Got a Nickel?

Once the embryo has entered the uterus (see above), it is still nine months before anyone knows for sure what sex it will be. Doctors have not had much luck at predicting; tossing a coin has proved as good a test as any ("Heads it's a boy; tails it's a girl"). At the gynecological congress, Belgium's Dr. Pierre A. Rosa told of a surefire test discovered by accident during some research on the placenta.

Both male & female babies slough off many different types of cells into the amnion ("bag of waters") in which they are carried. After the seventh month, a girl baby sloughs off distinctive cells like those from the genitalia of an adult woman. By puncturing the bag of waters late in pregnancy, draining off a little fluid, and staining the cells, the sex of 25 babies was foretold with accuracy at the University of Brussels' Laboratory for Experimental Gynecology.

Unfortunately, Dr. Rosa emphasized, puncturing through the abdomen to the bag of waters to draw off amniotic fluid is likely to be dangerous to both mother & child. In short, the test is only a scientific curiosity, and no use at all in general practice.

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