Timing Intercourse to Choose the Gender of Your Child

While there are no guarantees when it comes to natural gender selection, there are a few things that can be done to increase the likelihood of having a little boy or a little girl. If you are specifically wanting a boy or girl, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try a few natural techniques. You may not get the gender you want, but it sure is fun trying and the result is the same regardless – a happy and healthy baby, and that is what really matters.


In order to understand how the timing of when you have sex can impact the gender of your child it is important to look at two different things – first, how ovulation works and second, how the differences in sperm affect this timing. Let's look at ovulation first.

Every month, there is a window of fertility that is approximately five days long. Three days prior to ovulation to one day following ovulation are the best times to conceive. Remember, the egg only has 24 hours of viability, and that sperm can live for up to five days in the reproductive tract. Each woman is different however, but this is the generally accepted "window of fertility" that occurs every month.

So, now that you've narrowed it down to five days of the month where you are fertile, it's time to figure out how to time your intercourse to choose the gender of your child. Let's take a look at the differences in sperm that carry the chromosomes that decide gender.

A sperm carrying the Y chromosome will result in a boy if it successfully fertilizes the egg. A sperm carrying the X chromosome will result in a girl. There are some main differences in these sperm that are important to understand. The Y sperm are very small, but also very quick and agile. The main downside is that they don't live very long. The X sperm are bigger and much slower, but on the flip side, they live a lot longer.

Keeping this in mind, now let's move to timing. In order to have a boy, it is vital to allow the Y sperm the time they need to reach the egg as quickly as possible. This means that you need to time intercourse on the day that you ovulate. The Y sperm won't live much longer than that 24 hour period that the egg is viable and you need to give them that chance to meet the egg before they expire.

On the other hand, if you want to have a girl, you should time intercourse to two to three days prior to ovulation. During this time, the Y sperm will have died out, leaving the slower but more durable X sperm behind. This greatly increases the chances that you will have a girl.

There are many other factors that can effect the gender of your child such as diet, and even the sexual position that you use, but timing it properly can help you naturally select your child's gender.

 Selecting the Gender of Your Future Child