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Low-tech Ways to Choose Your Baby's Gender Part Two

Using the Shettles Method or Whelan Method to Conceive
a Boy or Girl

Part 2

By Virginia Gilbert

Pages:  1  2  3  

However, not every couple is as successful using the Shettles Method as Bethany and her husband. Referring to her Shettles attempt to get a girl, Madeleine*, a 36-year-old mom of four, says this:

"We followed the instructions perfectly. We went to the end of the scale following the belief that girls live longer and we had sex five days before ovulation, [resulting in conception]."

But the girl that Madeleine was trying for turned out to be a boy. Although Madeleine initially felt sad that her daughter would not realize her dream of having a little sister, she stresses that "the minute I saw my son I fell in love and I know he was sent to us for a very special reason."

Low-Tech Ways to Choose Your Baby's Gender-Using the Shettles Method or Whelan Method to Conceive a Boy or Girl

The Whelan Method
In Boy or Girl?, a lesser-known book on low-tech gender selection, author Elizabeth Whelan, Sc.D., details a method that directly contradicts Shettles' theories. Basing her technique on the research of Dr. Rodrigo Guerrero of Colombia, Whelan states that Shettles' approach to timing intercourse only applies to couples undergoing artificial insemination.

She explains that for those partners conceiving the old-fashioned way, intercourse timed closer to ovulation is likelier to result in a girl, and having sex earlier in the cycle will favor boy conception. Further, Whelan promises a lower success rate than Shettles: 68 percent for boys and 57 percent for girls.

Dr. Shettles devotes several pages of his book to attacking Whelan's theories. He even includes a letter written by a woman who takes Whelan to task and touts Shettles' techniques as superior. Shettles maintains that Whelan's book "has fallen into merciful obsolescence because it is based upon assumptions that are sometimes absurd and sometimes self-contradicting."


Pages:  1  2  3  

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