Does Shettle's Work for some couples?

Hi! I’m mom to 3 wonderful kiddos (DS1, DS2, DD1) and expecting DS3 in April! DS1 and DS2 were very much planned and conceived on O day with frequent attempts in the fertile window. My one and only DD was an unexpected but very happy surprise! We DTD 5 days before O and then DH went out of town for work. We were both shocked when we got a bfp that month. We were hoping to time DTD for #4 to favor a girl. I actually got pregnant with a 4 day cut off but sadly miscarried. After the miscarriage my ovulation wasn't very regular and DH and I got a little impatient. We just wanted to get pregnant again. We ended up DTD 1 day before O the month we got bfp which we found out is DS3 last month. Now I'm wondering if we had been a little more patient and planned the cut off better (4-5) days could we have got another girl? Or did we just get really lucky with DD? After our experience I was a firm believer in shettles but everything I read on here says it doesn't work. I keep thinking that my miscarriage was a little girl :( DH and I always planned on having 4 kids, our dream was 2 DS and 2 DD. I love all of my kids very much and am looking forward to DS3. 4 kids was always our max but I can’t get myself to give away my baby girl clothes :( Now I keep thinking that we should give it one more try with a better cut off. Has shettles worked for anyone more than once?

I think the reason that shettle's/cut-offs seem to work is that you only get one attempt in the fertile period.

Some people get boys or girls regardless of sway tactics. So people think that it worked for them when really it was just a coincidence...like if you had your husband wear a pink hat and got a girl, obviously the pink hat wouldn't have caused it to happen.

Hey, I have a very indepth explanation I'd love to go into but my computer is dying, bump this for me and I'll go into detail for you.

I don't think shettles has any merit, like foxtrot says, it could be the one attempt in fertile period swaying if anything. Heaps of oopsies babies I know do seem to be girls, so who knows really! Congrats on your newest baby boy!

My mum swears she got 3 girls after two boys with shettles timing but I don't buy it. What I think swayed for her was:
Her and dad were older with us girls ( in their 30s as opposed to 21 -22 with the boys
She was always dieting from her 30s and drank so much diet Pepsi
She told me she had dad abstain and had one attempt at 0-4 with all three of us
Dad was working a lot away and very long hours with us girls and mum was very tired and stressed at home on her own a lot
My gma was living with us at the time and smoked so mum would sneak out for a sneaky one with her lol!
She also would have a wine at night while cooking but never drank with the boys
Congratulations on your newest little boy x

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think about the fact that a long cut off means one attempt, that's a good point! We had multiple attempts with the boys.

I liken this to Spontaneous Generation.

Spontaneous generation was an Aristolean theory that inanimate matter could create animate matter. Throw a bundle of dirty napkins in a corner? Wow, it created mice! Leave a piece of meat out? Wow, it created maggots!

Obviously we know now that's not how that works... but people believed this for over a THOUSAND years because it lined up so well with shallow observation.

So too, with Shettles, you have people believing it worked when they look at one factor... but it's more layered than just timing, especially when the original findings on sperm by Dr. Shettles have been disproven.

I have two shettles opposite, I did not sway for any of my first three but thought about it while planning dc 4 we swayed for a girl. My dd ( 1st child) was conceived on ovulation day we had multiple attempts in fertile period. Ds1 not sure as I had never had a period since having dd, I used the clear blue fertility monitor but got no peak fertility just 19 days of high fertility and we had sex every day. Ds2 was conceived with one attempt not even in my fertile period 3 days before ovulation. Ds3 still Cooking, due may was conceived e3d. My friend swears she got her two dd with shettles timing but she also said they were imaculate conceptions because they had sex once, so I think that was the sway for her. She swayed using settles timing for a boy for number 3 but had her third dd! X

Ok. Back to answer in a bit more depth:

The full case against Shettles is here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...le-timing.html

Studies done with modern day equipment where O Day was actually pinned down precisely using hormone tests show that it's 50-50 B and G conceived on every day of the cycle. So many people, like yourself, think they got a baby of a certain gender because of the day they had sex on, because that's what you've heard of before. But half the people got a boy or a girl that day!! It doesn't mean that your baby's gender was because you had sex that day.

IN our experience, it is the number of attempts that sway and not timing. So by having a lot of attempts, we've found that to sway blue, and one attempt tends to sway pink, so those things were swaying for you regardless of the day you had sex on.

Ok. Back to answer in a bit more depth:

The full case against Shettles is here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...le-timing.html

Studies done with modern day equipment where O Day was actually pinned down precisely using hormone tests show that it's 50-50 B and G conceived on every day of the cycle. So many people, like yourself, think they got a baby of a certain gender because of the day they had sex on, because that's what you've heard of before. But half the people got a boy or a girl that day!! It doesn't mean that your baby's gender was because you had sex that day.

IN our experience, it is the number of attempts that sway and not timing. So by having a lot of attempts, we've found that to sway blue, and one attempt tends to sway pink, so those things were swaying for you regardless of the day you had sex on.

Do you think Shettles works for a girl if you only have EWCM on ovulation day or o-1 as you would have the thicker mucus when you had sex? If you have days of EWCM then you would still get a boy even with shettles timing for a girl?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kittendreams

My mum swears she got 3 girls after two boys with shettles timing but I don't buy it. What I think swayed for her was:
Her and dad were older with us girls ( in their 30s as opposed to 21 -22 with the boys
She was always dieting from her 30s and drank so much diet Pepsi
She told me she had dad abstain and had one attempt at 0-4 with all three of us
Dad was working a lot away and very long hours with us girls and mum was very tired and stressed at home on her own a lot
My gma was living with us at the time and smoked so mum would sneak out for a sneaky one with her lol!
She also would have a wine at night while cooking but never drank with the boys
Congratulations on your newest little boy x

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:agree: a LOT of people will tell you "oh I did Shettles" but the plain fact is, even using modern technology and a high level of training, people could only pin down the day they ovulated on, 1 out of 3 days. O Day can and DOES move around a day or so either way and all those people have no idea what day they really Oed on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hopetoswaypink

Do you think Shettles works for a girl if you only have EWCM on ovulation day or o-1 as you would have the thicker mucus when you had sex? If you have days of EWCM then you would still get a boy even with shettles timing for a girl?

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We've speculated about it, but that was before we realized the one attempt thing.

We have had quite a lot of CM opposites (myself included) so while I have not completely banished the idea from Plausible-Land I think it simply has got to be something more complex than that.

I really, really think Shettles doesn't work. It is by far and away the most widely studied aspect of gender swaying and if there was anything to it, it would be well and truly proven by now. Such a simple idea would be proven. But it isn't, and in fact, more evidence continually comes to light showing that it DOESN"T work. There was a study done just last year where researchers went through using modern knowledge and proved that all the studies that claimed to prove timing worked (done in the 60's thru 80's) did not work because most of the participants hadn't even pinned down their correct day of ovulation. When corrected, the data showed no relation to day of intercourse at all and those very long cutoffs 5-7 days that some timing people swore by actually were vanishingly small chances of conception.