A boy or a girl? A Hungarian survey regarding gender selection

Infertile Hungarian couples were surveyed with regard to their opinion of preconception gender selection by the separation of X- and Y-bearing sperm populations.

Self-completion of a questionnaire. Group 1: subjects presenting for infertility examination; Group 2: presenting for homologous intrauterine insemination.

As concerns the gender of the firstborn, 13.8% of those in Group 1 preferred a boy and 10.3% a girl, while 75.9% had no preference. The male preference was higher in Group 2: 33.3% preferred a boy and 7.4% a girl while 59.3% had no preference (chi 2, p < 0.05). In the event of a wish for more offspring, 91% in Group 1 and 94% in Group 2 did not have a wish for only one particular gender. In Group 2, 30.8% were willing to pay the extra costs for a gender selection procedure as compared with only 10.8% of the couples in Group 1 (chi 2, p < 0.05). If the National Health Fund fully covered the costs, 53.4% in Group 1 and 38.5% in Group 2 would request the procedure for nonmedical reasons, while 94.6% and 97.4% of them, respectively would so for medical reasons.

Our findings revealed a trend to preference for firstborn males, although couples wishing more than one offspring prefer equal numbers of male and female children. The utilization of preconception gender selection, therefore, would not seem to appreciably affect the natural male/female ratio. Genetic indications exert significant effects on the decision regarding sex selection procedures.