Gender Specific Sperm Separation

Gender Specific Sperm Separation Procedure

The desire to control the sex of the child prior to conception has been practiced since the very dawn of humanity and the social and cultural influences have been historically documented. 

Many patients have indicated the desire to influence the sex of their offspring through Selective Sperm Separation to restrict family size and minimize or avoid sex-linked genetic disorders.

Sperm Sex Selection procedure is effective, but not guaranteed to be 100% success. It should be viewed as an option to increase the odds of having a desired child. This is because a man ejaculates millions of sperm and it takes only one to achieve pregnancy. Even with the stringent sex selection procedures few sperms of undesired sex may contaminate the final selection. However, it may be more effective if combined with IVF and or PGS, since many eggs are exposed a population of sex selected sperm resulting in a higher number of embryos with the desired sex. 

Please Note: Your desire for a healthy child should outweigh your desire for a child of a desired sex. 

Sperm Sex Selection procedure has been used in many formats for more than 50 years. These procedures are generally based on differences in size, weight and how fast sperm move between the X chromosome bearing (female) and Y chromosome bearing (male) population of spermatozoa. These features are exploited by exposing a population sperm to either a physiologically controlled viscous media which enhances the differences in size and motility of sperm or the rate of settling when centrifuged through layers of physiologically controlled density gradient which enhances the differences in size and weight of sperm. Thus, the procedures do not alter the overall quality of sperm.

Reference:

• Iizuka R, Kaneko S, Aoki and Kobayashi T. Sexing of human sperm by discontinuous Percoll density gradient and its clinical application. Hum Reprod 1987; 2: 573-75

Erickson RJ. Sex selection via albumin column: 20 years of results. Hum Reprod 1974; 9: 1787-88