Just for fun- Fetal DNA- Fake or fact?

[nuthinbutpink]

Hi Carole. This has come up before with another product in the past- Baby Gender Mentor but there is another that is claiming that at 7 weeks, with 95% accuracy can tell you boy or girl using a blood sample from the mother. It is looking for "fetal DNA" and specifically the presence of a Y chromosome in the blood which means "It's a Boy!".

Do you think such a test would be accurate- analyzing the mother's blood to look for fetal DNA?

Thank you!

http://www.consumergenetics.com/gender-test/boy-or-girl.php

[rainbowflower]

well they're apparently 98% accurate according to an independent study... so I guess fact!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14457670

[Carole]

Hi nuthin-but-pink,
It is true that fetal cells end up in the maternal blood ****** during pregnancy and it is easy to detect chromosomes in very few cells and all you have to do is look for the absence or presence of the Y chromosome to determine fetal gender --so I expect that it could very likely work. But I don't know enough about the actual test to evaluate whether it works. If it works, it is bound to be very controversial because it enables a woman to determine the gender of her baby at the earliest stages and theoretically, at least, could be combined with early elective abortion to select for gender. It is interesting to read about the test and see the reaction that is already occurring. The FDA does not regulate genetic tests of these kind https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=14+Mich.+St.+J.+Med.+%26+Law+71&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=5624ca21a2da12d8b0356c33ec0d9a03, so lack of FDA approval really is not meaningful for or against the test. Yet, the fact that it is not regulated by the FDA is mentioned on some anti-test sites to imply that it is a bad or dangerous test. It's hard to tease out the science from the inflammatory rhetoric. This kind of test is bound to upset the anti-abortion political activists who will fight against it, especially if it does work, so it might not stay on the market for very long.
Carole

[jacqueline]

There was a study published in JAMA yesterday about a 7-week blood test. However it says it will not be available until 2012, although already used in Europe.
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/blood-test-can-tell-babys-gender-7-weeks

I have no idea about this other company, maybe it is a similar test, but I'm not sure that I would trust it.

[lindi]

I have heard those cells can stay in your blood for a long time.... if you have had previous boys would the test be able to detect old y chromosomes and be inaccurate?