival. Even your living children would be more likely to die without a mother to care for them - that is a genetic dead end!! It makes much more sense that our genes would “want” to sway gender not out of sheer luck, but because of real tangible things that would help your them best survive to get handed down to future generations.

--But it can’t hurt, right??

People figure, well, ok, so timing may not work and may be just a bunch of hoo-hah but still, I want to include everything in my sway and timing can’t hurt so I want to do it anyway.

But actually, it really DOES hurt sways all the time!!

For blue swayers: The entire idea of swaying blue is based around the idea that you’re boosting fertility. With that in mind, blue swayers, by all rights ought to be getting pg more quickly than they have in the past (and certainly quicker than pink swayers!) But something is going seriously wrong because blue swayers are going for months and months without conceiving. The insistence on boy timing is one of those things. Studies have indicated that for best results getting pregnant, it’s better to have intercourse 1-2 days BEFORE ovulation, not rely on one attempt on O day. The sperm may take some time to get where it needs to go and capacitate in enough numbers to find that eggo before it deteriorates and can no longer be fertilized.

The longer you go on not getting pregnant, the longer you have to stay on diets/and supps that are really not great for you. I personally do not think that eating ghastly levels of sodium, drinking baking soda water, and eliminating calcium entirely from your diet, is in any way good for you, your fertility, and may even reduce your odds of conceiving a son over the course of many months. Additionally, many women end up gaining too much weight on IG or HE Diets by staying on them for several months. Gaining a little weight will help your sway, but gaining too much weight may actually backfire and sway pink, if you gain so much that you actually suppress your fertility.

Also, if my “high sperm numbers at egg sway blue” theory is true, you are putting yourself at a major disadvantage with only one attempt at O. If you had two or even three attempts in your fertile window, when you have optimized your environment for best sperm survival thru diet and supps, you would be sure to increase numbers of available sperm in your reproductive tract. Do not worry about swaying pink by having more than one attempt! For frequent release to sway pink, it has to be 7-10 days in a row without skipping any days. DTD 2 days in a row WILL NOT SWAY PINK.

For pink swayers: The stress and level of attention to detail involved in timing methods is among the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels. You have to undertake this huge project, take your temp, track it on paper, obsess over every little nuance of it, and for what? Something that does not even sway for you at all!!!

In addition, by doing these long cutoffs (some people do 4 and 5 day cutoffs - you can get pg that way when you are very fertile, but when you’re doing things to sway pink, your environment will be a lot more hostile to sperm and they will have a much harder time surviving), you make it very difficult to conceive. The longer you go on not getting pregnant, the longer you have to stay on the diet and supps, and the more stressed out people tend to get. Their testosterone may go up from stress and then after one or 2 BFN, they start dropping things, and usually they start with diet because it’s the hardest to stick to, and go from there. Diet really sways for real, biological reasons. If nothing else, DO DIET!

Also, I have not really mentioned O+12 in this essay but O+12 makes it next to impossible for many people to get pg. Many eggs (esp. in older women) do not even LIVE 12 hours after ovulation and they are certainly not in the greatest condition at the end of their lifespan. And you may as well take a birth control pill as try for an O+16 or O+20. Anyone who claims they got pg at O+20 either messed up on calculating ovulation or else released two eggs that month and hit the second egg. And the people who do cutoff and O+12 - they almost certainly got pg from the cutoff BD and not the O+12 and that is true regardless of what they say, think or believe. Remember, your entire reproductive tract is designed to conceive using sperm already in your body before ovulation even occurs.

The longer you go on not getting pregnant, the more the diet takes a toll and if you do end up losing too much weight too quickly, you can interfere with your ovulation. It’s much much better to hit it hard on diet for a couple months and get pg fast, than to linger on for ages on the diet while driving yourself insane chasing after sway tactics that don’t even work.

--Yes, but I have to do the opposite!!

No, you DON’T have to do the opposite. If timing doesn’t sway, that’s NOT what got you boys in the first place. I have seen SO MANY people claim they conceived on “boy timing” only to find out that they BD every two days (which is boy frequency and they prob. had more than one attempt in their fertile window anyway, and who knows which BD was even the one that yielded the baby) or “girl timing” only to find out that they did abstain (which sways pink!). It is often the frequency that is swaying, not the day you DTD on. Not only that, but really, unless you had an ultrasound at the moment your egg released, or a trigger shot to make you release an egg, you really DO NOT know when exactly you Oed. You may have Oed early, late, released two eggs and hit only one, etc. You CANNOT pinpoint the moment of ovulation based on O pains, OPK, temps, cervical texture, CM, or anything else.

Plus, people always disregard all the other things they had going on that were boy friendly and focus solely on timing. I know that with my DS 1 and 3 in particular, I may as well have been DOING a boy sway for them because my diet was so boy friendly it was ridiculous! That I conceived both of them from BD before ovulation, sure didn’t make them girls!

Look at it this way - if you don’t lose weight on the Atkins diet, there is usually a REASON for that. Maybe your thyroid is screwed up, maybe you have lousy metabolism from years of crash dieting, maybe you ate too many calories overall, maybe you needed to exercise more, maybe you didn’t really understand the Atkins diet and ate too many vegetables when you weren’t supposed to, or whatever. Maybe you even cheated on the Atkins diet and are conveniently forgetting those times. It wasn’t because the Atkins diet “doesn’t work” for you and you have to do the opposite and so therefore you need to start eating nothing but birthday cake at every meal. That won’t work either and will just make things worse! You cannot just treat the symptoms if the disease is still running rampant (not that having sons/daughters is a disease!!) and you for sure can’t just put a pretty bandage on your flesh-eating strep infection! Even if it makes you feel good inside, like you’re “doing something”, a pretty bandage does not cure anything, and timing doesn’t sway. You have to treat what is really swaying for you, or your sway won't work.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:52 PM

The Exercise Enigma - both genders
http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1411-exercise-enigma-both-genders.html

Exercise while swaying is a complex and confusing issue. But when used wisely, it is an invaluable weapon in your swaying arsenal.

THE EXERCISE ENIGMA

Exercise can sway pink OR blue, depending on your body type and metabolism, your diet, how much and what type of exercise you do, and how it affects your body (both your genetics and your life history can change the way exercise affects you). You cannot just look at one type of exercise and say, yes, this sways pink for everyone all the time, or another type of exercise and say, this sways blue 100%.

If you read on any websites that "cardio sways pink" and "weightlifting sways blue", this is WRONG. This info originally came from me and even though I tried to explain it more thoroughly, I think people felt like they had to simplify it and came up with that blanket prescription. But it doesn't work that way and just following those directions will hurt your sway (esp. pink swayers!!)

ANYTHING that grows muscle mass sways blue. ANYTHING that shrinks it, sways pink. Cardio can totally improve your muscle mass and excessive weightlifting will shrink it (this is called overtraining and it's the reason why weightlifters only lift twice a week). Even not exercising at all can affect your muscle mass in a positive or negative way!

HOW IT WORKS -

Your growing or shrinking muscle mass sends a signal to your body that times are good for producing one gender or another...if you are physically dominant, fighting and winning, and gaining weight and have access to lots of good food, your testosterone levels will be on the increase and you'll be more likely to conceive a boy. If your body believes you are not physically dominant and/or are having to fight constantly just to survive and are losing those fights (your body interprets intense physical activity WITHOUT an increase in food intake as losing a competition for resources), if you're losing muscle mass and eating a lower protein, lower calorie, lower nutrient diet, your testosterone levels will drop and you'll be more likely to conceive a girl.

Aside from raising testosterone, exercising A LOT also can acidify you. This is because when you exercise, your body first burns off all available carbohydrates in your body, then after the carbs are gone, it begins to burn fat, then after 45- 60 minutes, muscle. The byproducts of burning muscle are highly acidic.

Also, electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium) are lost through sweat and so swayers may end up further reducing their levels of these minerals by exercise.

EXERCISE FOR A BOY -

Moderate exercise with emphasis on muscle building. 45 minutes of cardio OR weight training OR both, 4-5 days a week. OR, you can split your exercise up into 30 minutes in the morning and 30 at night (that can be a way to fit in more exercise without running the risk of the acidity and burning of fat/muscle for fuel, that you get by exercising longer than 45 minutes).

Great exercise videos for blue include Tae Bo and the Firm - they focus on building muscle and cardio fitness at the same time. Tae Bo is a 60minute workout but part of that is warmup and cooldown and so it doesn't really "count" as a full 60 minute workout. Walking steps/doing step exercise programs are good because they provide cardio and the stepping works the large muscles of your lower body.

Diet tips - High protein, high calorie, high nutrient, high intake of GOOD fats will help build that muscle mass. Aim for 2300 calories a day or more.

Weight gain/loss -

If you are on the thin side, you will need to gain weight. Even just 3-5 pounds of muscle in the months before swaying will make a difference.

If you are very heavy, try to maintain your weight (don't lose weight) while building muscle mass. It is TOTALLY possible to gain muscle without losing a pound.

The benefits of doing nothing - if you are a person who has a lot of girls and have always exercised to excess, it is time to give your body a break. Exercise much less and at much less intensity, or if that is difficult for you (you have exercise bulimia), stop all together. You should STILL try and gain 3-5 pounds and eat a high-protein, high nutrient, high calorie, high good fat diet, because this will help your muscles heal and recover. If it takes you several months to get pregnant, you SHOULD resume moderate exercise after a brief (no longer than 6 weeks) recovery period or you risk losing muscle mass.

EXERCISE FOR A GIRL -

Option One - intense, excessive exercise. MINIMUM of 60 minutes a day, 6-7 days a week (and yes, it does need to be in one block if at all possible because of the acidic by-products and also so you stop burning carbs and begin burning fat/muscle for at least part of the workout). Push yourself. Straight cardio without weights is best but if you need to add some light weights in order to get a really taxing workout, you should. Use the lightest weight needed to achieve the results.

If you never exercise, this is the route you should go.

Option two - do nothing. In 3 days without exercise, your muscle begins to shrink. In 6 weeks without exercise, you can lose up to 60% of muscle mass.

If you are very very fit and muscular to begin with, this is the best option for you, because you won't be able to challenge yourself enough. And if you find that you can't really stick to the intense exercise, STOP exercising right away and do nothing. Be honest with yourself about how much you're exercising because moderate exercise WILL sway blue.

Diet tips - low calorie, low protein, low nutrient, emphasis on carbs. Aim for 1500-1800 calories and 40-50 grams of protein.

Weight gain/loss - if you are at all able to, LOSE weight. Even just a few pounds will help. You will ensure you actually have lost muscle mass that way. If you weigh 85 lbs obviously do not lose weight, but be honest with yourself - even at 110, most people can drop one or two pounds and it will help your sway.

The benefits of doing nothing - as mentioned above, your muscle will begin to shrink in just 3 days and you can lose a lot of muscle mass in 6 weeks. But keep in mind that just day to day things like walking, lifting children, etc. do give your muscles somewhat of a workout.

I think the excessive, intense exercise is ~best~ for pink but no exercise is much better than moderate exercise!! So be honest with yourself and if you aren't able to exercise 60 minutes a day, 6-7 days a week, stop exercising. Also, if you know that you are losing too much weight or that you WILL lose too much if you do this level of exercise, it's better to do no exercise. Overexercise with weight loss can suppress your ovulation too far and make it stop all together.

Regardless of the amount you exercise, if you are losing weight on a low protein diet, your muscle will be shrinking. No one should stop going for walks with their children or anything so extreme! Remember, swaying needs to fit into your life and not the other way around.

An interesting observation - When I was swaying with DS 4, I lost a lot of weight but I still had a great deal of muscle mass in my arms and legs. I then gained a bunch of weight when I was pregnant with him and I've lost it all over again. But this time I have found that my arms and legs are much flabbier and less muscular than before. (and obviously I hadn't lost enough muscle when I conceived him!) So if you lose weight but find that you're still quite muscular, you may want to pull the plug on swaying and either lose MORE weight or try regaining some and losing it again to see if it helps.

Also, you can see that if you have had a failed sway, all is not lost. It may be that your body will act differently the second time around.

ETA - here's an interesting article I read about exercise and DH for swaying. Distance running & testosterone (http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0076.htm)

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:55 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2598-how-do-tbm-why-you-probably-shouldnt-do-gender-swaying.html

how to do TBM and why you probably shouldn't do it for gender swaying

What is TBM??

TBM stands for "turkey baster method", meaning a method of high-tech at home where your sperm donor, whoever that may be, gives a sample of sperm (either via masturbation or by using a sperm-safe condom) that you either then inject directly into your body (you don't actually use a turkey baster, unless it's Thanksgiving and you happen to have one handy) or treat with chemicals to alter the pH and then inject into your body as a gender swaying technique.

Who does such a thing and why? Well, there are two sets of people who do TBM. One is people who are trying to get pregnant by someone they don't want to have intercourse with...lesbian couples who want a baby for example, and situations in which a woman who is unable to conceive, allows her sister or friend to be artificially inseminated by her husband in order to have a child that is biologically related to her husband. TBM is effective and much more affordable than a sperm bank (but do be aware that STDs can be spread this way.)

The second group is people who want to manipulate, or alter, the pH of semen for gender swaying purposes.

The directions given work equally well for both groups - obviously if your main concern is getting pregnant, there are steps that you should skip in the process.

Is that even safe? As far as we know, the DNA of sperm cannot be altered once it has left a man's body, and TBM is believed to be safe. It is not believed to cause miscarriage or birth defects.

How successful is this??

Believe it or not, for straight pregnancy, TBM is pretty effective. Many people have gotten pregnant this way, including Melissa Etheridge's girlfriend Julie Cypher, who used TBM to conceive a child from David Crosby (twice!)

For gender swaying, since you are manipulating the pH of the semen, it can kill off sperm and make it more difficult to conceive. But, many people have used the method to get pregnant and some of them have gotten their DG. However, it is NOT a guarantee and it is not even certain if it is any better than swaying without TBM...if you really feel that you NEED a child of a particular gender, it is strongly suggested that you look into high-tech.

Atomic, why are you down on TBM for gender swaying??

A lot of people ARE doing TBM for gender swaying and if you really feel like it will work for you, go for it and I will help you however I can. But there are a couple of reasons why ~I personally~ don't think TBM is the way to go.

For BOTH and If you only use TBM for your sway, you are relying totally on pH to sway. If pH really sways in the way some believe it does, that is GREAT and you will have a fab sway from TBM alone. But, if there is more to swaying than pH, or if pH doesn't work in the way some people believe, then you may actually be harming your sway. (in the thread below - page 2 - I explained a bit about how pH might sway differently than the traditional sway believes it does.)

Also, even if you aren't only relying on TBM for swaying, TBM can seriously reduce your odds of pregnancy. The longer people go on without getting a BFP, the more likely it is that they will give up on things that have A LOT of science backing them up, primarily diet factors. And even if you are very very dedicated to diet and do it 100%, the longer you remain on a diet, the less "shocking" it is to your body and your natural body chemistry may start to overcome the effects of the diet. It may be that you end up trading something that is actually proven to work (the diet) for something that may not even sway (TBM).

For blue swayers, TBM reduces the number of sperm on hand to make it to the egg. ANY manipulation of sperm is going to end up killing some of them off. Lower sperm count seems to sway pink for the most part, so TBM may be less effective than simply DTD naturally.

For pink swayers, TBM is highly stressful and it is the detail-oriented, obsessive, success/failure kind of stress that raises testosterone and sways blue. I believe that this is the number one reason why pink sways fail - women get so "into" swaying and begin to see it as a challenge that they can "win" at and that mindset is PROVEN to raise testosterone.

Plus, it will reduce your odds of pregnancy quite a bit and every month that passes without a BFP, is another month that you'll have to stay on that TTC girl diet without cheating!!

How to do TBM

Equipment needed: clean glass cup or sperm-safe condom available here: http://www.fertilityformen.com/produ...33KhBg#condoms and a syringe/eyedropper/medicine dispenser available at drugstores.

For swaying pink you willl also need pH strips or digi tester and lime juice.

For swaying blue you will also need pH strips/digi tester, egg whites from a real chicken egg, NOT Egg Beaters, a Diva or Instead Cup - the Instead Cup is best because it sits nearer to your cervix, and also Pre-Seed.

First step for everyone - GET the sample! Have your sperm donor ejaculate either into a glass cup (don't use plastic or metal because they may have a harmful effect on sperm) OR you can also get a sample via intercourse, in a sperm-safe condom. You can buy sperm-safe condoms at the following link, but they are expensive and should be reserved for your attempt day. For practice, you can just use any non-spermicide, non-latex condom. http://www.fertilityformen.com/produ...33KhBg#condoms

Blue swayers, you may even want to have him ejaculate directly into your Diva/Instead Cup, if he can. This is to minimize the number of sperm you lose moving the semen from a cup/condom into the DC/IC.

For those who are only interested in conception, use a needle-less syringe, eyedropper, or children's medical dispenser (you can find these things at any drugstore) and suck up as much sperm as possible, inject the semen into your vagina, trying to get close to the cervix. Do this GENTLY so you do not damage any sperm. You may want to use a sperm-friendly lubricant like Pre-Seed first BUT EWCM is best, so you may want to time your insemination to coincide with your Peak Day of EWCM. You may wish to take Robitussin to increase CM. Prop your hips for 10 minutes afterwards and you may wish to have a female orgasm before, after, or both!! The more times you inseminate during your fertile period, the better your odds of pregnancy.

For pink swayers, first, check the pH of the sample. Add lime juice (or you can also use the vinegar/calcium douche mix) that has been warmed to body temp by carrying it in your bra for 10-15 minutes, drop by drop (check pH after each drop has been added, and this is where practice comes in handy - if you try it a few times you will develop a "feel" for how much lime you'll need to add) until you get a pH of 4.5-5 (some other sites recommend 4 but I feel that this is TOO LOW and will greatly reduce your odds of pregnancy - use your own judgement). You can kinda swirl the cup around a little bit.

This mixture is referred to as "splime".

Using a needle-less syringe, eyedropper, or medicine dispenser, insert your splime into your vagina. Do this GENTLY so not to damage sperm. Depending on how desperate you are to get pregnant, you may also choose to use an antihistamine (to reduce EWCM), a douche/lime tampon, spermicide, or one of the various jellies. You can either lay with your hips propped up for 15 minutes OR do a jump and dump. The more swaying techniques you add, the harder it will be to conceive (and remember, there are no guarantees even if you use everything.)

In terms of timing, you may want to BD one time only, using either a cutoff or an O+12, along with abstinence or frequent release BUT these things will reduce odds of pregnancy even further. For best odds of pregnancy you should inseminate many times during your fertile period but this is NOT normally part of a pink sway.

Alternatively, you can put your splime into a Diva or Instead cup and insert it. Leave it in for 90 minutes before taking it out and don't lie down during this time. This may increase your odds of pregnancy, but will also increase the numbers of sperm available to fertilize the egg (which may sway blue). The Diva Cup is better than the Instead Cup for TTC pink because it sits further from the cervix.

Before DH gives you a sample, you'll need to check the pH of your egg white. You want a pH of 9-9.9. If it is 10 or above ( editorial comment - I fail to see how 9.9 can be a pH that ANY sperm love if pH of 10 suddenly kills them - consequently I would err on the side of pH that is lower, more like 9 - but use your own judgement) then add a bit of Pre-Seed to the egg white to lower the pH to 9-9.9 and mix them together well with a fork.

Once you have the sample, put it into an Instead/Diva Cup. Add about as much egg white as you have semen, into the cup. If the egg white floats on top of the semen, that's great and insert the cup. If the two start to mix together, it's best to finish the job and mix them together right away, then insert the cup. Leave the cup in for 90 minutes and DON'T lay down during this time - you are trying to avoid mixing the semen and the egg white.

If you like, you can douche with baking soda an hour before (but you don't have to.) You can also use Egg White if you have no EWCM but EWCM is vastly preferable - you may want to take Robitussin to ensure you have some (it's best not to use Pre-seed in this instance because there is a large difference in pH between the egg white and Pre-seed). Try to have a female O as many times before and after inserting the cup as you can (but remember not to lie down )

For timing, you may want to DTD one time only either the day of ovulation or the day before. Try to maximize sperm count by having DH release every 3 or 4 days. He may want to increase his sperm's energy levels by drinking caffeine about an hour before your attempt.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:56 PM

Is douching safe?

You may have heard or noticed a warning label on every commercial douche package not to use during pregnancy? Plus, the US Health & Human Services Office (as well as Planned Parenthood & ACOG it seems) also advise against it:

"Can douching hurt my chances of having a healthy pregnancy?
It may. Limited research shows that douching may make it more difficult for a woman to get pregnant. In women trying to get pregnant, those who douched more than once a week took the longest to get pregnant.

Studies also show that douching may boost a woman's chance of ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is when the fertilized egg attaches to the inside of the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. If left untreated, ectopic pregnancy can be life-threatening. It can also make it difficult for a woman to get pregnant in the future."

And this is from the Drugstore. com website :

"An association has been reported between douching and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), a serious infection of your reproductive system which can lead to sterility and/or ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. PID requires immediate medical attention. PID's most common symptoms are pain and/or tenderness in the lower part of the abdomen and pelvis. You may also experience a vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding, nausea or fever. If you suspect you have PID, stop using this product and see your doctor immediately."

This sounds pretty scary so let's look a little closer at douching and safety.

To understand why douching can cause ectopic and serious infection, yet why it is safe for us to douche while swaying, we have to know a bit more about the history of douching.

For many decades during the 20th c. the vagina was seen as 'dirty' and so doctors advised their patients to be douching regularly. Some of the things they were using to douche with were downright dangerous chemicals. Bleach, Lysol, boric acid, ammonia, and dozens of other cringeworthy ingredients were included in preparations that were mass-marketed to women. This was just a part of the larger anti-female attitude of the times, which also included medically invasive childbirth procedures, giving women hysterectomies when they didn't need them, and discouraging breastfeeding.

Many doctors told their patients to douche once or twice a week or maybe just after AF, but some women, convinced by marketing campaigns designed to shame women into buying douches, took it to extremes and douched every day and also repeatedly after sex, using a considerable amount of force. As you can imagine, the equipment they used wasn't always clean, and just the fact that they were douching forcefully every day, and sometimes more, for years and years, led to irritation and infections.

This irritation and infection led to scarring in the cervix which led to infection and scarring in the uterus and Fallopian tubes. And scarring in the tubes is what causes the correlation between douching and ectopic pregnancies, because if there is scar tissue in the tubes, the bean simply can't make its way through the scar tissue to get to the uterus. It will find a cozy spot in the tubes and implant there.

It just seems very unlikely to me that enough quantity of a gently applied douche could manage to get through the closed cervix of a not-pregnant woman, all the way up through the uterus, then take a 90 degree turn into the Fallopian tubes with enough force to do anything at all to the bean. It would have to be shot up there like a fire hose to do that. Can douching introduce bacteria and fungi, certainly, but these microorganisms (like sperm) are microscopic and can fit thorugh the closed cervix anyway. It is INFECTION that causes the scarring and ectopic pregnancy, not douching.

37% of all women douche at least once a month, and yet the rate of ectopic pg is roughly 2 in 100 (some of whom do not douche) - meaning that most women who douche, even douche regularly, never have an ectopic and plenty of women who have never douched in their lives still get an ectopic pg. If you have PID, inflammation, infection, and scarring which can be caused or aggravated by chronic and frequent douching, then that raises your risk of ectopic 10 times.

But we aren't going to be douching every day for years and years, we will douche gently before a few of our attempts for a few months at most, and then we might use a small amount of an after solution that is not applied with any force at all, and of course we will make very sure our equipment is scrupulously clean. This is just not at all the same circumstances that lead to ectopic pregnancy.

Also, sway-related douching is done right around O...the fertilized egg doesn't even arrive to implant in the uterus until AFTER ovulation. Eggs are fertilized in the Fallopian tubes and then journey to the uterus to implant, days after any douching has been done.

Then why the stern warning about douching during pregnancy? On another site, there was a bit of dangerous misinformation being handed out, that it was because douching caused yeast infections during pregnancy. NOT TRUE. Douching can indeed cause yeast infections, as can swaying (this link will help manage yeast infections while swaying) http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ast-infections

But the warning against douching during pregnancy has nothing to do with yeast infections. Later on in pg your cervix begins to open up and it would be much easier to introduce bacteria/fungi into your uterus by douching (way more serious ones than yeast) . Also, if you had a rupture of your membranes and then douched, that would be disastrous for the baby. And of course, douching carries with it the risk of irritation and scarring of the cervix. That's why you shouldn't douche during pregnancy, that's what the warnings are about.

We ONLY douche before you're ever even pregnant. Those warnings are not designed for anyone who's not pregnant yet.

So anyone who's worried that the douching for swaying purposes can somehow harm you or your soon-to-be conceived baby, the evidence indicates that it is very safe.

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/895-douching-safe.html

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 04:57 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/465-complete-guide-swaying-yeast-infections.html
complete guide to swaying and yeast infections

Whether you're swaying blue or swaying pink, yeast infection is an issue for all of us to be aware of.

There is a little yeast fungus living in your vagina all the time, but it's usually held in check by good microorganisms that live in there. Whenever the environment changes (either more acidic OR more alkaline), that kills off some of these friendly critters, and if your diet at that time is yeast friendly, this gives food for the yeast to grow. Since there's less competition for the yeast organisms because of the changes in pH, they overgrow and that's when you get a YI.

To help prevent this from happening, if you are swaying pink, you may want to include acidophilus as a part of your TTC plan, and also eat a lot of the yogurt with natural cultures in it. This will provide more competition for the yeast and make it less likely they will overgrow. But be aware that some people are actually made more alkaline by acidophilus - perhaps they already had an underlying yeast infection and yeast releases acids as part of its life cycle - so you need to check ahead of time to see how it will affect you.

If swaying blue, garlic is an excellent addition to your TTC plan. Garlic is antimicrobial and in addition to killing off yeast, it also helps your blue sway by raising your testosterone levels and raising pH. It may even help make you healthier overall by eliminating bacterial infections throughout your body that you may not even have known your immune system was fighting...and healthy women have more sons!! Fresh garlic is much more effective than garlic pills.

For all swayers - Make sure everything is very, very clean. Sanitize your equipment with boiling water before you use it (be sure to let it cool to room temperature, you don't need to use the equipment when it's still hot!!).

Be sure to keep your undergarments scrupulously clean. Even if you have to change panties 2 or 3 times a day. This is especially important if you're trying to increase your EWCM as part of a blue sway. More secretions = more moisture, and moisture helps these organisms to grow. Do not wear thongs and at night, you may want to sleep without wearing underwear at all.

If this is an ongoing issue for you, do not eat a lot of sugar and bread, this feeds the yeast organisms.

You can treat a yeast infection either with an OTC medication or by applying plain yogurt, the kind with natural cultures in it. Surprisingly, the yogurt works just as well as the cream does, for many people. If you've just ovulated, you should have enough time to treat your symptoms and still try again the next month, but if you get the infection in the two weeks prior to ovulation, it's best to skip TTC that month and try again the next month.

Yeast infection isn't dangerous at all, most women get them once in a while. The only thing to be aware of is a UTI (urinary tract infection), that is when organisms begin to live in your urethra and bladder. If this were to happen you would have a lot of burning and feeling like you had to pee a lot. Drinking a lot of water and cranberry juice (good for ttc pink anyway) can help to prevent UTIs, as can drinking lots of water and eating fresh garlic (good for ttc blue).

If you do get a UTI, your doctor can give you medicine that will cure it. You should stop swaying while you use the medication because it can affect your sway in unpredictable ways.

Yeast is not bacteria, it is a fungus. If you have a bacterial infection, that is a different thing entirely and you need to see a doctor right away for antibiotics (note - antibiotics sway blue.) Symptoms of bacterial vaginosis are similar to a yeast infection, but with a greenish or grayish discharge, and a very, very strong and foul odor coming from the vaginal area. Some people can have bacterial vaginosis without having any itching or burning, so if you notice any discharge or odor that is worrying, see a doctor right away.

Yeast actually do create an acidic by-product as part of their life cycle, and some people actually speculate that they WANT a yeast infection because they think it will sway pink. But the problem is that it is too variable to rely on for swaying...your body wants to get rid of the yeast and so it raises its pH as a result, trying to eradicate the infection.

IN a nutshell, higher pH does not cause YI, lower pH does not cause YI, CHANGES in pH cause YI. You need to treat the yeast before continuing to sway.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 05:22 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1723-getting-started-opks.html
getting started with OPKs

When researching OPKs, I found that there is already a lot of extremely well-written and easy to understand info on OPKs out there. Rather than totally reinvent the wheel, here are some links that will help with OPKs.

Pee On A Stick ~ OPK Overview (http://www.peeonastick.com/opks.html) (general info and different brands)
POAS ~ OPK FAQ (http://www.peeonastick.com/opkfaq.html) (FAQ and how to)
POAS ~ OPK Odyssey (http://www.peeonastick.com/opkodyssey.html) (this is a really great bunch of photos of a lot of negative and some positive OPKs)

Ovulation Predictor Kit Questions and Answers (http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/fertile.html) (FAQ)
http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com...tor-tests.html (user guides)
How Do Ovulation Tests Predict Most Fertile Period? (http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/results.html) (how do OPKs work)
http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com...ctor-kits.html (reading results)
Calculate When to Begin Ovulation Testing (http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/calendar.html) (when to start using OPKs)
http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com...veresults.html (more q and A about OPKs)

Trying To Conceive Q&A (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/...s--OPKs--.html) (FAQ and how to)
Trying To Conceive Q&A (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/...itive-OPK.html) (can you o without seeing a positive OPK?)
Trying To Conceive Q&A (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/...ovulation.html) (how long after a positive will I ovulate?)
Trying To Conceive Q&A (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/...ovulation.html) (advantages of using OPKs)

There is also excellent and clear info on the TCYOF site but to be honest, it has SO MANY ADS that even though I have the highest speed internet available it still takes too darn long to load up.

Also, if you Google OPKs on the "image" setting, you will get TONS of great pics to look over so you will learn what you're looking for.

Sites where you can buy OPKs and other equipment for TTC -

http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com...tiontests.html

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 05:56 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/2ww-gathering-place/1196-signs-symptoms-early-pregnancy.html
signs and symptoms of early pregnancy

Are you a nervous wreck waiting to test? You may be able to tell if you're pregnant days before you can POAS.

Fatigue - One of the earliest signs of pregnancy for many of us is sheer, mind-numbing exhaustion. Since a lot of moms feel that way on a daily basis anyway, this is kind of a tough one to notice!

Sore, tingling breasts - When I was TTC my third son, I was getting something out of my car and I barely hit my breast on the car door. But I had a huge amount of pain and tingling and I knew then and there I was pregnant, even though I hadn't even missed my period yet. If you're breastfeeding, you may not notice this, but you may notice you are suddenly making less milk or nursing has become painful.

Spotting and cramping - 10-14 days after conception, you may experience a little spotting as the egg implants in your uterus. Or you may have mild to severe menstrual-like cramps.

Nausea and vomiting - Usually these symptoms come along a little later in pregnancy, but if you're expecting twins it can strike quite early!! Sensitivity to smell is also a very early sign for some.

Food aversions, cravings, changes in appetite - if you're suddenly grossed out by the thought of chicken or eating massive amounts of chocolate, that can be a sign that you're eating (or not eating) for two!

Feeling lightheaded - Your blood vessels dilate and this can lead to low blood pressure and dizziness, even fainting if you get up too quickly.

Moodiness - This is one symptom you can't really trust, because many of us get moody right before our periods anyway. Still, it can be a sign of pregnancy.

Constipation - For some of us, this is one of the earliest signs we experience. Progesterone affects the intestines and makes them work more slowly.

Headaches and migraines - Headaches and hormonal migraines are extremely common in early pregnancy. Even if you've never had a migraine before, you may experience them in early pregnancy. This may be a result of the lower blood pressure and dilated vessels.

Vaginal discharge - You're already beginning to form a mucus plug in your cervix that will be with you for the next 9 months - along with a mild but noticeable discharge.

Frequent urination and thirstiness - These two things go hand in hand with pregnancy and can start very early on.

Changes in sexual appetite - You may want to DTD more or want your husband as far away as possible.

Heartburn, varicose veins, hemmorhoids, sciatica, pelvic pain - For those of us who have had several pregnancies, we may begin to experience the aches and pains caused by relaxin (the hormone your body releases that allows your tissues to stretch enough to allow a baby to pass through the birth canal) very early on.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 05:58 PM

ovulation pain and spotting - in depth http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1678-ovulation-pain-spotting-depth.html

Mid-cycle ovulation pain is surprisingly common, affecting about twenty percent of women regularly and up to half of all women have experienced it at least once. When it becomes severe enough to interfere with life (to the point where at times it is mistaken for appendicitis) it's referred to as mittelschmerz, from the German word for “middle pain.” However, this term has kinda become the basic term for any ovulation pain, even milder cases.

The pain may be caused by many factors. First, the ovary swells as ovulation approaches and 15-20 eggs in each ovary are racing to develop. Then, when the largest egg is released, a twinge or popping sensation may be felt, accompanied by pain as blood and follicular fluid from the ovary is released. This fluid can cause painful irritation of the abdominal wall.

Your individual biology - the amount of space in your abdominal cavity and the amount of fluid you release along with your egg - can determine whether or not you have O pain or not. If you're on blood thinners like aspirin, cranberry, garlic, and fish oil, you may have more severe O pains than you ever have before. Also, many doctors and researchers believe that some women may have tubal and uterine cramping as their muscles spasm to circulate the cervical mucus, bringing sperm to the egg and moving the egg down the Fallopian tubes to the uterus.

If you've experienced a one-sided pain at mid-cycle, that begins as a sharp twinge (egg has broken free of the ovary) and diminishes into a dull ache (Fallopian tube is cramping and blood/follicular fluid is leaking into the abdominal cavity) for the next day or so, that was probably O pain. However, some women have mild to severe aching prior to the egg being released (ovaries are tender and swollen from the eggs it is developing) that is actually relieved when the egg breaks free.

The pain doesn't have to be one sided, either. 15-20 eggs form in both ovaries every month and only the best one or two is released, so if you tend to experience achiness prior to ovulation, you very well could feel it on both sides. Post-ovulation, your entire uterus may cramp in order to circulate cervical mucus and bring sperm nearer to the egg. Backache is another symptom that may indicate ovulation.

Occasionally, some women may experience nausea, diarrhea, and/or light spotting (usually a little pink EWCM) at the same time as O pain. The pantheon of ovulatory symptoms last for 6 to 8 hours but can last as long as twenty-four to forty-eight hours, particularly if you have released more than one egg. For some strange reason, O pain seems to be felt more often on the right side regardless of which ovary released an egg. The pain also may be aggravated OR relieved by intercourse.

Because it's possible to feel ovulation pain before, during, and after ovulation, it cannot be relied upon to help pinpoint ovulation. It's not even reliable to tell whether or not you ovulated. Even women who are very experienced with their cycles (ME!) have been fooled by fake O pains. However, if you experience spotting with ovulation, that is a much better indicator that ovulation has actually occured than just pain.

Painful ovulation, even when severe, does not cause or indicate infertility or cancer. However, some medical conditions can cause painful ovulation, such as PCOS or fibroids on the ovaries and these things CAN be signs of a larger issue with your body. Also, if you have pain that lasts for more than two days and ANY abdominal pain that is accompanied by a fever, you should seek medical care. Pain should never be ignored, if you are in any way concerned about anything happening with your body, SEE A DOCTOR!!

To relieve O pains, you can use a heating pad, take a warm bath or shower, or take some Tylenol (taking blood thinning pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofin will only cause more bleeding from the ovary and may aggravate the pain). Intercourse with female orgasm can help some people, but others find that the actual act of penetrative intercourse is too painful.

One interesting link I stumbled across tells how to use acupressure to relieve ovulation pains - hey, it can't hurt! How to Relieve Ovulation Pain With Acupressure | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_5641993_reli...upressure.html)

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 05:59 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-girl-best-practices/1380-shettles-method-timing.html
Shettles method of timing

Shettles method of timing for boy and girl Part 1
HOW TO PREPARE FOR SHETTLES - please read the How-To for both genders because this method requires a working knowledge about what NOT to do as well. You may also want to read the O+12 section for the same reason.

You will need OPKs (ovulation predictor kits) and a basal body thermometer, OR a fertility monitor. It is helpful to be charting your cycle on Fertility Friends Ovulation Calendar and Ovulation Chart - Fertility Charting (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/) as far in advance as possible and you need to be familiar with the various types of cervical mucus. If your cycles are super regular and you already feel that you know what your patterns of CM are like, you don't absolutely need to chart, but it's best to chart for at least a month in advance just to give you an idea. Cervix Changes During the Menstrual Cycle - The Garden of Fertility (http://www.gardenoffertility.com/cervix.shtml)
http://www.beautifulcervix.com/cervi...tos-of-cervix/

With a cutoff, you can get away with charting only one month in advance. Try to take special note of how many days you have EWCM, how far in advance of ovulation it begins, and in fact just make as many notes as you can about the patterns of CM that you have prior to ovulation. If you are in a big hurry, buy a fertility monitor, they are very helpful with cutoffs (much more so than O+12)

The "Three Primary Fertility Signs" referenced in the excellent book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler Welcome to Taking Charge of Your Fertility (http://www.tcoyf.com/) and OPKs/fertility monitors, will be the key to pinpointing when you ovulate. Also read this essay for more about tracking your three primary fertility signs http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...osition-and-CM

In addition to the TPFS, you should also use an ovulation monitor/OPKs, and the data from previous cycles to help you determine when exactly you ovulate. Ovulation pains can help but should not be relied upon.

TPFS #1 - WAKING (Basal Body) TEMPERATURE: Take your temperature first thing in the morning and track the information on Fertility Friend. However, if you are woken up a lot in the night, wake up a different hours every day, drink alcohol, regularly forget to take your temperature, or even are just really cozy under the covers one day or chilled another, your temps can be screwy. That's why you need to chart, because you MUST observe your temperature trends on a day-to-day basis over a few months, and not just here and there, to truly understand what's going on. Also, be aware that temps don't warn you that you're ABOUT to ovulate, they only warn you AFTER you already have. And, for a very small percentage of women, temping is ineffective (but you can still use CM and position to tell ovulation).

Before ovulation, women's waking temps average between 97 and 97.7. After ovulation, your temps will sharply jump to 97.8 and higher and will stay that way throughout a pregnancy (you can tell if you're pregnant just by your temperature staying high for 18 days after ovulation, and if your temps drop you can tell if you're pregnant just by your temperature staying high for 18 days after ovulation, and if your temps drop suddenly that is not a good sign even if you have gotten a BFP).

Please note - the temps jumping up indicates that ovulation HAS ALREADY OCCURED. You can't rely on your temp shift to predict ovulation because by the time the temp goes up, the egg is most likely already dead by that point. That's where OPK's come in (more about that in a minute).

Some people may want to try taking a second temp in the evening (in the months ahead of your attempt) to help them better envision when exactly they ovulate. This has advantages and disadvantages, because your temps will not be reliable in comparison to your morning temps. Keep the two sets of temps separate and don’t be tempted to compare the two. They will follow similar but separate patterns and cannot be compared to one another.

CERVICAL MUCUS - As you get closer to ovulation you will observe that your cervical mucus begins to get wetter, thinner, and stretchy, like eggwhite. Each cycle will be different, but for all of us, every cycle, the closer we get to ovulation, the more fertile our mucus becomes. (link) Here are links to a couple of amazing, but very graphic sites where you can see actual photos of the female cervix throughout the month and you can see the difference in mucus quality. Cervix Changes During the Menstrual Cycle - The Garden of Fertility (http://www.gardenoffertility.com/cervix.shtml) http://www.beautifulcervix.com/cervi...tos-of-cervix/

Immediately after estrogen peaks and begins to drop, your progesterone will start to rise (your body assumes with every cycle that you have become pregnant and raises progesterone as a result.) Your cervical fluid will change abruptly. Even just a couple hours later the eggwhite mucus will have been replaced by a drier, more creamy CM, and if it was creamy to start with it may even be replaced by a sticky, dry mucus. (keeping in mind that for a girl, you WANT creamy CM, and for a boy you want eggwhite).

The downside of using CM is that if you are taking supplements to dry up CM (to sway pink), particularly antihistamines, you may not even HAVE any CM to check and you‘ll have to rely on the less-reliable sign of cervical texture to help pinpoint ovulation. And if you're taking Robitussin/Mucinex (to sway blue), you may have so much CM that it's impossible to tell where exactly you are in your cycle.

CERVICAL POSITION AND TEXTURE - Throughout your cycle, it is natural for your cervix to move higher and lower in your vagina and to be softer/firmer. (see above links if you want to help envision what these changes look like) Prior to ovulation your cervix will be firm, low, closed, and nonwet, which helps keep any foreign substances from entering the uterus. Around ovulation, your cervix will “SHOW“, that means it will be soft, high, open and wet (thanks to TCOYF for this handy acronym.) in order to allow CM to flow through and pregnancy to occur. This is the least reliable of the primary fertility signs because many things can affect the way your cervix looks and feels. Intercourse, pressure from stool in the rectum, even swelling from checking your cervix too much can all make it harder to judge what is going on. WARNING - Make very sure your hands are scrupulously clean when you check your cervix.

OPKS - These are little test sticks that detect LH (the hormone that makes the egg burst from the ovary)which surges prior to ovulation. You can buy them at many places online, drugstores, and even at the Dollar Store!! Start using them about three days before you expect to ovulate and follow the directions on the package to use and read them. You will ovulate between 8-48 hours after you get a positive, on average, 32 hours after, but you will get a 'fade in pattern' of sticks growing slightly darker as the LH surge approaches that can happen a day or two in advance of a truly positive OPK. WARNING - unlike with pregnancy tests, you do not use FMU (first morning urine) for OPKs. You should test in early afternoon for best results because that’s when the level of LH in your urine is highest.

OVULATION MONITOR - You can use an ovulation monitor to help you determine when you ovulate. This is a post in and of itself so I will just mention it for now. The different brands work in a variety of ways so just go off the directions that come with your monitor.

USING PAST CYCLES TO UNDERSTAND FUTURE CYCLES - IF your cycles are very regular, you can sometimes use your past charts to determine when you typically O. This is terribly unreliable, but it can help sometimes when you have very little CM, and it DOES help you learn the ropes of your body - you’ll be able to make the correlation between CM and cervix texture and in retrospect, it will help you understand the pattern that your body seems to follow.

OVULATION PAINS - aka mittelschmerz. Charting and monitoring your past cycles can also help you understand the different types of o pains. You may feel achy and tender before ovulation, followed by a sharp pain, popping, or twinging sensation at ovulation when the egg is released, and then cramping after ovulation as the Fallopian tubes contract to move sperm towards the egg and the egg down to the uterus. O pains will be felt on one side only unless you are ovulating from both ovaries that month. Further complicating matters is the fact that many people have cramps and tenderness in their uterus during ovulation as well. Don’t rely on them, but they can be a helpful secondary sign.

PART TWO

HOW TO DO A CUTOFF

FOR PINK

Firstly before you do anything, you must decide between a couple of options. Firstly, lower your husband’s sperm count, either abstaining for a minimum of 7 days prior to your cut-off attempt (not prior to O!) and preferably longer - many people have their husbands abstain for the entire cycle - or else by doing frequent release (and I mean FREQUENT - every day and preferably twice). You may even want to have him release once the morning of your attempt and DTD again later to further reduce sperm count. (this method relies on both timing and lowering sperm count to sway) OR secondly, you could DTD every day from AF until you decide to do your cutoff, stopping BD 2-3 days ahead of when you expect to ovulate, or when you get a positive OPK for a shorter cutoff of 8-48 hours depending on how long after your LH spikes. (This relies primarily on timing but your husband's sperm count will be lowered by DTD every day and it may help you get pregnant faster).

Regardless of what option you select, try to go as long as you possibly can without having a female O and taking supplements to reduce CM is a great idea.

4-2 days BEFORE your Peak Day of EWCM, you should DTD. Your Peak Day will be the day you have the most EWCM, usually the day you ovulate though the peak EWCM usually shows up a few hours in advance of ovulation so it may work out to be the day before. The Peak Day is usually the LAST day you have EWCM, you will be drying up by the next day. According to your previous month’s chart, you may notice that one-two days after your Peak Day, you will observe a temp shift, meaning ovulation is over for the month. You really can only tell this in retrospect, which is why charting ahead of time is so useful, you will be able to realize when in your cycle your Peak Day is.

If possible, make your attempt in the morning. Sperm count/quality is lowest in the morning.

Do NOT DTD again until you’re sure you’re no longer fertile. Use a condom until you have had three high temps on your chart.

The point is that you’re trying to DTD as far as possible from ovulation but still enabling conception to occur. You may notice a few days before O, that you go from having virtually NO CM to having a creamy CM. If you chart in advance, you may see a pattern develop where the creamy CM is around for a day or two before the EWCM - you CAN use this CM pattern to do a cutoff. Just plan for your attempt when your CM is creamy and hasn't turned to eggwhite yet.

OPKs to conceive a girl are really not that helpful for STRICT cutoffs, because by the time you get an LH surge it’s usually only 8-48 hours before O (average of 32 hours). But, if it’s helpful to you to use them and you’re not quite as concerned about timing, then DTD IMMEDIATELY after getting a positive. If you have a very regular cycle, start testing a few days before you expect O and if you have a more irregular one, wait until your CM starts to get wet (that way you won’t waste a bunch of expensive OPKs).

There is also a technique called the "Fade In Pattern" (thank you to babydust for suggesting this) If you start checking with your OPK's a few days in advance of needing them, you may observe a pattern where the OPK's begin to get darker as the LH spike nears. By crossreferencing with your chart, you may be able to use the darkening OPK's to determine how many days in advance of ovulation you are when your sticks start to get darker and you'll be able to use that info to plan a 2-3 day cutoff. A second way to use the Fade In Pattern (again thanks to babydust) requires the use of a digital monitor. Use the regular opks and watch them as they begin to darken, and begin also checking with your digital monitor. When regular opk's are almost, but not quite positive and the the digi opk is still negative, make your attempt then - IF you have checked on your chart and this is truly 2-3 days in advance of ovulating for you.

The Fade-In Pattern requires a bit of practice and it is not consistently effective for everyone every time. But the good thing is, even if you don't see your fade in for that month's attempt (meaning you suddenly have a positive on your OPKs or digital monitor and you were trying for a 2-3 day cutoff), you can always hold off on your cut-off and try for an O+12.

You can also use the fertility monitors that test for estrogen or chloride ions in addition to LH (such as Clearblue Easy) because they actually will give you advance warnings that you are gearing up to O before you have the LH spike. They are expensive though. Just use them as you would the Fade-In pattern -chart for a couple months and keep track of how long it seems to take you to ovulate in comparison to what the monitor tells you and then once you have a good feel for it, use that info to time your cutoff.

ABOUT 3-5 DAY CUTOFFS - Dr. Shettles thought that the longer the cutoff, the better. And this would ~seem~ to hold true with the idea of low sperm count swaying pink because most of the sperm would die off in that time. But longer cutoffs have had mixed results and some even believe that more boys are conceived with a long cutoff. No firm scientific evidence exists to support or debunk this idea. The truth is, 3-5 day cutoffs WILL prevent a lot of people from getting pregnant at all.

For BLUE

Firstly you need to do whatever it takes to raise sperm count overall and to produce copious amounts of EWCM to help as many sperm as possible survive.

Feel free to have sex with female O as much as possible during the early part of your cycle (days where your CM is dry). Then as soon as you see ANY CM whatsoever, even if it is sticky or creamy, DO NOT have intercourse on those days. DO continue to try to have as many female O’s as possible during this time, and your husband should ejaculate every 2-5 days to keep his sperm count and quality optimal. Optimal sperm count is achieved with intercourse every 2-6 days with intercourse every 2-4 days seeming to achieve the highest numbers of heathy and viable sperm.

Ejaculation from intercourse yields much higher sperm counts than masturbation, up to 70-120% more sperm than through masturbation, there is also a 25-45% greater amount of semen released and the sperm are healthier and more mobile. So if you are swaying blue and are tempted to try at-home HT, you may not want to, simply because your husband's sample will have lower sperm and semen than it would be if you had DTD.

And be very careful about (sorry this is a bit gross) not cleaning the vaginal area much when you shower in the days leading up to O (do not bathe). You want as much EWCM as possible onscene to help as many sperm as possible to survive.

For the actual cutoff itself, you are trying to time intercourse as close to ovulation as possible. A few hours before, a few hours after, but no longer than 4 hours after you ovulate should you DTD. Sperm quality is also best in the afternoon/evening as opposed to the morning.

Anyway, if you have them, look at your charts to determine how many days of EWCM you usually have. Take note of the Peak Day and have intercourse on what you believe to be your peak day. Most advise to DTD only once. Do not DTD unprotected again (you CAN use a condom although it's probably best just to abstain because the condom itself may kill sperm) until you're certain you're no longer fertile and you've had three high temps on your chart.

A NOTE ABOUT FREQUENT BD THROUGH O - Dr. Shettles believed that frequent BD through O swayed pink because more girl sperm lived and were onhand to fertilize the egg. This may or may not be true, but frequent BD through O or even just around O WILL help you get pregnant with a baby of either gender. (You CANNOT get your desired gender if you don't get pregnant, after all. ) So if you are doing a lot of other things that may make it very difficult to conceive, like drying up your CM and using gels or spermicide for pink, or if you are swaying blue but have fertility issues to begin with like low sperm count or hostile mucus, you may want to give it a try. But blue swayers, keep in mind that if you DTD every day, your husband's sperm count may be lower than it would be otherwise and you may not want to start doing frequent BD until right around O, so as to be more certain that the sperm numbers peak around ovulation.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:01 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1642-tracking-three-primary-fertility-signs-bbt-cervical-position-cm.html

Tracking the three primary fertility signs (BBT, cervical position, and CM)

First, a real quick overview of how our hormones rise and fall during our menstrual cycle.

Every cycle, your body plans to get pregnant. Getting pregnant is what our reproductive organs are designed to do and every fluctuation in our hormones is a part of this amazing process. The first hormone in this hormone cocktail our bodies brew up every month is FSH, or Follicle Stimulating Hormone. FSH triggers 15-20 eggs to start to mature in each ovary, each in its own separate follicle (The idea that the ovaries alternate producing eggs every other month has been debunked. Both ovaries develop eggs every month and the ovary that actually releases the egg is entirely arbitrary.) These follicles produce estrogen.

These eggs begin to race to see which follicle can grow the biggest. This race averages around 2 weeks but can vary, anywhere between 8 days to a month or even longer (as those with very long cycles can attest to). Ovulation occurs only when those follicles have built up enough estrogen to cross "the estrogen threshold". In addition to triggering ovulation, estrogen also causes the lining of the uterus to build up. We refer to this period of time as the follicular phase, pre-ovulatory phase, or AF-O (Aunt Flo/menstruation-ovulation)

When the levels of estrogen get high enough, LH (Luteinizing Hormone) is released in a sudden "surge". Whatever egg (or two) has won the race and is the biggest and best developed at the point of the LH surge, will now pop out of the ovary (usually within a few hours/day of the LH surge.) and head down the Fallopian Tubes shouting "Come and get me" to any sperm in the neighborhood. All the other eggs will now disintegrate and get reabsorbed by the body - this is called "attresia" for those of us who like to know such things.

The follicle that released the successful egg now undergoes a major change. It collapses and becomes what is known as the corpus luteum. It prevents the release of any other eggs (Obviously it is possible for another egg to emerge from the ovary and that's how twins are conceived, but this is always within a 24-hour period. It is probably impossible for a woman to release another egg weeks or months later and become pregnant again, despite some well publicized claims to the contrary.) The purpose of the corpus luteum is to produce large amounts of progesterone which sustains the thickening of the uterus until it breaks down 12-14 days later. This period of time is called the "luteal phase", or LP, or also the two-week wait/2WW. Once the corpus luteum breaks down, menstruation begins. (There is an excellent graphic that helps to visualize how the hormones fluctuate through the cycle available here Menstrual cycle (http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/m/Menstrual_cycle.htm))

Anyway, all this hormonal fluctuation causes a lot of physical symptoms going on with our bodies and we can observe and monitor these symptoms and use it to help us pinpoint ovulation, whether it be for using timing to try and conceive a child of a particular gender, or just so we know when to have intercourse to get pregnant. Tracking these symptoms is even highly reliable as a method of birth control if you are consistent with it.

There are many symptoms that go along with our cycles but three of them are very reliable and fairly consistent between all women. These are referred to as "the Three Primary Fertility Signs" (from Toni Weschler's excellent book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility). They are your waking (basal body) temperature (BBT), your cervical position (CP), and cervical mucus (CM).

We'll take these one at a time and see what they are and how they work, but a couple helpful links to get started - Ovulation Calendar and Ovulation Chart - Fertility Charting (http://www.fertilityfriend.com/) and Welcome to Taking Charge of Your Fertility (http://www.tcoyf.com/) both have interactive features where you can chart your cycle.

Primary Fertility Sign #1 - WAKING (BASAL BODY) TEMPERATURE (BBT)

This is considered the easiest sign to track for many people. After charting for a couple of months, you'll be able to tell if you've ovulated (temping cannot tell you if you're ABOUT to ovulate, only that you have, so for timing intercourse, you will need to use the other fertility signs as well and not just relyon temps), if it's safe to have unprotected sex if you're not trying to get pregnant, when to have intercourse if you're trying to get pregnant, when you'll get your period, and even if you're pregnant, all by taking your temperature once a day.

All you need to do is take your daily temperature first thing when you wake up in the morning and keep track of it either with written charts or online (see above websites for more info).

1. Take your temperature immediately upon waking up before you even get out of bed.

2. Try to take your temperature at the same time every morning. No sleeping in with this method. Temp even when menstruating.

3. Digital thermometers are usually best because you have to take your temp for 5 minutes with a mercury thermometer. DO NOT chart with an ear or forehead thermometer.

4. Most people get a good result from taking their temp. orally, but if you sleep with your mouth open you may not get consistent results this way. Taking your temp vaginally is more reliable. Whatever you choose, consistently temp this way, don't do oral temp. one day and vaginal the next because you cannot compare the two. Obviously if you are menstruating, you will have to skip these days if you temp vaginally. That's ok, you can still look at the overall pattern.

5. If you have a fever, drink alcohol intermittently, sleep with an electric blanket or heating pad or the window open (if you don't normally do so), get woken up a lot in the night, or take your temp at a different time than normal, your temperature will not be reliable that day.

6. To chart, it's best to record your temp right away so you don't forget.

7. Charting online is so much better and easier that I'm really not even going to talk about charting on paper. Use the Fertility Friend or TCYOF website, it makes it so much more easier and swaying is best when it's uncomplicated.

8. Ok, so you've charted. Now what?? You are looking for the overall pattern of what your temperatures do - that is why it is best to chart for a few months before using this method for pinpointing timing or for birth control. Early in the month when your egg follicles are churning out massive amounts estrogen, your temps will be on the lower side - for most people it will be in the low 97's but not for everyone. After ovulation, when the corpus luteum forms and starts producing progesterone, your temp will rise (for most people it's a sudden and obvious rise but for others it's more gradual.). Once the corpus luteum breaks down, your temp will drop again suddenly. If your temp stays up for 17 days or longer after ovulation, congrats! You're pregnant.

9. If you find that your temperature after ovulation only stays high for 11 days or less (esp. if you get your period less than 12 days after you ovulate) you may have a luteal phase defect that is preventing you from becoming pregnant. You need that progesterone to keep your uterine lining in good shape for at least 12 days after you ovulate so a fertilized egg can implant in your uterus. If your temps drop sooner than that and you think you may be having chemical pregnancies, let me know because there are ways to deal with that (essay forthcoming!)

(sorry I had to have a nursing break there LOL)

10. Temperature charting really is not terribly helpful for timing for gender selection (although it is extremely helpful to be able to look back and see patterns from previous months, they are not necessarily predictive of what will happen in FUTURE months). However, some women find they have a temp dip on the day of ovulation, so if you were trying for a boy OR for an O+12, that could be helpful.

Remember, for boy timing you want to DTD as close to O as you can, and for a girl, it should be either 2-4 days prior to ovulation OR 12 hours after.

11. Some swayers believe that if you are higher in estrogen overall, your temps will be lower than they usually are THROUGHOUT your cycle and lower temps may be a good indication that your estrogen levels are high and you may be in a good place to conceive a boy. Conversely, if your temps are higher than they usually are throughout your cycle, this may indicate that your progesterone levels are elevated and you are in a good place to conceive a girl. This has not been proven, but it is interesting to be aware of this. If you've been charting for 6 months and suddenly notice ALL your temps are a few decimal points higher than they were, this may very well mean your sway is working and your hormones are changing.

PRIMARY FERTILITY SIGN #2 - CERVICAL MUCUS

This is a little more difficult for people to pick up than temping is, but it's actually much more useful in terms of swaying. (You should still chart temps though, if only because it will help you get the knack of the ways your cervical mucus will change throughout your cycle.) Using your CM you will be able to tell when you're infertile, when you are highly fertile, help you with timing methods, and it can also help you know if you're pregnant or not. CM has two separate functions. Prior to ovulation, it's very thick, somewhat acidic, and is designed to keep sperm and other invaders out of the uterus. Around ovulation, it becomes very thin and more alkaline and welcoming to sperm. Shortly after ovulation (within a day) it becomes thick, acidic, and protective again.

1. Start checking your CM the first day after your period. Develop an awareness of how your vagina feels throughout the day (you don't even need to touch it, just be aware of how it feels.) When you use the bathroom (at least three times a day) with clean hands, touch the outer lips of your vagina and get used to the feeling of the discharge. Take note when you wipe after going to the bathroom as to whether you are dry or if there is mucus present. Pay attention to your underwear as well - very fertile CM will tend to take a round shape while less fertile CM will be more in a rectangular or line pattern.

To check CM, separate the lips of your vagina and check your CM at the lowest part of the opening close to the perineum. You can use tissue if that works for you, or you can rub it between your fingers. You may even want to see if it stretches just for fun.

2. Most charts have a location for making notes about your CM along with your temperature. Definitely use these! You will begin to see how temps and CM patterns are working together to show you where you are in your cycle and what your hormones are doing.

3. The follicular cycle in most women goes something like this - for a few days after menstruation, there is little to no mucus present (record "dry" on your chart.) Your panties and accompanying vaginal sensations will be dry.

Then, CM begins to develop in a "sticky" form (record "sticky" on your chart). Other words you may use to describe this sensation include "pasty, tacky, crumbly, gummy, springy" - it's kind of like rubber cement. May be white or yellowish in color. You may continue to feel dry or you may feel sticky.

Next, CM becomes "creamy". Other words used to describe this type of CM are "lotiony, milky, smooth." White or yellow in color. This is the kind of CM that is associated with greater odds of conceiving a baby girl. Your vaginal sensation will be wet, moist, gooey, even cold. You may be fertile while this CM is present so if you do not want to become pregnant, take precautions. You may notice a rectangular or line pattern on your underwear. (This is what you're looking for for a cutoff.)

The final and most fertile form of CM is EWCM (egg white cervical mucus). Very wet, slippery, and it may stretch between your fingers. There is usually a lot of it! You will feel a very wet vaginal sensation and you will notice a round pattern on your underwear. It is usually clear in color but it can be pink or red streaked if you have ovulatory spotting. You are VERY fertile when this CM is present so if you aren't TTC, take precautions. (This is what you want for conceiving a boy).

3. After your estrogen level has peaked and the egg has been released and the corpus luteum has begun to make progesterone (you are entering your luteal phase) your CM will change abruptly. Sometimes even within just a couple of hours you will see a difference; again, this is where charting is very handy because you can take note of how and when it changes in terms of what your temps are doing. You may have a few hours of creamy CM after ovulation (this is when you want to DTD if you are trying for an O+12) but for many people, it just dries up without ever going to creamy and you'll need to use cervical position to help you pinpoint O+12. 48 hours after ovulation (your temperature will drop), you are safe to have unprotected sex.

You will probably stay dry (and you are safe to DTD unprotected) for the rest of your cycle but some women do notice a watery sensation (not mucus-like) right before their period starts. You're not fertile and you are safe to DTD at this time.

4. Semen, being sexually aroused, taking Robitussin/Mucinex, antibiotics and other herbal CM inhancers can make you produce more EWCM and earlier in your cycle. Having a vaginal infection, using Replens/RepHresh/Acijel or spermicide can make you think you are producing EWCM when you aren't. Taking antihistamines, Sudafed, cranberry, ibuprofin, and some other medicines and herbs can make your CM very dry. All these situations can make it very difficult to tract where you are in your cycle.

To get rid of semen, you can try using the Semen Emitting Technique http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...0773#post10773 or learn to tell the difference - semen appears whitish and rubbery. It doesn't stretch like EWCM does and it dries on your fingers much more quickly.

5. If you have a very hard time collecting enough CM to learn the various types, you can try inserting a Diva cup for an hour. Some CM will collect in the Diva cup. (this is also a handy hint to check pH of CM if you are not getting much. PRIMARY FERTILITY SIGN #3 - CERVICAL POSITION

This is the hardest of the three to figure out but luckily it's the least important. However, if you're going for an O+12, you will NEED to know how to do this so even if you're not sure whether O+12 is right for you, you may want to give it a try. Also, if you are actively swaying and taking things that either dry up or produce a lot of CM, it can be hard to use cervical mucus to help pinpoint O.

Normally, the cervix is firm and closed and low, like the tip of your nose. As ovulation nears, the cervix rises, softens, and opens up to allow sperm to pass in and CM to pass out to give the sperm a medium they can survive in. The cervix itself also produces CM to some extent so you can also judge by the moistness of the cervix - it will be dry before and after ovulation, but wet around ovulation.

A handy acronym to remember this by is SHOW (thanks to Toni Weschler for coining this) - around ovulation, your cervix will SHOW - it will become soft, high, open, and wet. To have a sense of what exactly you're feeling for, see http://www.beautifulcervix.com/cervi...tos-of-cervix/ and Cervix Changes During the Menstrual Cycle - The Garden of Fertility (http://www.gardenoffertility.com/cervix.shtml)

1. Start checking your cervix the day after menstruation. Check once a day. (in later months once you are accustomed to checking your cervix, you can check less often and only around ovulation, but at first you need to know what your non-fertile cervix feels like so check every day.)

2. Wash your hands WELL. You also may want to check your cervix immediately after a shower, so your vaginal area is clean and microorganisms from your vulvar area will not be moved inside your vagina.

3. Check at the same time of day. If possible, try not to check immediately before or immediately after having a BM because this can affect your cervix position, but that's not critical.

4. To feel your cervix, you can squat, sit on the toilet, or stand with one foot on the bathtub or counter. Whatever is most convenient for you. At first, you should check in the same position each time because position can affect the height of the cervix somewhat. Once you get a good feel

5. Use whichever finger is easiest for you but be consistent (esp. at first).

6. Don't be squeamish about asking DH for help with this. You may find that he already has a pretty good handle on the situation! My husband told me once that he could tell where I was in my cycle when we DTD.

7. If you've had a child vaginally, your cervix will be less round and more oval in shape, and the small hole in the middle will be slightly larger and more of a line shape rather than a dot.

8. Around ovulation, you may want to check more than once a day (esp. if you're planning an O+12) but be careful not to irritate your cervix and cleanliness is VERY important, particularly around ovulation.

9. If you are on hormonally based birth control, these will interfere with your cervix position. Don't bother checking your cervix if you are on BCP or other hormonally based birth control products. If you're planning on TTC the first month off the pill, it doesn't hurt and may help you to check that first month, but just know that it may be very hard for you to understand what you're looking for without having experience in advance.

10. Crossreferencing your cervical position with temps and CM can help you learn where you are in your cycle and help you to understand how your cervix changes throughout your cycle. There will be a spot to record data about your cervix (whether it is open or closed, soft or firm, low/medium/high) on your chart. SECONDARY FERTILITY SIGNS

After you chart for awhile, you may begin to notice other signs and symptoms that appear at various parts of your cycle. While these are interesting and can def. help you pinpoint O, they vary between individuals and even by month so they are not reliable overall.

Ovulatory spotting (please read - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...1209#post11209)

Pain near the ovaries at ovulation (please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...1209#post11209)

Crampiness after ovulation and right before menstruation

Feeling more sexual around ovulation

Swollen vulva/vaginal lips and feeling "full" down there around ovulation

Abdominal bloating at different parts of your cycle

Retaining water/increased thirst/increased urination

Overly sensitive smell and taste, bordering on morning sickness

Hot flashes (this is more common in those over 35)

Tender breasts

Moodiness - some women find that their moodiness almost acts as a spiritual guide. Prior to ovulation, you may find that you are very positive and upbeat even in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Around ovulation, you may find that you are more creative and open to new ideas and new people (some waitresses have even noticed they get higher tips at ovulation!!). And of course as we all know, after ovulation, we do tend to become more emotional and upset - although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Many women find that they are better able to realize and work to change the things in their lives that aren't working for them. Menstruation can have an almost cleansing effect on both body and psyche - many cultures encourage women to rest during menstruation and some women have reported feeling very "nesty" during that time - they want to clean and organize everything.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:02 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2065-how-check-ph-dh-dw.html
How to check pH for DH and DW

FOR LADIES - To check your pH you want to check the pH of your cervical mucus. NOT urine or saliva - although you can check these things if you like and are curious, but they do not compare with CM and are also very affected by the foods/beverages you just ate or drank.

The normal pH of vaginal secretions are between 4 and 5 to kill off harmful organisms. However, for swaying purposes you want to know what the pH of your cervical mucus is, particularly your pH at ovulation. CM pH is typically quite a lot higher than vaginal pH but during your infertile days there is a thick plug of mucus blocking the entrance to your vagina so very little CM comes out during your infertile days - if you are testing on your infertile days, your reading will be much lower, but don't get excited or disappointed yet, this reading is largely meaningless (although it can help you to see if your day-to-day acidity is being affected by your diet and supps.)

As ovulation nears, your cervix softens and this plug dissolves, and if you are very closely monitoring your cervix you can actually kind of notice this happening. Without the plug and with a larger opening in the cervix, the CM (which is now more alkaline and also much more plentiful) begins to flow out and it raises your pH into the 7's which is the healthy pH of both EWCM and semen, at which maximum numbers of both X and Y sperm survive.

It is a matter of debate whether boy sperm really like super high pH and girl sperm like super low pH, or if higher pH sways instead by ensuring more sperm survive to make it to the egg and somehow higher numbers of sperm sway blue while fewer sperm (because less survive in lower pH) sway pink. Either way, the result would be the same - for TTC pink you want less, thicker, and lower pH CM than you normally have and for TTC blue you want more, thinner, and higher pH.

To know what exactly you are looking/feeling for, please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ertility+signs

Feel for your cervix and in the middle there will be a dent/hole. Some sites tell you to stick your finger into that hole and pull it open, but this is NOT SAFE and may lead to infection, swelling, or even bleeding (which REALLY screws up your pH!). Instead, just scoop up whatever mucus is present onto the tip of your finger and test that by smearing it onto your pH stick/test strip or digital wand. You may need to wait as long as 10 minutes for the sticks to react but in most instances, you should get a result within 60 seconds (digital will read right away).

Cervical CM is the most alkaline and as your CM passes through and hangs around inside your vagina, it rises in pH due to the acid secretions of the vagina. You need to know the pH of the mucus as it leaves the cervix, before it gets diluted by the vaginal pH. Take care to avoid cross-contamination.

If you cannot get enough CM to test with, you can try two different strategies to help. You can try taking Robitussin or Mucinex http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...N-TO-TTC-A-BOY which will increase your CM...this is fine for blue swayers at any time of the month because you want more CM as part of your sway, but for pink swayers, you should not take these meds within a week of ovulation, because you want less CM. The second strategy is to use a Diva or Instead cup or your diaphragm to collect CM. Leave it in for about an hour, remove it and test what is in the cup.

Be aware that either strategy ~may~ affect pH and make it different than what it really is...if you are at all able, try to rely on what your body is producing naturally.

Also, it is NORMAL for your pH to vary quite a bit throughout your cycle, rising around ovulation. So if you only test pH early in your cycle, you may think your pH is great (for pink) or terrible (for blue) but it will rise significantly at ovulation. It may be helpful for you to chart the variations in your pH along with your BBT, CM, and cervical position (see link above for more info on that.)

If, after trying several times over the course of time, your pH sticks/strips do not change color at all (and you have tested them on other things to make sure they're not defective) you may have low ionic strength. You will need a digital tester in that case. Here is a link to a gallery of different pH strips that is very helpful. pH strip Gallery! updated 10/08 - In-Gender.com (http://www.in-gender.com/cs/forums/t/51370.aspx)

FOR OUR HUBBIES - You need a sample of sperm in a glass container or a condom...if you wipe it off skin the pH may be affected. pH ~may~ be higher if the sample is given via intercourse because more of the pre-ejaculate fluid is released, so try it both ways just for fun and see if there's any difference. This might help you with swaying as well, because if your husband's pH really rises with intercourse you can use that info to help you make the right choices for controlling his pH. pH seems to rise over time, so test the sample right away, don't leave it sitting out for very long.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:03 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1134-lure-lubes.html
The lure of Lubes!!

I thought it would be helpful to have an overview of ALL swaying lubes in one spot to kind of compare them.

BLUE SWAYING LUBES - There's only one lube sold on the market that sways blue. ALL other lubes on the market are at least somewhat sperm-unfriendly and sway pink as a result.

Pre Seed (Link) Pre-Seed Fertility-Friendly Lubricant (http://www.preseed.com/) Specially designed to help people get pregnant, Pre Seed is very sperm friendly and sways blue by ensuring maximum sperm survival.

Egg Whites (Link) Egg whites are also a sperm friendly lube, high in pH and sway blue!

Perhaps the best boy friendly lube of all is our own fertile EWCM. You can increase your CM in many different ways, including Robitussin (link), supplements (link) particularly Fertile CM FertileCM | Supplement for Cervical Mucus, Sexual Function, Fertility (http://www.fertilecm.com/?gclid=CPem...FQcKbAodGFme1g), and sexual arousal.

Foreplay in advance of DTD is a great idea, whatever turns you on (literally!!) Lucky blue swayers, orgasm is a very important part of a blue sway because it increases the natural lubricants that your own body produces!! So a female orgasm BEFORE your attempt is a fabulous idea for blue.

ALL other lubes on the market sway pink to some extent, because they're all somewhat hostile to sperm. However, some are better than others.

Acijel - This is the best product available for TTC pink. It was actually designed to sway, as opposed to other products which were designed either as lubricants or to maintain a healthy vaginal pH. Contains acetic acid, which is believed to help sway pink.

Replens and RepHresh (Link)Take Control of your Feminine Health (http://www.rephresh.com/) If you use these every three days, they help with maintaining healthy vaginal pH of 4-5 and providing moisture. RepHresh also contains acetic acid and will actually lower pH of semen and CM by reacting with it chemically. Replens is simply low in pH.

Sylk Sylk Personal Lubricant Official Website (http://www.sylkonline.com/) is a natural personal lubricant with a pH of 4.7. The Sylk website states outright that Sylk is hostile to sperm. In terms of girl-friendly lubes, that are meant to just act as sexual lubricants, I think this is the best one. Acijel, Replens, and RepHresh all seem to work best as part of a sway and then you can ADD Sylk to your attempt as a lubricant.

Astroglide ASTROGLIDE | Natural Personal Lubricant | Menopause | Vaginal Dryness | Lube (http://www.astroglideaustralia.com/) An easy to find, affordable lube that is pH balanced to mimic the natural pH of the vagina (I couldn't find a specific number but that seems to mean between 4.5-5). I think Sylk is better, but Astroglide is ok.

KY jelly. NOT the same pH as the vagina (it's higher but I couldn't find the exact number). Not a good choice for swaying. Here's an interesting article that EVERYONE should read, it's about more than just KY and sort of explains why some of these lubes are hostile to sperm and therefore sway pink. http://www.theecologist.org/green_gr..._ky_jelly.html

Canola oil. It's messy, greasy, pretty high in pH (6.8). Oils tend to trigger vaginal infections and eat away at rubber meaning you can't use them with a Diva/Instead cup or with the Hole-in-the-condom method. With the better options out there, DON'T BOTHER with it.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:04 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1881-super-soy-girl-boy.html

Super Soy for a girl or a boy!

Soy isoflavones - What are they? How do they work? Do they sway pink or blue and how should we take them?

Soy isoflavones are phytonutrients, the two most pharmacologically active believed to be the chemicals genistein and daidzein, but there are others. They are found in small amounts in a number of vegetables and grains (red clover is another common fertility-related supplement that contains them), but soybeans are by far the most concentrated source of these chemicals.

WHAT ARE SOY ISOFLAVONES USED FOR?

Some swayers were taking soy iso as a part of a blue sway, but far and away the most helpful use is as a natural form of Clomid. Soy isoflavones can help you conceive and may also help you conceive twins!!

WHY MIGHT SOY AND SOY ISOFLAVONES SWAY PINK?

Soy isoflavones have weak estrogenic activity. Higher levels of estrogen are believed to sway BLUE, so how can soy sway pink? The phytoestrogens present in soy (genistein and daidzein, but particularly one of the more minor ones, glyceollin) bind to estrogen receptors, so while they can mimic the effects of estrogen in some tissues, they block the effects of estrogen in other.

Soy seems to exhibit its anti-estrogenic effects in reproductive tissue, reducing the risk of estrogen-associated cancers of the breast, prostate, and uterus - so in the areas we want lower estrogen for pink sways (the reproductive organs of both men and women), these phytoestrogens seem to reduce the effects of estrogen by competing with it.

In other tissues, the phytoestrogens seem to act as pseudo-estrogen, mimicking the protective effects of higher estrogen levels, maintaining bone density (which ~may~ sway pink somehow by encouraging calcium absorption) and lowering cholesterol levels. Lowering cholesterol reduces testosterone, so soy may pack a one-two punch, firstly by acting to lower the effects of estrogen in the reproductive organs while simultaneously lowering testosterone.

Furthermore, one of the soy isoflavones called genistein, unlike pretty much every other phytonutrient out there, acts as an oxidant rather than an antioxidant. Oxidants are substances that are not healthy in your body and your body needs to use nutrients (antioxidants) to get rid of them, so they may sway pink by using up these antioxidants (antioxidant phytonutrients seem to sway blue). Some studies show that genistein acts as inhibitor of substances that regulate cell division and cell survival, again perhaps swaying pink by inhibiting muscle growth and lowering sperm count. This sounds scary for pregnancy but that is why we only use soy for a few days and well before ovulation.

Soy also contains a chemical called phytic acid which makes boy-friendly minerals like zinc, potassium, and iron leave the body. However, it also robs the body of the girl-friendly minerals calcium and magnesium. That having been said, one very well-designed study seemed to find that women who conceived boys ate more nutrients across the boards, even calcium. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that absorbing less minerals from your diet sways pink.

Soy milk and beans are believed to be acidifying while tofu is believed to be alkalinizing, so it's hard to know what exactly is going on with that.

One thing that does seem to occur with soy that makes it less useful for pink, is an increase in CM. But, you can reduce your CM by taking an antihistamine for a few days around O, so you shouldn't necessarily let that deter you.

WHY MIGHT SOY AND SOY ISOFLAVONES SWAY BLUE?

Traditional swaying lore holds that soy sways blue. Primarily because of the belief that phytoestrogen = estrogen but the research does not indicate that. Phytoestrogens in soy seem to act as estrogen in some tissues while blocking its effects in others.

Soy also contains a chemical called phytic acid, which is indigestible by humans but causes macro minerals such as calcium and magnesium to be excreted from the body. This would appear to sway blue but at the same time, phytic acid may cause other minerals to leave the body, like zinc, potassium and iron, which are boy-friendly.

Soy milk and beans are believed to be acidifying while tofu is believed to be alkalinizing, so it's hard to know what exactly is going on with that.

One thing that does seem to occur with soy that may sway blue is an increase in CM. But, you can increase your CM so many other ways that don't carry the downsides of soy.

IS SOY SAFE??

Soy has been consumed by humans for centuries. Dietary isoflavone intake has been reported to be as high as 65 mg/day in some Asian populations - average dietary isoflavone intakes in Asian countries range from 25-50 mg/day (this is much less than you would be taking if you were taking soy isoflavones, but then again you won't take them every day).

However, this is an average. Most Asians do NOT eat soy every single day (with the exception of soy sauce which is not a good source of isoflavones). One day they might eat tofu for dinner, then not eat it again for two weeks, like the frequency we might eat hot dogs or tacos. It's hard to compare between medicinal quantities of soy and occasional soy in the diet.

Dietary isoflavone intakes (from all sources, remember that these isoflavones are also found in other foods) are considerably lower in Western countries, where studies have found average isoflavone intakes to be as low as 2 mg/day. Further complicating matters, some Westerners may not be able to utilize soy iso as efficiently as Asians can.

Diets rich in soy appear safe and potentially beneficial. However, long-term safety of soy isoflavones taken as supplements is not yet known. One study in older men and women found that 100 mg/day of soy isoflavones for six months was well tolerated.

Keep in mind that we will not be taking soy every day or even most days (see below for how to use soy)

Link to breast cancer - Soy isoflavones may stimulate the growth of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer cells. High intakes of genistein interfered with the ability of tamoxifen to inhibit the growth of ER+ breast cancer cells implanted in mice.

Link to thyroid - Soy isoflavones have been found to inhibit the activity of thyroid peroxidase. However, high intakes of soy isoflavones don't seem to increase the risk of hypothyroidism as long as dietary iodine consumption is adequate (which it probably WON'T be if you are swaying pink, since you will be eating very little salt). How real a concern is this? Prior to the 1960s, before iodine was routinely added to soy formula, hypothyroidism in soy-fed infants was a very real problem. If you want to use soy, it is probably best if you pull out all the stops and try to get pregnant quickly. If you've been on the TTC pink diet for months and months, DON'T take soy iso.

Link to birth defects - At least one study found a link between high soy intake during pregnancy and birth defects in the genitalia of baby boys. However, we will not be taking soy during pregnancy.

On a personal note, I have found that drinking soymilk every day severely aggravates an arrhythmia that I have.

DRUG INTERACTIONS - Thyroid medication (levothyroxine), tamoxifen (breast cancer treatment), warfarin have been contraindicated with soy isoflavones. If you are taking ANYTHING that affects your hormones (such as clomid or other fertility drugs) you should not take soy because it may interfere with the effects.

HOW TO USE SOY ISOFLAVONES AS CLOMID

Soy isoflavones are SERMs, or Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators - they bind weakly with estrogen receptors and compete with the body's natural supply of estrogen to do so. Clomid is also a SERM. Some people believe that soy isoflavones function in the same way to block estrogen receptors as Clomid.

HOW DOES SOY/CLOMID WORK ANYWAY? (please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ghlight=clomid for more about this)

SERMs like soy and Clomid bind to the estrogen receptor cells in your hypothalamus and block them. If your estrogen receptor cells are blocked, your brain doesn’t get the signal from the estrogen. Your estrogen levels aren't really low, your body just "believes" that they are and reacts accordingly.

Estrogen is released from the maturing egg follicles in the ovaries during the first part of your cycle. If your follicles are not mature, your body does not "want" to ovulate and risk popping out an immature egg. So this lack of estrogen triggers a rise in GNRH that in turn stimulates FSH (follicle-stimulating-hormone, the hormone that makes eggs develop and mature). This increase in FSH will hopefully induce or improve ovulation.

NOTE - if you are not ovulating due to high FSH levels (age or premature ovarian failure), soy is not going to help you and in fact may make matters worse. You will most likely need to see a doctor and progress to stronger infertility drugs. However, soy is cheap so you may want to give it a try if you have not been diagnosed with high FSH levels.

HOW DO WE TAKE SOY ISOFLAVONES FOR BEST RESULTS??

Since you need a certain level of estrogen to trigger your LH surge (luteinizing hormone, which signals the egg that it is time to burst out of its follicle), timing is everything when taking soy. You want to take it for long enough and early enough in your cycle to up the FSH and make eggs develop, but not for too long to overly inhibit the estrogen (bad for your uterine lining and it will screw up your LH surge).

SERMs like Clomid and soy iso are most effective when taken for about five days towards the start of the cycle - the first day of your period is CD (cycle day) 1. Best results are seen when 100-200 mg (taken ALL at once) are taken on CD 1-5 , 2-6, 3-7 , 4-8 or 5-9. Most people choose to take it on days 3-7. Taking soy on days 1-5 may yield more eggs and an earlier ovulation, however you run the risk that some or even all of these eggs may not be optimally mature. Days 2-6 may yield more eggs than usual, but not as many as taking it 1-5. Eggs may be more mature. (If you're trying for twins you will want to take the soy beginning either CD 1 or CD 2, but you are gambling that some of those eggs will be mature). CD 3-7 is considered the best of both worlds, a few more eggs produced, and with luck, all eggs will be strong & mature. CD 4-8, you will probably produce only one or two eggs of good maturity. CD 5-9 will probably yield one very strong, high quality egg, from those that you already produced on your own. Ovulation will possibly be delayed a few days. You may have problems with your uterine lining being too thin to maintain a pregnancy, so if you have a chemical pregnancy you will want to take the soy earlier in your cycle.

Take it these days only regardless of when you usually ovulate, even if you have very long cycles take it ONLY on those days. DO NOT take soy iso throughout your cycle. More is not better and in fact it will inhibit ovulation. You may notice that is a higher mg dosage than Clomid typically comes in, but you can't compare the two. It is commonly said that 100mg of soy is roughly equal to 50 mg of Clomid.

Soy CAN move your ovulation and this may be a good thing for getting pregnant and/or swaying for a particular gender, so don't despair if your ovulation is irregular. You will want to be either temp charting or taking OPK's regularly to help you pinpoint O. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...highlight=opks
http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ertility+signs

IF you are swaying for pink, you may find that soy isoflavones give you more EWCM than normal. It is critically important to your sway that you take an antihistamine to reduce your CM http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...=antihistamine

IF you are swaying for boy, you may find that soy helps you produce EWCM, but if it doesn't or if it makes you drier than normal, consider taking Robitussin or Mucinex to improve your CM. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ght=robitussin

Some people may choose to take baby aspirin to improve their uterine lining and make it more likely that an egg will implant.

SHOULD DH TAKE SOY ISOFLAVONES? For a girl, having DH eat or take low levels of soy isoflavones (aim for 20 - 60 mg a day, diet and supps combined) is a good idea and may help lower his testosterone and sperm count.

For a boy, DH should NOT take or eat soy.

WHAT SHOULD I AVOID WHILE TAKING SOY?? Don't take soy while pregnant or breastfeeding, if you have ever had breast cancer or have a family history of breast cancer, if you have thyroid problems, and if you are eating a very low iodine (low sodium) diet, you should try to get pregnant as quickly as possible to limit the amount of time you are taking the soy.

You should not mix soy with Clomid (or any fertility drug), vitex, evening primrose oil, large amounts of peppermint tea, saw palmetto, licorice, red clover, dong quai, flaxseed, cohosh, Agave root, black currant, black haw, cramp bark, devil's club root, false unicorn root, ginseng root, groundsel herb, liferoot herb, motherwort herb, peony root, raspberry leaves, rose family plants (most parts), sage leaves, sarsaparilla root, wild yam root, yarrow blossoms.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:06 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1191-clomid.html

Clomid

What is Clomid and how does it work? Clomid is a drug that stimulates the hypothalmus and pituitary gland to secrete FSH and LH, the hormones that trigger ovulation. Clomid alters the way that GnRH (gonadotropin-release hormone, which signals the body to release other hormones and when and how much to release of them), FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone - causes eggs to mature in the follicles), LH (luteinizing hormone - triggers ovulation) and estradiol (the form of estrogen present in the human body - it's involved in many aspects of fertility) work together in the body, thereby inducing regular ovulation, increasing egg production and correcting luteal phase deficiency.

Clomid tricks the body into believing that your body is low in estrogen, by competing with estrogen for estrogen-receptor-binding sites and may delay replenishment of intracellular estrogen receptors. This signals your body to up estrogen production greatly. Once you stop taking it, you experience a dramatic increase in estrogen levels, as a reaction to the diminished estrogen earlier in the cycle. The combined anti-estrogenic effect of the drug and then your body producing tons of estradiol to counteract it, is believed to help trigger ovulation.

Along with the effects on estradiol, Clomid causes the hypothalamus to make more GnRH which signals the pituitary to produce FSH and LH. FSH and LH cause the ovaries to develop and release mature eggs - ovulation. FSH and LH also stimulate testosterone production.

Due to its effect on estradiol, Clomid affects ALL tissues that have estrogen receptors - the hypothalamus, pituitary, ovary, endometrium, vagina, and cervix. Even your breast tissues can be affected by Clomid. So when you take Clomid to induce ovulation, you inadvertently also affect these tissues at the same time. Some women actually have to be given supplemental estrogen (like Estrace) just to maintain pregnancy, because Clomid causes their endometrial lining to be too thin to support implantation.

Clomid will not work for women who have low levels of estrogen or high levels of FSH, so if you are in your late 30's-40's and anovulatory because of age, Clomid is not going to help you to ovulate. Your doctor will have to give you injectible drugs instead.

What is the dosage of Clomid commonly prescribed? Of course you should see your doctor to be prescribed Clomid - NEVER buy Clomid online or use a friend's Clomid because you can DIE from it. But, just so you know what to expect, if you are prescribed Clomid you take it for 5 days starting the 5th day of your cycle. Most women are given between 50-200 mg.

How does Clomid sway pink?? Clomid is rare in that something that raises testosterone, still sways pink. It does this by lowering estrogen. One of the side effects of lower estrogen is that the cervical mucus becomes thick and hostile to sperm. (Estrogen is sometimes prescribed to counteract this effect.) But hostile, thick CM reduces the number of sperm that survive to make it to the egg and may sway pink due to reduced sperm count, perhaps the larger X sperm are better able to penetrate thick CM, and/or perhaps the altered levels of estrogen affect the egg in some way itself that makes girl conceptions more likely. We don't know why it works exactly.

If you are trying to TTC BLUE and you need to go onto Clomid, DON'T PANIC. Clomid does sway pink but many, many women have conceived sons on Clomid. Ask your doctor about supplemental estrogen to help with thickened CM. You may want to use Robitussin to thin out your CM and use either Pre-Seed or egg white to make up for any lack of EWCM.

Clomid takes about 6 weeks to leave the body, so be aware that even if you are coming off of Clomid, after a failed HT attempt or maybe it just didn't work for you, you still can be affected by it in the month or two afterwards. I know a girl who had a HT failure and then TTC naturally the month after, and just delivered beautiful BG twins recently!!

Clomid and twinning - Speaking of which!! You have a 1 in 10 chance of conceiving twins while on Clomid. Sounds great, right? But you also have a 1 in 200 chance of triplets, 1 in 333 chance of quadruplets, and a 1 in 1000 chance of quintuplets!!! That may be a little more than you bargained for. Your odds of multiples will be greater that that if you have a family history of multiples and greater still if you already have conceived multiples. So just be prepared in advance that you are at a greater risk of having more than one baby.

Side effects and warnings - As drugs go, Clomid is actually a pretty safe one. It's been around since the 60's and has been used by millions of women to get pregnant. It's not believed to cause any long term health effects or birth defects in the babies conceived during it's use.

People who are pregnant, have liver disease, ovarian cysts, fibroids, endometriosis or endometrial cancer, ovarian failure, problems with your thyroid, pituitary, or adrenal gland, hyperprolactinemia, and abnormal vaginal bleeding should NOT take Clomid without being closely monitored by their doctors. If your doctor prescribes Clomid and you know you have one of these issues, you need to speak up and tell him/her.

Clomid will NOT WORK for you if you have very low estrogen levels, actual physical barriers that are preventing pregnancy like blocked Fallopian tubes, are anovulatory due to age, or if your husband is not making sperm. If you have reason to suspect that you may have one of these issues, save your time and money and don't try to get Clomid.

Minor side effects include moodiness, breast pain, headache, stomach upset, midcycle spotting. Serious side effects include changes in vision, allergic reaction, and OHSS. You can DIE from OHSS. ONLY take Clomid as prescribed by a doctor and under his/her care. DO NOT buy Clomid online or get it from a friend. Clomid may raise your risk of certain forms of cancer if you take it for many months, so it is best to get pregnant right away when taking Clomid.

Clomid with other supplements - DO NOT take Clomid with any other supplements that affect hormones (peppermint tea, soy, vitex, saw palmetto, licorice, green tea, cohosh - no one really needs to be taking cohosh anyway, evening primrose, tribulus terrestris, Lydia Pinkham, false unicorn root, and any of those Chinese herbs that we're really not too sure about). Clomid affects a very delicate balance of hormones and triggers a chain of cascading hormonal reactions and we do not want to interfere with any of those. Some hormonal herbal supplements will actually render the Clomid inactive.

That having been said, some people have taken vitex for an entire month or more (so AF-AF, every day without stopping) and then stopped the vitex on CD 1 and begun Clomid THAT month after having been on the vitex non-stop for an entire month or longer. I know of two people who did conceive baby girls doing this. Be sure that if you choose to take vitex all month, you use reliable birth control and do not TTC while taking vitex from O-af. Vitex is not safe to take during pg.

It is also best to not take anything to dry up your CM with Clomid or make it more hostile. No antihistamine, Sudafed, cranberry, aspartame. The one exception to this is baby aspirin. Baby aspirin may actually help when taking Clomid, even though it does acidify, by helping the fertilized egg to implant in the uterus (Clomid makes your uterine lining very thin and so may make it harder for baby to implant). You CAN take Robitussin with Clomid and in fact you SHOULD do so if swaying blue.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:06 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1089-conceiving-twins.html

Conceiving twins!

I know this isn't technically a swaying question but this is something people wonder about a lot.

CLOMID - This is the one surefire way to up your chance of twins, but you do need a doctor's prescription for it. You should NEVER buy Clomid online or use another person's Clomid, you need to be monitored by a doctor while you use it because serious, life threatening side effects may occur. (Clomid does sway pink)

GENETICS - Some of us just have a genetic tendency to hyperovulate and pop out more than one egg per month. If your mother, sister, aunts, or grandmother has fraternal twins, that means you just naturally have a greater chance of twins.

PREVIOUS PREGNANCY - The more times you've been pregnant, the higher your chances of twins!

PREVIOUS MULTIPLE PREGNANCY - If you've conceived multiples before, you're more likely to do so again.

AGE - After age 35 the rate of twins begins to rise. Women over 45 have 17% chance of twins, but of course it's extremely difficult to get pregnant at that age for most of us. Realistically, between ages 35-40 are your best shot for actually conceiving twins.

PHYSICAL SIZE - Tall women and those with a BMI over 30 are more likely to conceive twins.

DIET - Being well-nourished and even slightly overweight ups your chances of twins. Also, diets high in beef and dairy products may increase the odds of twins due to hormones present in cattle.

SOY - Taking soy isoflavones, 200 mg from CD 3-7, total of 5 days, may help to sway for twins. It acts as a natural Clomid. (may sway blue, because it does increase CM, but if you take antihistamines to dry up your CM you may get the benefits from the soy of releasing more than one egg, you may still be able to incorporate soy into a pink sway as well as a blue one.)

VITEX - Vitex from AF-O may sway for twins. (sways pink) However, some researchers believe that it may actually PREVENT twins. (I did conceive twins while taking vitex so I happen to know that isn't the case in all circumstances.)

FOLIC ACID - Scientists used to believe there was a link between Folic Acid intake in the three months prior to conception and twinning. Now it is believed that high Folic Acid intake simply helps twin pregnancies to both successfullly survive and thrive. Most twin conceptions are lost very early in pregnancy and by having ample Folic Acid in our bodies, we help our twins to both survive.

BREASTFEEDING - Getting pregnant while breastfeeding increases your odds of twins.

BIRTH CONTROL PILLS - Getting pregnant on the Pill increases your odds of twins, but no one should go onto the birth control pill for this reason. Getting pregnant on the pill may not be safe for your babies. But, if you get pregnant your first month off the Pill, you may still be more likely to conceive twins that month.

WILD YAM - Much has been made of this supplement because Africans who eat a lot of yams have more twins. I have read that the "wild yam" that is sold in supplements are not the same yams at all (and in fact may act as a birth control pill reducing your chances of twins!!). The yams at the grocery store aren't the same either. So eat a lot of yams if you like them, but this may not be effective.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:07 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1211-what-does-really-mean-have-high-low-testosterone-scientifically.html
What does it really MEAN to have high (or low) testosterone?? Scientifically??

There is a common misconception about women and testosterone levels. A woman with high testosterone is assumed to be mannish, aggressive, even bitchy, while a woman with low testosterone levels is seen as feminine, weak, and a doormat. So when we see (or ARE) a woman who does not embody these characteristics, yet pop out 4 of a particular gender in a row and are told our testosterone has something to do with it, it's only natural that we wonder how accurate that information really is.

1)What is the TRUE definition of dominance??

In her book "Maternal Personality, Evolution and the Sex Ratio", Valerie Grant lays out the case for her Maternal Dominance Hypothesis - the idea that women who are higher in testosterone and therefore more dominant, have more sons.

Grant and other psychologists that she quotes who have studied the issue, define dominance as "ruling (a leader), influential, assertive, powerful, commanding, high in control (control freak), masterful (likes to take on and become good at new tasks) and ascendant (enjoys competition and winning, wants to be the best)". Rather than being "someone who kicks those beneath and bows to those above", a dominant person "leads those below and kicks those above." (Tossing that last bit in there because that really rings very true for me.)

Dominance is NOT the same as aggressiveness or being domineering - psychologists have studied these qualities and found them to be NOT linked to dominance. Some people who are dominant might also be more agressive and domineering, but some people who are NOT dominant may also be also these things. Shy, retiring people can be just as dominant as extroverts. It is DOMINANCE that = higher testosterone levels. Being "hostile, argrumentative, angry, violent, overbearing, oppressive, bossy, dictatorial, arrogant, and high-handed" can go along with a submissive, lower-testosterone personality OR a dominant, higher-T personality.

In fact, some anti-male, pro-feminist researchers set out to PROVE that high testosterone made people aggressive and warlike, perhaps in an attempt to show that men are inherently more violent than women due to their testosterone. They were unable to do it and the conclusion of the study was that dominance IS a biologically-based personality trait linked to testosterone, but heightened aggression is NOT and instead comes from culture rather than nature.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa expanded on this idea in his study "Engineers Have More Sons, Nurses Have More Daughters" http://www.danechristensen.net/stuff/Job-Child.pdf Kanazawa found that there was a pretty significant gender-of-offspring difference between women who were more drawn to technical fields (had more boys) and women who were drawn to nurturing professions (had more girls). Studies have also shown that women who are high in social status do have more sons, as do women who have pursued higher education.

So, if you feel like you have a pretty low-key personality and are surprised to hear that high testosterone may be why you have more sons, or if you have a frenemy with all girls who is a bit tyrannical, just keep in mind that there is more to testosterone than the traditional view. You don't have to be a bloodthirsty, ball-busting, bitch to have high testosterone.

2)Cultural/familial factors affecting dominance.

Another thing to consider is that the culture and family that you are brought up in has a lot to do with the way you express your dominance. In cultures where women are socially expected to behave in submissive ways, naturally their behavior patterns will ~appear~ to be less dominant than women brought up in cultures where dissent and assertiveness is valued and vice versa. In fact, it seems well within the realm of possibility that in a culture that valued ultrafeminine behavior, a dominant woman might actually appear MORE demure than other women because dominance seems to bring with it, a certain competitive nature. A dominant woman might very well strive greatly to out-demure a naturally demure woman!

Women are known to express aggression by non-physical, verbal means and the same is true of dominance. You may not often see a woman busting another woman's chops physically, but we all know there are myriad other techniques that women utilize to lead/control their female friends or compete with other women. Just because you don't have a history of fisticuffs, that does not mean you're not a dominant individual.

Regardless of the culture or family you are brought up in, some of us are naturally more dominant than others, but we simply express it in socially approved ways that are unique to our society and upbringing.

3) Life experiences that affect dominance

Things like birth order, school experiences, past history of competition, race, socioeconomic status (both current and past), successes and failures, all of these things add up to create the person you are today. So you could be a very meek mild-mannered woman by nature, who happened to be the first-born in the family and played basketball in high school the year your school won the State Championship, and these life experiences acted to raise your testosterone higher than it would be had you had a different set of experiences. Or you could be a naturally dominant woman who has experienced discrimination or a lifetime of financial struggles and this has served to lower your T levels.

Keep in mind that the reason why these mechanisms help to sway is that they helped our ancestors to survive for many millions of years in very harsh conditions. If a woman's tribe/village was conquered and all the males killed (which happened many times and continues to happen even nowadays), for a woman who continued to produce sons under these circumstances, her genes would probably die out. And in many primates, high ranking females actually will kill the male offspring of less dominant females. So these mechanisms have evolved to allow us to shift our gender ratio according to our dominance.

4) Your testosterone levels may have changed over time regardless of your personality, or your personality may have changed too subtly to notice.

Grant believes that women have children of both genders because of changes in their testosterone levels as a result of social cues, and presents a good deal of data to support this conclusion. She is less a believer in diet than I am (or at least she was at the time she published her book) but I would just add that we KNOW that changes in diet do lower testosterone, as does loss of muscle mass and aging.

Your self-image was formed somewhere during the course of your life and it may very well be totally accurate. But my experience has been that things have happened over the course of my life that have changed me in subtle but very real ways and even though my self-image has not changed much, I must admit I am a different person than I was at 20, 30, or even 35. It's not always apparent, but sometimes things happen and I realize I handle them totally differently than I would have at a younger age. So you may not SEE your high/low testosterone-linked behaviors, even though they're there.

5) There are other aspects at play besides testosterone.

We really have NO idea why high testosterone sways blue and low sways pink. It could very well be that testosterone sways in some way that is affected by other biological functions. After I had my second son, I was talking to a woman I knew who had 3 boys and then a girl and she told me all about Shettles and how it had worked for her. At the time I filed it away under the interesting info file but after my cut-off with DS 3 failed and I started researching more into swaying and the Trivers Willard hypothesis, I remembered that she had also been diagnosed with thyroid cancer immediately after having her baby girl.

So YES, she probably had higher testosterone levels to begin with (she was a minister's wife and very influential in the community) and that's why she had 3 sons, but who knows what effect the thyroid cancer had on her body chemistry when she conceived that little girl??

It seems well within the realm of possibility that the reason testosterone sways is because it causes some other effect within our bodies. Higher t does create a higher sex drive so we probably DTD more, more EWCM and therefore higher pH, more likely to have a female orgasm...any or all of these things might be the actual mechanism by which higher t sways blue. If you change those things, regardless of what your testosterone level is doing, you will still be swaying pink.

Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Eleanor Roosevelt...all very strong and influential women - all had daughters. Eleanor followed up her daughter with 5 sons!! Testosterone clearly has a huge part to play in swaying but it's not the ONLY part.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:08 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/trying-conceive-boy/582-physical-symptoms-high-low-testosterone-women.html
Physical symptoms of high and low testosterone in women

The only way you can know your levels of testosterone for certain are by tests done by a doctor, but there are ways to tell based on personal appearance whether your testosterone is high, low, increasing, or decreasing.

Body type - MOST variations in body type are due to genetic differences and have little to do with testosterone. Women who are higher in testosterone have more muscle mass than the average woman of the same build. They tend to carry more fat in the abdomen and chest (apple shape) rather than on the legs and rear end (pear shape), which is more common among women with normal/low testosterone.

Again, much of these differences are due to genetic factors, so it is very possible to be apple-shaped and have testosterone in the normal range, or pear shaped and high in testosterone. However, if you notice a CHANGE in your fat distribution or the amount of muscle you have, this may be evidence that your body chemistry has changed and you should take note of it.

Changes in amount and texture of body Hair - Again, MOST variations in the amount/texture of body hair is due to genetics and not testosterone. If the rest of the women in your family tend to have a lot of body hair, you will as well, and this says nothing about your testosterone.

However, women with high/rising testosterone levels may have or develop increased hair growth on the upper lip, face, chest, lower abdomen and other parts of the body. Three areas in particular are indicative of potentially higher testosterone levels - hair on the big toe, around the nipple, and around the anus (although there are still genetic factors to consider). Additionally, as testosterone levels increase, fine body hairs may turn coarse and darken.

If your testosterone level is dropping, you may find that you have fewer and finer body hairs than before. (Personal note, when I was swaying pink and eating a low testosterone diet, I did notice that the hair on my face and around my areolas that I had had since puberty, disappeared within a matter of weeks.)

Deepening of the voice - Some deepening of the voice occurs naturally with age, but can also be caused by increases in testosterone.

Thinning hair on top of the head - Very high testosterone can lead to thinning hair in both men and women, called androgenic alopecia. This is one of the last symptoms to develop and is a sign your testosterone may be TOO high.

Skin problems - If your skin is or becomes very oily and brone to breakouts, this may mean you have higher testosterone. If your skin seems thinner, dryer, and more fragile, this may mean your testosterone is low.

Mood - Testosterone can boost confidence, strength, assertiveness, and libido. Can also make you agressive, agitated, and easily angered. PMS is believed by some researchers to result from sudden increases in testosterone. Lower testosterone can cause feelings of indecisiveness, depression, and lack of motivation.

Sexual Symptoms - Higher testosterone causes increases in libido and may actually make your clitoris grow in size and sensitivity. Lower testosterone may cause your clitoris to shrink, your vagina to become thinner and dryer, and makes it more difficult to have an orgasm.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:09 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/4263-understanding-law-testosterone-supply-demand.html
Understanding the "Law" of Testosterone Supply and Demand

The production of testosterone is an unbelievably complicated process described here: Testosterone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone) Still with me? The good news is, we don't have to understand all that gobbeldygook to use testosterone (or lack thereof) to our advantage when swaying.

Nutshell version - cholesterol Cholesterol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol) is the building block of ALL steroid hormones. Your body makes most of its cholesterol and gets a smaller amount via diet (only 10-15% of your cholesterol comes through diet). You DON'T need to eat gargantuan amounts of cholesterol to have plenty of the stuff, your body makes it out of saturated fats and even animal protein itself. In turn, it uses that cholesterol that it made, to build ALL your hormones, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen alike.

Consequently, you don't have to eat testosterone-laden foods to make testosterone or to have all boys. Some swaying diets have red meat listed as boy-friendly and chicken and eggs listed as girl-friendly, because red meat has testosterone and chicken and eggs have progesterone, but that doesn't matter. Your body MAKES cholesterol out of the saturated fats in ALL meats, eggs, saturated plant fats like coconut, and full-fat dairy foods, and then turns that cholesterol into testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone.

If your body decides to make less testosterone/estrogen and more progesterone, it's not because you're EATING less testosterone and more progesterone, it's because of other cues in your body that send the signal to your body to make less testosterone and more progesterone. In fact, your body produces progesterone BEFORE it makes testosterone, and testosterone is later turned into estrogen. The three are all part of the same process. You cannot divorce the three hormones and treat them in such a simple manner as, "More testosterone and estrogen = boys, more progesterone = girls" because SOMETHING is causing your body to produce these different levels of hormones.

That SOMETHING is the key to gender swaying.

When I talk about testosterone supply and demand, what I'm really saying is that there are (at least) two variables in the equation. One is the amount of raw materials you have available to make testosterone with. So we try and control this amount, firstly through diet. For blue swayers, by eating more saturated fats that raise the so-called "bad" cholesterol and also healthy fats that raise the so-called "good" cholesterol, in addition to other various nutrients that help with the process. For pink swayers, we eat less fat and protein and less of the nutrients that are proven to help your body manufacture testosterone (like Vitamins A and D, among others.)

We also take supplements that raise or lower the amount of testosterone circulating in our bodies, raise or lower the amount of cholesterol that our body turns into testosterone (you can have both high cholesterol and low testosterone if your body is not getting the "signal" to produce testosterone), and even raise or lower the amount of testosterone that our bodies make out of whatever raw materials are available (some foods that lower cholesterol actually raise testosterone, like oats).

But all this is to no avail if we do not address the second half of the equation - DEMAND. Pink swayers, if we do not convince our bodies that we need less testosterone in order to survive, it will carry on producing testosterone using whatever it can scrounge up. And blue swayers, if our bodies don't "think" they need testosterone, and in some instances may even survive better without it, it will salvage its energy for other things and continue on with less testosterone.

Our bodies produce testosterone for SURVIVAL. In nature, dominant animals (both physically and socially dominant) face constant challenges to their authority and need that testosterone to maintain their physical and social superiority and take on challengers. Submissive animals have a much better chance of survival if they are non-confrontational and so their testosterone levels tend to drop if they decline challenges, or lose.

It isn't hard to see how this translates into modern-day life. If you're always taking on challenges, both mental and physical, that you enjoy, and you tend to succeed at them, your testosterone levels are probably higher than another person who feels doomed to fail at every endeavor, or who has to struggle and work constantly just to get by, or has been put down and persecuted a lot in life. (This does NOT mean that people with lower T levels are victims or failures, there are many paths to low testosterone.)

Taking it a step further to swaying...

(Note - No one needs to take offense at any of this, it's meant to be general observations and conjecture and not extrapolate to every person. Keep in mind that there are many factors that sway such as smoking and skipping breakfast, which have NOTHING to do with testosterone or dominance whatsoever.)

A lot of boy-moms (aka pink swayers) have tended to be very much go-getters with a tendency to get SUPERobsessed with the details of everything in life, and having the "perfect" sway is just another thing to obsess over. I have seen some boy-moms even say point blank that the reason their GD was so bad is because getting a daughter was the only thing in life that they hadn't "accomplished" and they view swaying as a challenge to be overcome and a prize to be won.

Some of the blue swayers, on the other hand, have been more easily overwhelmed by swaying and feel that they literally CAN'T conceive a baby boy because something is wrong with them or they are being punished in some way. I have also noticed (and this is just a generalization and in no way meant to be offensive to anyone at all) that ~some~ of the girl-moms desperately want sons not for themselves, but for others - their husbands, fathers, or society at large.

Going back to the idea of an equation, it is GREAT for our sway if we do everything we can to increase or limit the supply of raw materials for our body to manufacture into testosterone. But unless we address the demand aspect and work on changing our habits and attitudes as well, our body may simply continue on as it was. Swaying can even aggravate this by making blue swayers feel terribly pressured and discouraged and lowering their testosterone, or making pink swayers focus too much on details and obsessing over every aspect of their sway and raising their levels.

Supply + Demand = testosterone. Even if your supply drops to ZERO - which is impossible because your body will do ANYTHING to keep you alive, even down to making testosterone out of your last cubic centimeter of body fat - if your body senses that you need testosterone, it will continue making it. And even if you have sky high cholesterol, if your body thinks that high testosterone will reduce your overall odds of survival (animals who are physically less able to defend themselves are ill-suited to getting into a lot of fights or even just asserting themselves socially)it will not use that cholesterol to raise your testosterone levels. It will save it for a rainy day when it's needed.

Non-diet and supps ways of increasing demand and raising your testosterone levels - Weight training and moderate exercise (they emulate taking on and overcoming physical challenges) - possibly even something that involves fighting like kickboxing or TaeBo, getting enough sleep, taking on and overcoming challenges (these don't have to be big things, even something small like driving to a new part of town or playing board games with your kids can help), and putting yourself in a position of authority over others can help to raise your testosterone levels. Above all, try to focus on the positive...you CAN conceive a son and if swaying begins to feel overwhelming and undoable to you, take a break and regroup.

Ways of decreasing demand and lowering your testosterone levels - Either NO exercise or extreme exercise, minimum 60 minutes a day, 6-7 days a week (makes your body think you're either keeping your head down and avoid notice, or you're having to work very hard just to survive), getting less sleep than normal, and walking away from arguments and declining challenges that you would ordinarily take on. Above all, you must NOT get obsessed over swaying. If you know you're prone to that kind of thinking, do not include any of the more nitpicky swaying aspects like timing that take a lot of constant monitoring and tracking, because it just keeps it in the forefront of your mind constantly.

Aside from sheer bad luck, testosterone levels are the number one reason why good sways fail. It's not enough just to affect your supply, you must also address demand, in order for your sway to succeed.

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:10 PM

Basic Breads for pink and blue

I thought we could do with a bread thread. There are so many breads on the market that I can't really evaluate them one by one but at least we can add things as we learn them.

As a general rule, whole grain, high nutrient breads are better for blue. It's not too difficult to find good breads for blue, just watch the calcium content!! A couple good breads for blue are the Earthgrains line http://www.earthgrains.com/OurBreads.aspx (thank you flava for finding this!) and some of the wholegrain/nut breads from Franz (these may be available only in the Western US unless you buy them online or if you're dying for some, I can send them to you) Franz Bakery (http://www.usbakery.com/products/nutritional-finder)

Spelt breads are another good choice for blue (thank you Freya for this info) because they are alkalinizing. You can find some spelt breads here Shop Online | Berlin Natural Bakery (http://www.berlinnaturalbakery.com/store.html) Food For Life makes a wide variety of highly nutritious breads Food For Life (http://www.foodforlife.com/our-products) out of sprouted grains.

Watch calcium/magnesium in whole grain breads if you're swaying blue, although wholegrain breads usually contain less calcium than white products do. The good news is, a chemical in whole grains called phytic acid actually blocks absorption of minerals like calcium and magnesium, so even if there is a little in the bread, you may not absorb it. You also may want to take any fat soluble vitamins like fish oil or vitamin D and E at another time of day because the fiber in whole grains can sweep healthy fats out of your digestive tract. Another thing to keep in mind is that for blue, it's best to eat carbs and protein together to keep your blood sugar level nice and even for a long time after you eat.

Pink swayers are more free to mix and match, eating just carbs or just protein or a small amount of both because they're aiming for lower blood sugar levels.

Empty calorie refined breads are better for pink...be sure to check for sodium content if you are a pink swayer though because white breads are LOADED with sodium! In In Australia there are products called Moore's Low Sodium bread and Country Life bread http://www.countrylifebakery.com.au/products.php that may be helpful. In the US, Pepperidge Farms bread http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/Produc...aspx?catID=749 and Ezekiel Breadhttp://www.foodforlife.com/ are also low in sodium, although Ezekiel Bread is very healthy in other ways and so be somewhat blue-friendly. Wonder Bread http://www.wonderbread.com/bread-types.html is calcium-enriched but not low in sodium.

If you live in the UK, here is a thread about low sodium breads and crackers available for you.

The best breads of all for pink (Thank you jd03pd for finding this!!) may be found from the Ener-G company, online here - http://www.ener-g.com/wholesale/low-...ed-breads.html - some of these breads are low calorie, low sodium, and low protein!!!! They also sell things like pizza shells, crackers, and buns (this is their wholesale site that sells LARGE quantities, so if you want smaller quantities, just Google the product you are interested in and you'll find several sites that just sell one or two loaves of bread.)

Some links to low-sodium breads, torillas, and crackers - Healthy Heart Market- Low Sodium and No Sodium Food Products. Quick shipping. - Bread & Tortillas (http://healthyheartmarket.com/breadandtortillas.aspx) http://www.lowsaltfoods.com/food_cen...ods/breads.htm
http://www.saltwatcher.com./cgi-bin/...earch&product= &keywords=bread&cart_id=3857608_18112

One person had success requesting that their local Publix bakery make them some low sodium bread - Thank you Publix!!! It is worth a try even if you do not live near a Publix, if you ask at various places you may find someone willing to do it!

Low sodium tortillas can be found here: http://www.jadworks.com/jadworks/ltf...ion=Products** and here http://www.tumaros.com/productlist.a...eart+Tortillas (although these are not super low in sodium so beware!) and ALL corn tortillas are sodium free, although they are alkalinizing due to the lye used to process the corn - if you fry corn tortillas in a bit of unsalted butter, they are a good alternative to bread with a meal.

Other alternatives are pita bread, rice cakes, flatbreads, crackers - just watch to make sure you are getting as little sodium as you can in these products. Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n...4326011&page=1) You can also use a leaf of lettuce as a wrap, in place of a bread product.

Links to products that you might want to use when making your own breads -

EnerG low sodium egg-replacer - you can use this in place of real eggs in bread, for lower protein and sodium content http://www.ener-g.com/wholesale/low-...-replacer.html (this is wholesale so Google to find a retailer who will sell you just one)

Sodium-free baking powder - http://www.hainpurefoods.com/product...p?prod_id=1842 and http://www.ener-g.com/wholesale/low-...ng-powder.html (this is wholesale, so Google to find a retailer that will sell you just one)

And Sodium-free baking soda - http://www.ener-g.com/wholesale/low-...ng-powder.html (this is wholesale!) Also very high in calcium!!!

PLEASE NOTE - you may have to adjust the quantity of baking powder/soda if you use a sodium-free kind - there will be instructions on the can.

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2305-basic-breads-pink-blue.html

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:12 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1829-many-marvelous-milks-pink-blue.html
Many Marvelous Milks! For Pink and Blue.

Which milk is best for swaying? It may not be what you think! Let's take a quick look at the various incarnations of milk and milk substitutes and see what they really contain nutritionally.

As a reminder or if you're a newbie - the best, most scientific evidence we have seems to indicate that a high nutrient, high calorie, high protein, high fat, high sodium diet seems to sway blue and a low nutrient, low calorie, low protein, low fat, low sodium diet seems to sway pink. There is also some good evidence to indicate that low blood glucose levels to sway pink while medium blood glucose levels seem to sway blue.

Traditionally, high calcium and magnesium intake has been linked to more girls while high sodium and potassium intake has been linked to more boys. And foods that acidify the body are believed to sway pink while foods that make the body more alkaline are believed to sway blue. So the best milk for swaying a particular gender should reflect ALL of those needs overall.

DAIRY - Dairy milk is a traditional part of the girl sway because of its high calcium levels, but there are some problems with dairy that make it pink-unfriendly. It's very high in protein and fat, and has a LOT of sodium and potassium. In fact, it's mighty tough to get enough calcium through dairy beverages without exceeding your recommended sodium and potassium levels. And MANY people cannot even digest milk (please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-CONTROVERSIAL for more info).

Dairy also has tons of calories, fat, protein, it may elevate your blood glucose levels, and full fat milks are loaded with cholesterol, which is the building block of testosterone. It does tend to be acidic in your body.

WHOLE MILK - Per cup - 146 calories, 8 grams protein, 8 grams of fat, 25 mg of cholesterol

Calcium 276mg Magnesium 24.4mg Potassium 349mg Sodium 97.6mg (so in order to get roughly 25 mg of magnesium, you're ingesting 350 mg potassium and almost 100 mg of sodium in ONE CUP.)

Zinc 1.0mg Vit. A - 250 IU Vit. D - 98 IU (Zinc is known to sway blue when men take it, and Vit A and Vit. D probably sway blue in men and women, by raising testosterone.)

On balance, I think that whole milk is better for

2% MILK - Per cup, 122 calories, 8 grams protein, 5 grams fat, 20 mg cholesterol.

Calcium 286mg Magnesium 26.8mg Potassium 366mg Sodium 100mg

Zinc 1 mg Vit A 461 IU Vit D 105 IU

On balance, I think 2% milk is better for

SKIM MILK - per cup, 91 calories, a little less than 1 gram fat, 9 grams protein, 5 mg cholesterol

Calcium 316 mg Magnesium 36 mg Potassium 420 sodium 130 mg

Zinc 1 mg Vit. A 500 IU Vit D 98 IU (BUT...without fat, the Vit. A and Vit D will probably not be as well absorbed.)

One other downside of skim - it may make your blood sugar rise more than whole or 2% will.

One unknown about skim vs. whole milk - whole milk seems to BOOST fertility while skim milk seems to reduce it. Pretty much everything that boosts fertility seems to sway blue and pretty much everything that reduces it seems to sway pink.

On balance, I think skim milk is better for

CREAM AND HALF AND HALF -

Both have more fat, calories, and cholesterol than whole milk, BUT you use them in such small amounts that I think in moderation (as in no more than once a day for pink swayers or twice for blue swayers) you can use them to perk up EITHER sway. They do have some nutrients but again, you use so little of them that it's almost irrelevant. I think they're overall better for because of the calories and fat and when used sparingly, they have very little calcium.

For a blue sway you may wish to use a little cream in your mashed potatoes or in a gravy for meat or to liven up soups. Or, you may choose instead to use some half and half in your green tea.

For a pink sway, you could make a sugarfree Italian soda with a tablespoon of cream, or put some on strawberries with aspartame as a dessert.

NONDAIRY CREAMER - 10 calories per teaspoon with a half-gram of fat. No protein, sodium, cholesterol, or nutrients of any sort.

Nondairy creamer is traditionally used in a blue sway as a milk replacement. And that's ok if you want to use it now and then in your tea. But some people really go overboard with the nondairy creamer and start putting it into pasta sauces and stuff like that and I think that is a bad idea for two reasons.

Firstly because it is taking the place of more nutritious things that you could be eating instead (remember, the best science indicates that high fat, high protein, high calorie, high nutrient diet leads to more boys being conceived.) So every time you choose nondairy creamer over a more nutrient-rich food, it is an opportunity wasted to send a signal to your body that times are good and a boy pregnancy would be desirable.

Secondly, nondairy creamers are PACKED full of chemicals. Evidence indicates that chemicals in pesticides and food additives may build up in the human body and affect hormones, leading to more girls being conceived. So it is best to avoid chemical additives as much as possible when swaying blue and probably when trying to get pregnant all together.

On balance, ok in moderation for or but is probably not the best idea for anyone trying to get pregnant.

Disclaimer - a lot of these products vary slightly in nutrition between brands and formulation. I tried to find the most commonly available brand but just know you will need to double and triple check these numbers to make sure that you're getting the best product for your needs.

SOYMILKS - in about 1 cup of soy milk, there are 131 calories, 7-8 grams protein, 4 grams fat, and no cholesterol. (more calories than skim but less than the other dairy milks have. Less fat than whole or 2% milk, and no cholesterol; however it may be fortified wiht and/or naturally contain, depending on how it was processed, essential fatty acids, which sway blue. Slightly less protein but this varies by brand.)

Calcium 60 mg magnesium 60 mg sodium 124 mg potassium 287 mg (so MORE magnesium and LESS sodium and potassium than cow's milk!)

Zinc - .3 mg Vit. A - 7 IU Vit D - 0- 119 IU (the amount of Vit. D varies between brands. Most do have added Vit. D and others don't.)

The Great Soy Debate - Soy has ingredients called "phytoestrogens" that some believe sway blue because they act like estrogen in the body, and some believe that estrogen sways blue; therefore, these people believe that soy sways blue. However, this may have been debunked. From the Silk Soymilk website "Myth: Soy contains estrogen. Reality: Soy does not contain the hormone estrogen. It does, however, contain isoflavones, also known as phytoestrogens or "plant estrogens." While the chemical structure of isoflavones is similar to estrogen, the two function very differently in the body."

Very differently?? The chemical structure of isoflavones is so similar to estrogen, it may actually have the effect of keeping estrogen from being used (in effect, lowering estrogen) by competing for the available estrogen receptor sites.

Regardless of what the Silk website claims, soy isoflavones CLEARLY do SOMETHING to affect fertility because women can use concentrated soy isoflavones as a natural form of Clomid. It is unknown exactly how soy works and whether just drinking soy milk is enough to affect anything or if you have to be taking medicinal quantities. Some scientific evidence has indicated that soy may reduce overall fertility and lower testosterone and sperm count Clinical and biological act... [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17416779) http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science...oy-consumption (Silk Soymilk also has a bit debunking this, but the disclaimer is that it says "no HUMAN studies have shown this...to me, that's not really totally reassuring.)

Soy contains some other ingredients like phytic acid (blocks mineral absorption) and other phytochemicals genistein and daidzein that may affect fertility in a negative way. As we known, pretty much everything that reduces fertility, seems to sway pink. In fact as I said above, one of these phytochemicals, genistein, due to its similarity to estrogen, competes with estrogen for estrogen receptors and may actually reduce the effects of estrogen!

Traditional swaying lore claims that soy sways strongly blue not only because of the phytoestrogens because it is alkalinizing and increases EWCM but I don't believe the data supports that claim (because it lowers testosterone, competes with estrogen reduces fertility/sperm count and is lower in sodium/potassium than cow's milk).

Soy milk is slightly acid.

On balance, I think soy milk is better for especially for DH.

WARNING - One study found a link between dietary intake of soy during pregnancy and birth defects in the genitalia of baby boys. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

RICE MILK - Calories 120 Fat 2.5g Cholesterol 0mg Protein 1 g

Calcium 240 mg Sodium 80mg Potassium - 0 (although there is a kind of Heart-Wise Rice Dream that DOES have a small amount of potassium and plant sterols that may help lower cholesterol) I could not find any info on magnesium, but that doesn't mean that it's not in there - brown rice, from which rice milk is made, has a lot of magnesium.

Vitamin A 10% Vitamin D 25% (sorry I couldn't find the actual numbers for this one!) and I also couldn't find out how much Zinc it has. There is some zinc in brown rice.

Also, rice milk is said to be slightly acidifying.

On balance, I think rice milk is better for . There are also brands of unfortified rice milk available without calcium in them that might be desirable for . Check the labels, if it has calcium, it's probably more girl friendly. Still, even unfortified rice milk is low in fat and protein and there are better options available for blue swayers.

ALMOND MILK - in 1 cup - Calories 40 Total Fat 4 g Protein 1 g Cholesterol 0 mg And the fats are "good" fats.

Sodium 180 mg Potassium 190 mg Calcium 285 mg Again, I couldn't find info on how much magnesium is in almond milk, but almonds are a rich source of magnesium so I assume it has some.

Vitamin A 10% Vit. D 25% (sorry) and I couldn't find any info on zinc, but again, nuts being a rich source of zinc makes me think that almond milk is rich in zinc as well. Plus, an added benefit is that 1 cup had 50% of your day's RDA for Vitamin E, and ingesting Vit. A, D and E together with healthy fats is a GREAT way to boost your testosterone.

Note - My son and I did not care for the taste of almond milk (we are both lactose intolerant). We both preferred the flavor of Silk Soymilk and Rice Dream ricemilk over the almond milk, although the chocolate was a lot better than the vanilla.

I saw almonds listed as alkaline and almond milk listed as acidic. It's a toss up.

ON balance, I think almond milk is better for TTC a boy.

OAT MILK - Calories 130 Total Fat 2.5g Cholesterol 0mg Protein 4g

Sodium 110mg Potassium 120mg Calcium 36% Oats are a rich source of magnesium but no numbers available.

Vitamin A 10% Vitamin D 25% Oats have zinc, but ~may~ absorb and remove zinc from your digestive tract. Take your zinc supplements at a different time of day than you drink oat milk.

Oats are full of soluble fiber and ~may~ absorb fat soluble vitamins from the digestive tract. For this reason, blue swayers should take your supplements, particularly A,D, and E and your fish/flax/evening primrose oil, at a different time of day than when you drink oat milk.

Oats are a rich source of phytochemicals called avenocasides that have been shown to raise testosterone. Foods That Stimulate Testosterone Production | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/about_5367326_fo...roduction.html)

Oats are acidic according to some lists and then alkaline on some others.

On balance, I think oatmilk is better for

Coconut milk - (I'm not talking about the coconut milk that comes in cans and is used for cooking, this is a soy milk-style beverage sold under the brand name Pure Coconut) In one cup - 80 calories 5 grams of fat (all saturated) Protein - 1 g No Cholesterol.

Calcium 45% Sodium 30 g Potassium 40 g (this is really the lowest in terms of sodium and potassium). Again, magnesium is unknown but coconut does have magnesium itself so it is likely in the milk.

Vit A 10% Vit D 25% Zinc - could not find a number but coconut does have zinc.

Coconut is alkalinizing and raises testosterone due to the high levels of saturated fat. It is a good choice to drink when taking fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and essential fatty acids like fish oil, flax, evening primrose because the fat content will aid absorption.

On balance, I think coconut is better for

Hazelnut milk - per cup - 120 calories 3.5g fat 2 g protein and no cholesterol.

Calcium 30% Magnesium (not listed) Potassium 60 mg Sodium 120 mg

Vit A 10% Vit D 25% Zinc - hazelnuts do have some zinc so it is probably present in the milk.

I couldn't find whether hazelnuts are acid or alkaline. They are believed to raise testosterone due to their good fats.

On balance, I can see hazelnut milk fitting into a or sway. It is very low in potassium, fat, sodium, and protein while having calcium so it could help sway pink. On the other hand it does have some sodium and good fats so could help sway blue.

Hemp Milk - in one cup, 140 calories 5 g fat 3 g protein, and no cholesterol. Hemp is said to be an almost perfect source of fatty acids.

Calcium 50% Magnesium 25% Potassium 170 mg Sodium 130 mg

Vit A 10% Vit D 30% and is a good source of zinc.

Hemp is slightly acidic and is believed to raise testosterone due to the quality of its fatty acids.

On balance, hemp milk seems that it could fit in in either a or sway. It's lower in protein, potassium, and sodium than cow's milk while being very high in calcium, and it is acidic. On the other hand, it has a lot of good fats and boy-friendly nutrients and probably raises testosterone.

Buyer's guide - Here are some commonly available brands of these milks. Some can be ordered online or found in bulk...I get Rice Dreams in a 12 pack at Costco for much less than I can get it in my local supermarket.

Our Products | Silk Soymilk, Made with Soy - One of Nature's Perfect Proteins (http://silksoymilk.com/products) (make a variety of very high quality soy milks and almond milk)

Silk - Pure Coconut coconutmilk (http://www.silkpurecoconut.com/) (coconut milk made by Silk)

RICE DREAM -- Delicious, rice-based beverages and desserts. (http://www.tastethedream.com/products/rice_dream.php) (Rice Dreams brand, most famous for rice milk, but also make soy, almond, and hemp milk)

http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-food...rain-beverages (almond, rice, hemp, hazelnut, and oat milks)

Pacific Natural Foods » Our Foods » Soy Beverages (http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-foods/soy-beverages) (soy)

Products - 8th Continent Soymilk (http://www.8thcontinent.com/products/) (soy)

Blue Diamond Growers : Our Products : Almond Breeze® (http://www.bluediamond.com/index.cfm?navid=33) (almond)

Living Harvest | Living Harvest Foods is the global leader in hemp food products (http://www.livingharvest.com/) (hemp)

You also may find some store brand soy milks available. I tried the Safeway brand of soymilk a couple times and it was not real tasty unfortunately.

Recipes - It IS possible to make some of these milks at home if you're so inclined. The advantage would be that you could NOT fortify them with vitamins, so if you were swaying blue and you were avoiding calcium, you could conceivably whip up some lower-calcium almond milk, or a pink swayer could make their own rice milk without essential fatty acids and Vitamin D added.

You can even buy your own machine to make these at home if you are that kind of gal (or guy)!
http://www.soymilkquick.com/index.php (this site also has a lot of recipes)

Soy Milk Recipes:

Making Tofu and Soy Milk at Home -- Ellen's Kitchen - faqs (http://www.ellenskitchen.com/faqs/tofumilk.html)
Simple Soy Milk Recipe - Home Cooking - Chowhound (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/423560)
MAKING HOMEMADE SOY MILK IN YOUR SOY MILK MAKING MACHINE (http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/638376.htm)
How to make soy milk at home. (http://www.soya.be/how-to-make-soy-milk.php)

Rice Milk Recipes:

D I Y Rice Milk Recipe - Food.com - 51109 (http://www.food.com/recipe/d-i-y-rice-milk-51109) (very basic)
http://onlysometimesclever.wordpress...e-milk-recipe/ (quite a good and thorough recipe)
http://www.veganreader.com/2009/05/1...ng-rice-dream/ (you have to scroll through a preachy post to get to this recipe!)
http://www.nomilk.com/ricemilk.txt

Almond/Hazelnut Milk Recipes (you make them roughly the same way)
Living and Raw Foods: Recipe - Almond Milk (http://www.living-foods.com/recipes/almondmilk.html)
Paleo/Primal Almond Nut Milk Recipes (http://www.paleofood.com/nmilks.htm)
All-Natural Almond Milk Recipe (http://drbenkim.com/recipesalmondmilk.html)
http://www.elanaspantry.com/got-milk/

Oat Milk Recipes
Homemade Fruit-Sweetened Oat Milk Recipe - Go Dairy Free (http://www.godairyfree.org/Dairy-Sub.../Oat-Milk.html)
Milk Alternatives- Homemade & Store Bought (http://iskra.tripod.com/nomilk/altmilk.htm) (actually also has recipes for other kinds of milk as well)
http://www.living-foods.com/articles...ubstitute.html
http://ashy-macbean.com/drinks/walnut-oat-milk.htm (this one has oats AND walnuts for maximum boy-friendliness LOL)

Hemp Milk and other -

I didn't really like the quality of the hemp milk recipes other than the one on this link so I will skip those (they were overly complicated and required special equipment). In addition to hemp, you can make a similar milk out of a variety of things using this recipe, like other kinds of nuts, seeds, sprouts, grains, etc.

http://kristensraw.blogspot.com/2009...egan-milk.html

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:14 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2038-sweetening-up-your-sway-pink-blue.html
Sweetening up your sway! For pink and blue!

WARNING - if you have hypoglycemia, diabetes, PCOS, or insulin resistance, please read before you sway. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...t=hypoglycemia

Do sweeteners sway? And how? Let’s take a look at the various sweeteners!

SWEETENERS THAT WORK FOR EITHER SWAY

WHITE SUGAR and

Sugar is acidifying.

Eating sugar either alone or with other refined carbs also causes blood glucose levels to rise high and then crash, also swaying pink.

However, eating carbs/sweets and protein together will keep your blood sugar in a boy-friendly zone for a long time after eating. It is also a source of calories (1 teaspoon contains 25 calories, while a packet contains 15) and gaining weight will help you conceive a boy. Keep an eye on your pH to make sure it is not affected by sugar.

Conclusion - sugar by itself sways pink, sugar eaten with protein sways blue. Organic sugar http://www.hainpurefoods.com/product...at_name=sugars may be a better choice for blue because it is raised without pesticides.

BROWN SUGAR - and

See info for sugar above. Brown sugar has slightly more nutrients than white sugar does but despite claims to the contrary, causes just as high a rise/drop in blood sugar.

Sugar in the Raw contains 20 calories per packet and is less refined than other sugars are (more essential nutrients are left behind), so may be a better choice for blue.

CORN SYRUP/CANE JUICE/RICE SYRUP or

Corn syrup, along with its dopplegangers cane juice and rice syrup, is acidifying (Brown Rice Syrup is listed on some lists as alkalinizing but I am not sure about that, because rice syrup was listed as acid). These sweeteners work similarly to sugar, raising blood glucose levels and then dropping them sharply unless eaten along with protein. Cane juice and rice syrup are often touted as a natural, healthier alternative to corn syrup but they affect your body in the exact same way - sugar cane juice may be better for blue than evaporated cane juice because it's less concentrated and has less effect on blood glucose levels.

SWEETENERS THAT ARE BOY FRIENDLY

STEVIA/TRUVIA

Unlike most other artificial sweeteners, Truvia is based on Stevia, an alkalinizing herb. However it also contains Erythritol (see above)

Truvia does not raise blood sugar levels and has no calories. Some very old studies seemed to indicate that stevia may reduce fertility, but subsequent studies have not supported this finding. Since it is a new sweetener, it’s probably best to avoid it during the 2WW.

You can safely cook and bake with Truvia. Stevia recipes for Beverages, Breads & Muffins, Breakfast Foods, Desserts, Jams & Jellies, Salads, Soups, (http://www.stevia.com/Stevia_Recipes.aspx)

Conclusion - Truvia is better for blue.

Note - Look for Zevia, Zevia Zero Calorie Soda - No Artificial Sweeteners. All Natural. The Smarter Soda. (http://www.zevia.com/), a soda sweetened with stevia.

MAPLE SYRUP

In a lot of ways maple syrup seems like just another sweetener but it is actually more boy-friendly than the other sugars and corn syrups. It does not affect blood glucose levels as strongly. (care should still be taken to eat it along with protein though.) It is considered neutral in pH and has a lot of nutrients (especially the boy-friendly zinc) that have been refined out of other sweeteners. Try to find the least refined maple syrup that you can and DO NOT USE the kind in the grocery store that has been mixed with other sweeteners to stretch it.

Note - there is some calcium in maple syrup so you will need to account for that if you are swaying blue.

Conclusion - Maple syrup is better for blue but watch your calcium!

HONEY

Raw honey is alkalinizing, while processed honey is weakly acidifying.

Honey does contain natural sugars, and can have a similar effect on blood glucose levels as any sugar can. However, it affects blood glucose levels in a gentler way than sugar does, making it more blue-friendly. Regardless, care should be taken to eat honey along with protein when swaying blue.

Honey, esp. raw honey, contains a lot of other nutrients besides just pure sweetener, making it a better choice for blue. It also contains calories which can make you gain weight.

Conclusion - Honey, particularly raw honey, is better for blue.

MOLASSES

Use ONLY unsulphured 'blackstrap' molasses because the sulphured kind is acidifying.

Molasses is alkalinizing or neutral depending on which list you look at. It is digested more slowly by the body than pure sugar (but you should still eat it with protein when you are swaying blue!) and contains lots of good nutrients in it. Excellent choice for a blue sweetener.

It does have some calcium and magnesium in it and you must account for that in your day's total.

Conclusion - Natural molasses is better for blue.

AGAVE NECTAR

This is a new sweetener that we don't know a lot about yet, but it is quite low on the glycemic index meaning it doesn't cause the huge jump and crash in blood sugar that other sweeteners do. It's actually the best natural sweetener for blood sugar.

Agave nectar is slightly acidic so keep an eye on your pH if you choose to use it. Also, since it is on the new side, I would be wary about eating it during pregnancy or even in the 2WW.

Conclusion - agave nectar is better for blue.

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2038-sweetening-up-your-sway-pink-blue.html
SWEETENERS THAT ARE MORE GIRL FRIENDLY

SPLENDA

Splenda is acidifying.

Splenda has no effect on blood glucose levels. However, it does have some calories (these are not listed on the label but they are in the “bulking” agents and not the sweetener itself. (about 4 cal per teaspoon)

Conclusion - Splenda, esp. Splenda with fiber, is better for pink.

Note about Splenda - Two products you should be aware of is the Splenda that is mixed with half-sugar for baking (when used in baking, Splenda gives an off taste so in order to use it for baking you need the half-sugar product), and also Splenda with fiber (each packet of Splenda with fiber contains one gram of fiber. Fiber helps sweep out nutrients from the digestive tract and so Splenda with fiber may help a pink sway even more than just plain Splenda.

WARNING - I used Splenda a lot when it first came out and I found that it made me have panic attacks. Some others have found that it gave them stomach problems.

SACCARIN (Sweet N Low)

Saccarin is acidifying.

Has no effect on blood glucose levels, zero calories, and no nutrition. You can use it to bake with and the flavor will not change. The chemical nature of saccarin may sway pink by reducing fertility. Please note, if you’re taking baby aspirin as a part of your sway, baby aspirin has saccarin in it.

Conclusion - Saccarin is better for pink.

WARNING - If you are allergic to sulfa drugs, you should not consume saccarin. Saccarin has been linked to cancer, particularly amongst smokers. Children should not consume saccarin. Pregnant women should use very little saccarin if any so you may want to avoid it during the 2 WW. May cause skin problems.

ACESULFAME-K

Acesulfame-K is acidifying.

Even though it passes through the body unchanged and does not raise blood glucose levels, it may trigger a release of insulin that can make blood sugar levels drop dramatically. The chemical nature of Ace-K may affect fertility negatively, swaying pink.

It can be used for baking although it has a bitter taste on its own (that is why you usually see it in the presence of other artificial sweeteners).

Believed to be safe for pregnant women.

Conclusion - Acesulfame-K is better for pink.

WARNING - The Center for Science in the Public Interest believes that the studies done on this sweetener were badly designed and didn’t properly test its safety.

ASPARTAME

Aspartame is acidifying.

4 calories per gram. Does not affect blood glucose levels. The chemical nature of Aspartame may affect fertility negatively, swaying pink.

Believed safe for pregnant women but DO NOT exceed dosage below during the 2WW. Cannot be used for baking and should not be used warm because it may hasten the breakdown of aspartame into harmful chemicals.

Conclusion - Aspartame is better for pink.

WARNING - If you have PKU, DO NOT use aspartame. The FDA has set the acceptable daily intake at 50mg per kg of body weight. That averages out to about 4 cans of diet soda per day. Many swayers ingest MUCH more of this chemical. Please be warned that this level of intake is not approved by the FDA. May cause headaches and a bad taste in the mouth. Some research has shown a link between aspartame and psychiatric disorders such as anxiety attacks.

SORBITOL, MANNITOL, XYLITOL and the rest of the Polyol family - or but mostly

If it ends in -ol, stop here!

These are sugars that are found naturally in fruits, isolated and turned into artificial sweeteners. They are commonly referred to as “sugar alcohols”. The polyol family is acidifying.

These sweeteners DO have carbs and may raise blood glucose levels, and in turn, insulin levels, to a certain extent. However, this process is slower than in pure sugar (slower rise in blood sugar levels may sway blue) and the carbs that are present are not fully digested by the body (that is why they are considered “low carb” foods - because the body cannot use the carbs - but chemically they do still have carbs.) The newer generation of sugar alcohols, such as erythritol, isomalt, inulin and maltitol syrup may have less of an effect on blood sugar/insulin levels than the older sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol do.

They do contain calories and are often found in junk products that have a lot of empty calories as well (such as diet candy bars). Remember for swaying pink, you want LESS calories overall so it may be better not to “waste” calories on junk, and for swaying blue, you want more quality calories so you can probably make a much better choice on where to “spend” your calories. Some people genetically seem to digest more of the calories in sugar alcohols than other people do so it may be somewhat tough to predict the effect they will have on you.

The sugar alcohols often cause stomach issues in sensitive people which may reduce nutrient absorption. That may help sway pink.

There is some conflicting info about whether or not the sugar alcohols are acidifying or not.

Conclusion - Prob better for pink, overall. BUT do not eat these sweeteners with protein if you have an option not to. The carbs in the sugar alcohols will make your blood sugar rise at least a little, then the protein will keep your blood sugar high for long periods after you eat.

Alternatively, these sugar alcohols may be an option for you if you are finding you are gaining a lot of weight on the TTC blue diet but again, there are so many better options out there.

WARNING - Because sugar alcohols are not completely absorbed, they hold on to a lot of water in the bowel. This causes diarrhea. Also, the intestinal bacteria CAN digest the sugar alcohols, resulting in gas and bloating. Sorbitol and mannitol are the worst and erythritol is supposed to be the least likely to trigger this reaction.

SWEETENERS THAT WE ARE NOT SURE ABOUT

LO-HAN OR LUO HAN GUO - This is a very new sweetener and it sounds very intriguing. It's natural and based on a Chinese fruit. But not enough info is known for me to render an opinion either way. AT first glance it seems like it would be boy-friendly because it's natural and doesn't make your blood sugar rise, but it contains a compound that may actually lower blood glucose levels, making it better for pink. I also am a bit wary about its use prior to pregnancy since not a lot is known about it just yet.

NUTSHELL VERSION - For TTC pick natural sweeteners that are less refined and have the maximum amount of additional nutrients. The only artificial sweetener that is boy-friendly is Truvia. Eat sweeteners WITH protein to keep your blood glucose levels nice and even for a long time after you eat.

For TTC Use refined, low nutrient sweeteners or artificial sweeteners. Most artificial sweeteners are girl-friendly. If you do eat sugary sweets, eat them alone, with no protein. They will make your blood sugar rise but then drop sharply because your body releases lots of insulin to digest them.

WARNING - if you have hypoglycemia, diabetes, PCOS, or insulin resistance, please read http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...t=hypoglycemia

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:15 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/2159-water-water-everywhere-pink-blue.html

Water, water everywhere! For pink and blue!

Is it something in the water? And what are the best waters for conceiving a baby boy or girl? Find out what is best and worst for your sway!

One of the first things people jokingly tell you when they hear you have a lot of a particular gender is "Stop drinking the water!" Since we all drink at least some water every day, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that water in and of itself has some sort of magical property that is causing you to conceive a child of a particular gender. People have spent a lot of money on fancy mineral waters hoping to get their DG but how necessary is it, really?

The answer is, probably not very necessary at all. If ONE food or drink, especially something as fundamental to existence as water, could overwhelmingly lead to the production of all one gender child, the human race would have died out a long time ago. The first time humans settled down by a lake or river for an extended period the gender ratio would have skewed out of control. The water from various lakes in just one state (Utah) varies from 6 to 9 depending on the other minerals present.

In modern times, if this idea were true, we would find some cities producing large amounts of one gender, year after year, while others would produce mostly the other gender. At the very least, we would surely see some isolated villages somewhere in the world that constantly had mostly boys or mostly girls. That there are no such places and the gender ratio is pretty close to 50-50 wherever you go, leads me to think that water is probably not an overwhelming factor.

That having been said, in our modern world there are chemicals like pesticides and pollutants that may be present in water that may sway in some way, even if water itself doesn't. Some water may even dissolve harmful minerals and BPA from pipes and drinking cups!

We all want to have the very best sway we can, so even if it's just a minor factor, let's take a look the various waters available!

Qualities of water that may sway:

pH - A lot of concern has been given to the pH of your drinking water. People have tested their water and panicked if the pH was 7 or so. But the pH of water is usually between 6 and 8. The natural pH of pure water is 7 and most of the babies who have ever been born on the face of the planet have been born to parents drinking water at this pH.

Waters both very low in pH and very high in pH are toxic to plant and animal life and because of this, it's highly unlikely that we would have evolved/been designed by God to require either very high or very low pH water to conceive children of a particular gender.

Waters that tend to be very low in pH are "soft" water, water from a reverse osmosis water system, water from watersheds that have pine/fir forests, and carbonated waters. Rain water is also somewhat acidic due to the presence of dissolved carbon dioxide (same ingredient as in carbonated water). Because they are acidic, they tend to be corrosive and may dissolve harmful metals in pipes into your drinking water and BPAs from plastic cups and bottles which may affect fertility negatively (swaying pink).

They also may be higher in pesticide residue and pollutants because they haven't been filtered through the ground like hard waters have. However, low pH water is considered better for cleaning clothes and skin and may even kill germs if the pH is low enough so it is not without its benefits!

Waters that are higher in pH are "hard" waters. Well water, ground water, and other water from aquifers is usually (not always, but usually) hard because it is filtered through the rocks and soil in the ground and picks up varying levels of minerals which in turn affect pH. Interestingly, hard waters are higher in dissolved mineral content (see Mineral Content below). Hard waters are believed to be better for human health than soft waters are due to their mineral content and their healthier, higher pH.

You can see from this map http://water.usgs.gov/owq/map1.jpeg the naturally occuring distribution of soft and hard waters and BOTH boys and girls are conceived in these parts of the country.

MINERAL CONTENT

For a great resource for checking the mineral content (calcium, magnesium, sodium) in many US city's waters and also various brands of bottled waters in both the US and Europe, please see the following excellent link Comparison of the Mineral Content of Tap Water and Bottled Waters (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495189/). Please note that despite having various concentrations of cal/mag/sodium in the drinking water and correspondingly low/high pH, people who live in the cities described in this study STILL have roughly 50-50 boys and girls.

As I said above, low pH soft water tends to be lacking in calcium and magnesium. This soft water is made one of three ways.

Distillation removes all minerals from the water and may not even be healthy to drink because water "wants" to have minerals in it and so distilled water may react in your body to leach minerals that you need to survive.

Reverse osmosis lowers pH and is commonly recommended to pink swayers, but removes calcium and magnesium from the water.

Water softeners replace calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions. Soft water may be an unexpected source of sodium intake and so if you're following the French Gender Diet or aspects of it and you have a water softener, you need to drink only bottled water.

Also, since the low pH is corrosive, soft water may contain minerals you DON'T want like lead, mercury, excessive amounts of copper, all dissolved from your or your city's old plumbing pipes.

On the other hand, high pH hard water has plenty of calcium and magnesium and varying levels of sodium. Also, many hard waters are considered "buffered" meaning they contain so many dissolved minerals that they are somewhat immune to the effects of adding acids and bases to water, making them less likely to change pH.

Special note about sulfur - sulfur is not considered a "swaying" mineral like cal, mag, pot, and sodium are BUT it is common in many health waters. Sulfur is acidic, but is an antioxidant and may raise testosterone, so it's probably best to avoid waters that are very sulfur-heavy if you are TTC pink, and use with caution for blue while keeping an eye on pH.

Some people have heard that carbonated water causes calcium to leach from your bones. This isn't true, it's caffeinated soda that supposedly causes calcium to leach from your bones (and you would have to drink gallons a day for months for that to happen, plus it's not entirely sure as to whether that is a good or bad thing for a sway anyway). Here's an interesting thread where that is discussed. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/show...3382#post23382

OTHER CHEMICALS PRESENT IN WATER

Low pH, soft water is highly corrosive. It dissolves pipes releasing toxic minerals into the water, causes harmful BPAs to leach from plastic drinking cups, and is very responsive to changes in pH due to the lack of buffering minerals, so it becomes even more acidic than normal when exposed to acidic pollutants.

Also, the reasons why water is low in pH to begin with are pollutants in the air (such as sulfuric and nitric acid which produces acid rain) and watershed pollutants like mine drainage and industrial runoff.

All these things may sway pink (if you Google "pesticides and sex ratio" or "toxins and sex ratio" you will come up with dozens of hits - too many to link here).

Higher pH hard water contains buffering agents that make it less likely to become acidic even when exposed to acidic or highly basic pollutants.

NUTSHELL VERSION

Low pH soft water, despite having less of the girl-friendly minerals calcium and magnesium, probably sways pink due to its increased levels of toxic chemicals, but that is not really a sway I personally would want to have.

Higher pH water, despite having higher levels of girl-friendly calcium and magnesium, is better for blue not only because of the pH but also because it is healthier overall which is helpful for fertility and swaying for boys.

BOTTLED WATERS THAT PROBABLY SWAY PINK

In no particular order! I'm just sticking with the brands that I have seen commonly available. A couple of great resources in the hunt for boy/girl friendly bottled waters around the world, be sure to check out these cool sites - Bottled Water - Comprehensive Worldwide Bottled Water Resource - FineWaters (http://www.finewaters.com) - Water from all over the World (http://mineralwaters.org/index.php)

My criteria is a good balance of low pH, mineral content, and carbonation.

It is probably best for pink to stay away from waters marked as moderate or high mineral content because they often have a lot of sodium.

Aquafina and Dasani - both made from reverse osmosis and low pH. Aquafina does not have minerals added back in, while Dasani does. However, it looked to me like Dasani has potassium and magnesium, no calcium. Neither are carbonated (carbonation may add additional acidity.) I don't love the taste of either of these.

Perrier Water - Low in pH, high in calcium, low sodium, and carbonated. Plus it tastes GREAT! You can buy it at Costco in big packs and save a lot of money.

Evian Water - Higher in pH but contains both calcium and magnesium, with lower sodium. It is not usually carbonated but they have a new kind that is.

San Pellegrino - Higher in pH but contains calcium and magnesium. Does have a bit of sodium. It is carbonated. I don't love the taste of this one at all.

Safeway Refreshe brand Seltzer Water or Schweppes Seltzer - BIG thumbs up from me. It's just carbonated water but helps to keep cravings at bay. I drink it a lot when I'm dieting in place of pop or beer. DO NOT buy club soda.

Tonic water - You can get this as a store brand from Safeway or else Schweppes makes it. It's quite low in pH and contains quinine which may lower testosterone. Thanks to lindi for finding this for us! Quinine lowers serum and testicular testos... [Afr J Med Med Sci. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17722807)

You can also mix in aspartame to water of any pH to make it more acidic and girl-friendly.

BOTTLED WATERS THAT ARE PROBABLY BETTER FOR BLUE

Arrowhead - High pH and low cal/mag content. Look for the uncarbonated Arrowhead. Tastes good.

Sparkletts - Slightly acidic but low cal/mag content with a little bit of sodium. Be sure to get uncarbonated water.

Crystal Geyser - High pH with good amount of sodium and lower levels of calcium and magnesium

Club Soda - this is sold either as a store brand (see Safeway seltzer above) or by the Schweppes company. It has baking soda IN sparkling water and is higher in sodium due to the baking soda. Great replacement for pop and beer on the boy diet.

Evamore Bottled Water PH of 8.8 to 9. (thanks to iluvmyman for this) Available at BevMo.
http://www.wateryoucanfeel.com/secret.html

There is also something called "Alkalizing Drops" that are supposed to raise the pH of your water. Sold here Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=pd_lpo_k...9H8SER7B5RQKNX)

and here :: AlkaVision, Inc. - Products (http://www.alkavision.com/products.html)

Here is a list I stumbled upon but I don't know if it's accurate.

Water with a pH of 4.
Penta Water, Distilled Water, Purified Water, Aquafina (made by Pepsi), Dasani (made by Coke), Glaceau Fruit Water, Le Blue Water, Metro Mint Water, Pellegrino (made by Nestle), Perrier (made by Nestle), Smart Water, and Vitamin Water.
Water with a pH of 4.5.
Reverse Osmosis Water and Ice Age Glacial Water.
Water with a pH of 5.
Appalachian Springs Water and Poland Springs Water (made by Nestle)
Water with a pH of 5.5.
Crystal Springs Water, Dannon Spring Water, Pure American Water.
All of the above bottled waters have an acidic ph, which does not support health waters
Water with a pH of 7.
Arrowhead Water, Crystal Geyser Water, Deep Park Water (made by Nestle), Eldorado Springs Water, Supermarket Spring Water.
Water with a pH of 7.5.
Biota water, Fiji Water, Whole Foods 365 Water, Zephyrhills Water (made by Nestle)
Water with a pH of 7.9.
Eden Springs Water.
Water with a pH of 8.
Deep Rock Water, Evamore Water.
Water with a pH of 10
Filtered Ionized Alkaline Water you make with your own Water Ionizer

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:16 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1421-lunaception.html
Lunaception

"Lunaception" is a term coined by author Louise Lacey in her 1974 book of the same name. Lacey (who freely admits she has NO scientific evidence to support the idea and that it is entirely based on "native wisdom" and anecdote) believes that the moon is capable of altering fertile patterns.

The theory is based on anthropological studies of various cultures that believed that menstruation was somehow tied to the moon. In fact, in many languages, the words for moon and menstruation are even based on common root words - in English, the word menstruation comes from the Latin word "mensis" meaning month, and the word "moon" also seems to stem from that same word (although the Latin word for moon is "luna" so the connection is hardly as straightforward as Lacey would have us think.)

The premise underlying Lunaception is actually quite intriguing. Prior to the invention of electricity, or even the discovery of fire (our ancestors lived for hundreds of millions of years sleeping outdoors without fire), our fertility evolved cyclically, governed by the natural rhythms of the earth, and some of these evolutionary anomalies are still alive and well within us. Much like a tailbone probably once supported tails we no longer grow, our bodies may have latent vestigial biorhythms that we aren't even aware of.

Lacey purports that most women experiences their menstrual cycles with the phases of the moon and at more or less the same time as other women. The idea of menstrual synchrony has been around since the early 70's - a couple of fairly decent studies seem to support the idea that women who live in close quarters with each other, start to ovulate and menstruate on or near to the same schedule. So whether or not the moon has anything to do with it, our tribal ancestors may very well have been all on the rag at the same time.

The conclusion is, that since we evolved sleeping under moon for hundreds of millions of years in close quarters with our fellow female primates, SOMETHING, whether it is gravity, light, or the elusive ion, affects our bodies in such a way that it can enhance or limit our fertility.

Clearly, the gravity of the moon does affect the oceans, so the idea that the moon may have some sort of similar affect on the fluids of the human body makes sense on a gut level. However, the moon's gravitation is not the same around the world (there are no tides at the equator and that's probably where most of our evolutionary past was spent) and high tides occur BOTH when the moon is full and when the moon is new. This is because the highest tides occur when the moon and sun are in alignment and have nothing actually to do with the phases of the moon...when we see a crescent moon for example, the rest of the moon is STILL THERE, we just can't see it. (for a good explanation, see The Moon And Tides (http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/)) So whatever force may underlie lunaception, gravity has nothing to do with it.

Much more likely is that light emanating from the moon somehow affects our body chemistry in such a way as to enhance fertility. Solid science exists to show that day length and artificial light can affect health and fertility. The pineal gland, a little part of the brain referred to as "the third eye", produces melatonin and seems to be affected by light. Interestingly, the ovaries of rats who had their pineal glands removed, grew larger in size, and the ovaries of rats raised in constant bright light were unusually small. Children who have tumors of the pineal gland go into puberty very early. The pineal gland and light apparently DO affect fertility. Why might such a thing have evolved? I don't know what the "official" explanation might be, but to me it seems like ovulating in the full moon makes a heck of a lot of sense, if only so you could see what you're doing!

And what about the idea that this is some leftover instinct caused by menstrual synchrony? Well, it turns out that menstrual synchrony may not even be real. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...y-really-exist Now, I worked in a dog kennel for 2 years and I did notice that female dogs (yes I know that's not the right terminology but this is a family website LOL) kept in the same pen did seem to cycle together, but it was very far from 100% of the time. So I have to put this into the plausible category as well, but not proven.

So then, there may be something to it. How do you use Lunaception for boosting fertility, regulating cycles, and swaying?

One of the most intriguing things I have noticed about gender swaying is, anything that seems to boost fertility, seems to sway blue, and anything that seems to reduce fertility seems to sway pink. (Even Clomid - although it does trigger ovulation it reduces fertility in other ways by creating hostile cervical mucus and a less inviting uterine lining.)

According to the book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Chistiane Northrop MD, studies have shown that peak levels of conception (and concurrently, ovulation since ya can't exactly conceive without it) take place at the full moon. During the new moon, conception/ovulation rates are lowest, and more women begin their menstrual bleeding during the new moon. This is borne out 9 months later when more women go into labor during a full moon - of course conventional wisdom chalks it up to "full moon lunacy" but it may actually be because those pregnant women conceived during the full moon and are simply due to deliver their babies then! And many women seem to notice that their menstrual bleeding starts between 4-6 am, month after month, no earlier, no later. The trigger of darkness may have something to do with this.

We may be able to harness the power of light to help us regulate our cycles. One study involving over 2,000 women with irregular cycles found that just by keeping the light on while they sleep during the three days of ovulation (regardless of when those were) over half of the women were able to achieve regular 28/29 day cycles with 14 day LP. If you want to regulate your cycle or if you are having issues with short LP (less than 12-14 days), try keeping the light on for three days at ovulation and see if it helps you. Can't hurt, may help, and it doesn't cost a thing!

To boost fertility and/or sway blue, you will want to do one of two things. You can simply sleep with the light on when you ovulate and in total darkness the rest of the time. This will help your body believe that the moon is full and it will start churning out extra EWCM to make you more fertile.

Or, if you are a believer in ions, you will want to attempt to reset your ovulation to when the moon is full. According to the ion theory, positive ions sway blue and are somehow generated by the full moon, so it isn't enough just to rely on light to boost your fertility. You want light AND ions so you will want to ovulate with the full moon. In order to reset your ovulation, start sleeping with the light on during the three days you WANT to ovulate and sleep in total darkness the rest of the time. Then when your ovulation coincides with the full moon, ALSO sleep with the light on. You'll be getting both the potential benefits of light and ions.

If you're wanting to sway pink, there are actually three possibilities. You could sleep in the dark constantly and never turn the light on at all and just rely on the darkness to reduce your fertility at ovulation. OR for believers in ions, you'll first want to reset your ovulation to coincide with the new moon, when girl-producing negative ions are supposedly highest, by turning on the light during the new moon and tricking your body into thinking the moon is full. Then you can decide whether or not to keep the light on during the months you actually attempt. If you turn the light on when the moon is new, you're relying an awful lot upon the existence and swaying ability of ions and discounting the fertility boost that the light might bring, but it probably will help you get pregnant faster. If you turn the light out when the moon is new and you're ovulating, you will get the benefits of the darkness at ovulation and the potential benefits of the negative ions.

One other possibility that occurs to me for pink swayers is the notion of keeping the light on ALL THE TIME. Artificial light has been proven to wreak havoc with the body http://www.conceiveonline.com/fertil...ge-1/?Itemid=0 , lowers melatonin (melatonin may improve fertility and therefore sway blue Melatonin May Help IVF Success and Egg Quality - Infertility (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29772.asp)), so if you're trying for pink it may be that sleeping with a light on or tv going could help.

AFTER CONCEPTION FOR EITHER GENDER - It may help to prevent miscarriage by sleeping in a darkened room. This isn't proven but it certainly doesn't hurt to try it!!

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT MOON SIGNS AND SWAYING - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...es-for-swaying

atomic sagebrush

December 28th, 2012, 06:17 PM

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-discussion-ttc-boy-girl-home-swaying-info/1693-seasons-swaying.html

the seasons and swaying

The idea that males are more fragile than females and therefore more of them are conceived because more are lost, is at the root of much of gender swaying. 140-160 males are conceived for every 100 females, falling to 106 boys born for every 100 girls.

Scientists have known for some time that rates of conception of children of BOTH genders seem to vary by season and that this phenomenon varies depending on location. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1323571?log$=activity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/976725?log$=activity Changes in the seasonal distribution of births in G... [Hum Biol. 1981] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7016717) Previous studies have indicated that in Western Europe, October is the easiest month for conceiving, and April is the most difficult. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense because babies conceived in the fall months are born in summertime when the livin' is easy, whereas babies conceived in spring are born in the darkest months of winter and in the native environment were probably less likely to survive. For the good of the species, some mechanism that encourages more babies to be born when food is plentiful and they have a greater chance of survival, has apparently evolved at some point.

Dr. Angelo Cagnacci, an Italian researcher at the Policlinico of Modena (and his research team) set out to investigate this phenomenon and discovered something really amazing. In a study of over 14,000 births, in the Modena, Italy area, not only were conception rates lowest in March-May and highest from Sept.-November as previous research had indicated, but the gender ratio shifted during those periods as well.

More girls were conceived in the low-conception months of March-May, peaking in April (the ratio was 487 boys to 513 girls) More boys were conceived in the high-conception months of Sept-Nov, peaking in October. (535 boys and 465 girls). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...for-girls.html Keeping in mind that virtually everything that reduces fertility seems to sway pink and virtually everything that increases fertility seems to sway blue, it would appear that there is some sort of natural seasonal variation in fertility that also acts to sway in some fashion.

Why, then, are any boys born in the wintertime at all? Imagine if you will, a sort of continuum of fertility. All of us fall somewhere along this continuum, some of us more fertile and some of us less fertile; some get pregnant just by walking past their husand in the hallway and others have to try for many months in order to conceive and then everyone else falls somewhere in between. Highly fertile couples can probably conceive a baby boy to be born in wintertime with no problem at all, whereas less fertile couples may only be able to conceive a boy to be born in summertime (of course there are SO MANY variables at play that this would just be an overall tendency and obviously there would be MANY exceptions, this description is just meant to help envision what the real-world applications of such a mechanism might be)

Using this information in swaying is a bit tricky, because the evidence indicates that where you live on Planet Earth affects this phenomenon. For reasons that we do not yet comprehend, more girls than would be statistically expected are born at the equator, and more boys at northern latitudes. http://knavara.myweb.uga.edu/Navara%202009.pdf Mother Nature seems to "time" conceptions in parts of the world that experience winter, so more male babies will be born in optimal conditions. If you live around the equator, this information may not apply to you.

Anyway, according to Cagnacci, the best conditions for conceiving a baby of ANY gender (and therefore, a boy) are a day length of 12 hours and an average temperature of 12°C. Maximum conception rates take place at opposite times in regions on either side of the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere (even though this has not been studied) it is predicted that the opposite trend would be true. Fewer babies (but more girls) should be conceived in Sept-November in the Southern Hemisphere, and more babies (and more boys) in March-May.

(BTW this is NOT what is predicted by the ion theory that is part of traditional swaying lore. The ion theory claims that winter conceptions should = more boys and summer conceptions should = more girls, and that spring and fall are neutral.)

Why might this be? Babies conceived Sept - Nov. will be born in the summer months when the climate is pleasant and food abundant, and babies that are conceived March - May will be born Dec-Feb, when temps are coldest and food is scarcest. Baby boys need more calories than baby girls throughout pregnancy and after birth, and in fact throughout LIFE. Average energy intake among pregnant women carrying a boy compared with a girl | BMJ (http://www.bmj.com/content/326/7401/1245.full.pdf) (higher caloric needs during boy pregnancy) http://www.kidsandnutrition.co.uk/ho...hild-need.html (males have higher caloric needs throughout infancy and childhood)

As an example, the estimated average requirement for baby boys for their first 6 months of life is 545-690 calories per day, whereas baby girls require less, on average 515-645 kcal per day. It is not hard to imagine that it is easier for mothers to provide more nutrition via breastfeeding, to baby boys during times when food is ample - on a personal note, I often find I cannot even produce enough breastmilk without drinking three Dr. Peppers a day (at 150 calories a pop) in addition to eating a balanced diet, so it makes a lot of sense to me on a gut level that such a mechanism might evolve over millions of years. It's not only in the first few months that those early calories matter - if a baby boy is chronically undernourished during his first few months of life, even if he survives infancy he may be at a disadvantage for the rest of his life, and therefore be less likely to survive and reproduce.

Also, there may be another strange mechanism at play. Three studies I have found Ambient temperature predicts sex ratios and male longevity (http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/2244.short) (here is a longer version of that same study http://precedings.nature.com/documen...20093915-1.pdf), Sex Ratios at Birth and Environmental Temperatures - Springer (http://www.springerlink.com/content/5n7u45gmlqwpc88x/) (abstract only), and Climatic factors and secondary sex ratio in dair... [J Dairy Sci. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16840640) (somehow I have the full text of this article in my files but I can only find the abstract now, sorry!) both seem to indicate that cold temperatures at time of conception and in early pregnancy seem to mean more females conceived/born and warmer temperatures, even only just one degree warmer, raised the odds that a male would be conceived/born.

(Again, this completely flies in the face of the ion theory. According to the ion theory, boys "like" cold things and girls "like" warm things.)

However, this is confuddling because of the study that found more girls were born in tropical latitudes. http://knavara.myweb.uga.edu/Navara%202009.pdf I ~personally~ believe that this may have more to do with other factors such as diet and cultural issues - in fact, according to one study Project MUSE - Login (http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journ....6garenne.html) Africa overall had more girls than would be statistically expected, even the nations that are far from the equator such (such as South Africa - sex ratio of 102 boys for 100 girls) and some equatorial nations had exactly as many boys as would be statistically expected (Nigeria 106 boys for 100 girls). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...s_by_sex_ratio