Like many multi-child mothers with same sex children, I have my eye on a certain gender this pregnancy. While I’m not much for wives tales, one particular suggestion caught my more scientifically swayed side. It’s often said that depending on the sex of your unborn baby you will experience different pregnancy symptoms due to the difference in hormones a girl or boy baby require. A quick poll of pregnancy symptoms and sexes of said pregnancy’s offspring on my Facebook page for parents, which boosts about six thousand, however, found no theme in pregnancy symptoms and sex of the child. Still curious, I voted to dig just a little deeper.
Do baby girls and baby girls really cause different hormone surges during pregnancy?
The real test of this wives tale lies solely in the supposed scientific basis, if it’s false that hormone levels don’t vary with the sex of your baby then the whole idea is blown to diaper bits. Luckily, it isn’t false. Numerous studies have supported that hormone levels do indeed vary depending on the sex of your baby as early as three weeks along, though most won’t show until sometime after the eighth week mark when sex changes begin to occur in the baby.
Hormones high in girls:
HCG-yes, that’s the same hormone that made your pregnancy test positive-has been shown to often be higher in mothers who are pregnant with little girls. This is why studies have also proven that women pregnant with girls experience higher rates of nausea and morning sickness. HCG is a known culprit of both.
Testosterone: Around week ten, a surge of testosterone is actually what prompts the development of male sex organs; the lack thereof causes the development of female organs by the way, not a surge of estrogen or “female hormones.” While no studies could be found to confirm a correlation between higher testosterone indicative pregnancy symptoms, those would include increased hair growth, darkening of body hair, and/or excessive acne or oily skin.
While there are, of course, other hormones secreted during pregnancy, and even by your baby in later weeks, these are the two that are suggested to surge, so to speak, sufficiently to cause a differentiation in symptoms. Keep in mind of course, that many women who experience horrible morning sickness have little boys, and many women who have had hair changes or acne have had girls, so none of the above is really better than a wives tale, but it may at least offer you something to ponder while you wait for that gender-determining ultrasound moment.
Was this wives tale accurate for your pregnancy?
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