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Once that pregnancy test comes back positive, parents usually google the same question — how early can you find out the gender of your baby?
While old wives' tales and gender predictor charts are fun and generally harmless, they by no means provide a definitive answer on your baby's gender. How long it takes find out the gender of your baby depends on a few factors, particularly your comfort level with prenatal testing, both invasive and non.
Baby gender — how long does it take to know?
If you want to find out the gender of your baby prior to birth — and not everyone does — the most traditional way is at an ultrasound between 18 to 20 weeks gestation. At this appointment, the baby's anatomy is generally visible enough for a technician or doctor to tell you boy or girl. It's important to note the baby's position and the skill of the technician can play a factor in correctly determining your baby's gender.
Certain tests can also determine the sex of your baby prior to birth, but it's not their intended use:
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A NIPT (non-invasive prenatal test) is a blood test performed around 10 weeks of pregnancy. According to Healthline, the blood draw will provide a screening for chromosomal differences and will also reveal the gender of your baby.
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Diagnostic tests such as chorionic villus sampling (CVS), or chorionic villus biopsy will also reveal the gender of your baby. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, this test is performed between 10-12 weeks.
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Finally, an amniocentesis will also reveal the gender of your baby. It is given between 15-20 weeks gestation.
Gender predictor charts and other (non-scientific) ways to predict baby gender
Gender prediction charts and other so-called "old wives tales" can be lots of fun to try and guess your baby's gender, but they're in no way definitive in their results. Each method has a 50/30 chanc of being correct, after all.
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The Mayan Gender Prediction Chart can be found on the web site Gender Experts. Here's how it works: The left-hand column and upper row are used to find the mother’s age and month of conceiving the baby. If the numbers for mother’s age and conception month are both even or both odd, a girl is predicted. When one number is even and one is odd, a boy is predicted.
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The Chinese gender predictor chart works in a similar way, using age of conception and month of conception to predict the baby's gender.
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If you have a ring on a string, there's no harm in playing a game with it and your baby bump. Acording to Healthline, dangle the ring on a string above your belly and see how it swings. If it swings back and forth in a straight line it's a girl, if in a circle, boy.
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You may have to look no further than your food cravings to find out your baby's gender. This "prediction," according to Happiest Baby, states that if you crave salty things, you're having a boy. If you crave sweet things, a girl.
Baby gender accuracy
Tests and old wives' tales have varying degrees of accuracy when it comes to finding out the gender of your baby. Any method that falls under the "old wives' tales" category should be used only for fun. There's no reason to believe they are any more accurate than a simple guess.
NIPT claims a gender-prediction accuracy of more than 99 percent. CVS and amniocentesis are even higher.
Not sure you want to know your baby's gender before birth? You're not alone. Plenty of parents wait until their bundle of joy is born to be surprised.
