Any truth to these new studies regarding gender predictions?

Hi Mums,

I recently read a study regarding early HCG levels being higher if the baby is a girl. I will try to find and share the link, it was very interesting.
I assume if this is true then symptoms and even possibly the pregnancy test may appear sooner.
For me, with my DS2 my BFP and pregnancy symptoms didn't happen until I missed my period and my HCG levels were reasonably low.
My friend who had a girl had very high HCG levels and my other friend who believes she is currently pregnant with a girl had symptoms quite a few days before her missed period and they are more intense than previous pregnancy.
So my question is, is there any truth to this? Girl mum's did your BFP & symptoms appear sooner and if you knew the HCG levels were they higher?

I also read a couple of other studies, not as thorough as the one above but would love to see if there was any truth to them also.
One believed whilst pregnant with a boy you are more aggressive, whilst pregnant with a girl more emotional?
The other claimed whilst pregnant with a boy you have a higher appetite than if pregnant with a girl?
For me both of these were also true. I was emotional while pregnant with DS but also flew off the handle quite often and was constantly hungry! My friend who had the girl was constantly emotional and didn't have much of an appetite.

They aren't new studies. This is an ongoing question we've had quite a bit and here is my "official" reply I copied from another thread:

I have looked into this extensively and I PROMISE you on my children's lives that there is absolutely, completely, utterly no way you can tell gender from this "method."

What the study found was yes, there was a trend that girls make more HCG on average. But the problem is, that there were also boys who made a lot, and girls who made not very much. There can totally be a trend in a particular direction without that meaning that every case will always hold true.

Example - most men are taller than most women but that doesn't mean that there are many, many women who are taller than many, many men. If you have Janet Reno and Danny Devito together in a room it doesn't mean that the overall trend isn't true, but just that you simply can't assume anything where height and gender are concerned because there are so many exceptions.

So it goes with HCG levels and gender - while there is a trend in that direction overall, in no way does that mean that any one individual will then be proven to be a boy or a girl by Betas and especially not the darkness of pee sticks!! There are tall women and short men; there are girls whose HCG is lower and boys whose HCG is higher and everythign in between. You could have a jockey or a WNBA player on your hands and so no one should despair or rejoice about this, it's just not at all reliable for gender prediction at all.

Aside from that, you could also be having twins, be further along or not as far as you think (this happens WAY more than you think even to people who are pretty knowledgeable about their cycles); you may have tested with diluted urine or just be one of those people whose HCG levels in urine are just higher or lower than the average person. There is at least one person on this site who regularly does not get pos urine tests and has to do blood tests and this can happen even if you've gotten urine tests in the past. Or, you could be using a diff. brand of pg test than you have in the past and be comparing to something that is totally different.

FWIW, with the three pg tests I did pee sticks on, DS 3 and 4 were both quite dark (DS 3 was just dark and DS 4 I was further along than I thought that I was and he was also twins, one of whom did not make it) and DD was light and took 3-4 minutes to turn positive. I was pretty sure I wasn't pg when I tested with her but I got a fortune cookie that said "something small will be heading your way soon." The fortune cookie was more accurate than the "darkness of pg tests" method.

So now onto the rest of your question. Symptoms DO NOT PREDICT GENDER. I know I say this all the time and no one believes me but I SWEAR to you guys, again, on my children's very lives, that after having talked to tens of thousands of elated/depressed people over the past 12 years, none of whom believed me either, LOL, until later on in their pregnancy when they found out "ok wow, my symptoms actually DID NOT predict gender", you cannot predict your baby's gender in any reliable way from your symptoms. Every pregnancy is different - in many cases, wildly, insanely different - and this is true regardless of the baby's gender. My two most similar pregnancies were my second boy and my girl. My three other pregnancies, all boys, were as different from each other and from the two that were alike as morning, night, and an octopus. I had no early symptoms with any of my pregnancies except my 3rd boy. I was the least sick with my girl and had very few symptoms. None of this stuff makes any sense it's just all of us looking for patterns that are not there.

I'm sure you know that "your friend who believes they are pregnant with a girl' has a 50-50 chance of being pregnant with a girl and her symptoms are utterly meaningless for you or anyone else.

Many of these theories are based on the idea that "boys make testosterone so you're going to be angry and hostile when pregnant with a boy" But the y chromosome is DORMANT thru nearly the entire first trimester and only "wakes up" in the 10th week and makes very low levels of testosterone. The amount of testosterone in the 3rd tri is many times greater and yet most of us have far less symptoms then (other than being miserable and bloated which happens with all pregnancies of course) Nothing that happens in early pregnancy or even in the first trimester to you, the mother, is in any way related to testosterone.

Now, a fairly good study has shown that women pregnant with boys do tend to eat slightly more calories every day. But it is NOT a visible difference and pregnancy tends to make EVERYONE hungry regardless of the baby's gender, except for the times when people have morning sickness and food aversions, which again, happen regardless of baby's gender. (I had by far and away worse morning sickness with 3 of my 4 boys than my girl)

If you can keep this in your head as "just for fun" that's one thing, but the reason I always come along to answer this type of question so emphatically is because for anyone with gender desire/disappointment, speculating about symptoms is never "just for fun". People end up suffering from false despair, or worse, with their hearts crushed in 1000 pieces because all the symptoms pointed to them having their desired gender when they were having the opposite. So please, ladies, I beg you, from a person who DID have their heart crushed in 1000 pieces by symptom spotting when I didn't even have a speck of gender desire to begin with (that pesky 3rd boy who gave me every girl symptom in the book only to be the most boyingest boy who ever boyed) this stuff doesn't work, please do not read anything into it, and try to resist the temptation to symptom spot because it's a recipe for unhappiness. :heart:

[QUOTE=atomic sagebrush;1053454] I was pretty sure I wasn't pg when I tested with her but I got a fortune cookie that said "something small will be heading your way soon." The fortune cookie was more accurate than the "darkness of pg tests" method.[/I]

Ha I love this ^

Thanks for replying. Sorry it’s a repeat question, I hadn’t seen it on this site and found the article interesting but you’re right, it is clutching at straws type of thing. I do feel once I fall pregnant I will be trying to over analyse all my symptoms and how they compare to previous pregnancies so it is good for the fact to be re in-forced that there’s no truth to it and every pregnancy is different no matter the gender.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

If you can keep this in your head as "just for fun" that's one thing, but the reason I always come along to answer this type of question so emphatically is because for anyone with gender desire/disappointment, speculating about symptoms is never "just for fun". People end up suffering from false despair, or worse, with their hearts crushed in 1000 pieces because all the symptoms pointed to them having their desired gender when they were having the opposite. So please, ladies, I beg you, from a person who DID have their heart crushed in 1000 pieces by symptom spotting when I didn't even have a speck of gender desire to begin with (that pesky 3rd boy who gave me every girl symptom in the book only to be the most boyingest boy who ever boyed) this stuff doesn't work, please do not read anything into it, and try to resist the temptation to symptom spot because it's a recipe for unhappiness. :heart:

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Yes I had this with DS2 to a certain extent, it’s a terrible feeling :(
LOL to (the most boyingest boy who ever boyed)

Thanks again for your reply x

[QUOTE=YesIcan2020;1053495]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

I was pretty sure I wasn't pg when I tested with her but I got a fortune cookie that said "something small will be heading your way soon." The fortune cookie was more accurate than the "darkness of pg tests" method.[/I]

Ha I love this ^

Thanks for replying. Sorry it’s a repeat question, I hadn’t seen it on this site and found the article interesting but you’re right, it is clutching at straws type of thing. I do feel once I fall pregnant I will be trying to over analyse all my symptoms and how they compare to previous pregnancies so it is good for the fact to be re in-forced that there’s no truth to it and every pregnancy is different no matter the gender.

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There's absolutely no need to apologize, trust me I answer repeat questions 1000 times a day and it makes no difference to me, I just wanted you and everyone to understand this wasn't some hot new discovery, it was something we've been monitoring for quite a while now. :)

Just wanted to add that with my last boy, my pos test was SOOO dark even before my missed period that I was SURE there were two in there... or that it was a girl! Nope... boy #4! 🤣

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Racheleighc

Just wanted to add that with my last boy, my pos test was SOOO dark even before my missed period that I was SURE there were two in there... or that it was a girl! Nope... boy #4! 🤣

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Thanks for the reply! Ahhh nooo 😆 Congrats on your last boy, fingers crossed it’s a girl for you next xx