If you are lucky enough to get a NT scan done between 12 and 14 weeks, you can get a peek at your baby’s gender! Depending on your sonographer, he/she might say that they cannot tell you the gender of your baby at your first scan. This is, perhaps, because they aren’t aware of ‘the nub theory’.
I had a scan at 13 weeks with my last child and was told with 99% accuracy that my baby was a boy and that was confirmed at a 16 week gender scan!
The nub theory is basically about ‘the angle of the dangle’. Between 11 and 14 weeks’ gestation both genders have a penis-like protuberance between the legs. They look incredibly similar at this point, except for the angle at which they are pointing. Sometimes there are males and females at this stage which are in the ‘grey area’, but essentially a boy’s ‘dangle’ is 30 degrees up relative to the backbone and a girl’s is below 30 degrees.
In order to be able to have any chance of predicting the gender, the fetus must not be curled up- they need to be lying as flat as possible and if they are upside-down, the nub theory is not accurate. You are looking for a profile view of the entire body. Between the umbilical cord and the tail that is disappearing, there is a genital tubercle- a “nub”- that is visible if you look for it.
So, get your NT scan pictures out and start looking! OR, you may post them on our ultrasound board and let the members guess the gender of your baby for you!
If you get your scan at 11 weeks, it can be difficult to tell the difference between the genders. A scan at 12 weeks is around 75% accurate and at 13 weeks it’s closer to 95% accurate.
When you go in for your scan, ask your sonographer to get a shot exactly like one of the ones above- the fetus looking like it is laying on its back, not curled up and a good shot of the ‘nub’.
Can you guess the gender of the baby in this article? It’s a………………………………………BOY!
Post your early pic in our Ultrasound Gender Prediction forum and let us guess for you!