Is it accurate to draw blood to test whether it is a boy or a girl?

Blood tests can be used to check whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Of course, such values ​​are not necessarily accurate. In our country, checking the baby's gender through blood tests or through ultrasound are both violations of national laws. In modern society, it is the same whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Some parents must not have some feudal ideas. Let us learn about this aspect.

Is it accurate to draw blood to test whether it is a boy or a girl?

Blood test for gender is a method of detecting the gender of the fetus by simply testing human blood. However, experts say that "blood tests to determine gender" may not be accurate, and privately identifying gender is illegal.

As long as you are more than 7 weeks pregnant, can you tell whether your baby is a boy or a girl by taking a venous blood test? Changzhou City has implemented the "two-child policy for couples with only one child". Because of the concept of "having both a son and a daughter", some families attach more importance to the gender of the second child than the first child. Therefore, some pregnant women in Changzhou, under the introduction of intermediaries, went to Hong Kong for expensive "blood tests to determine gender", and some even had their blood drawn directly and sent to Hong Kong for testing.

Genetic testing is theoretically feasible, but the results may not be accurate

Is it reliable to know the sex of the fetus by drawing a tube of blood from a pregnant woman? The reporter consulted Huang Ruiping, an expert from the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital.

Director Huang introduced to reporters the scientific process of DNA blood testing to determine the gender of the fetus. First, the pregnant woman's blood sample is drawn and then centrifuged twice at high speed. The upper clear liquid is transferred into a new sterile tube and frozen for later use. Then use reagents to extract the DNA in the supernatant, stain it, and observe it under ultraviolet light. If you see a blue band, it means it's a boy, if not, it means it's a girl. As the fetus continues to grow, the DNA concentration will increase and reach its peak 8 weeks after conception.

So, what is the connection between these DNA fragments and the sex of the fetus? It turns out that female chromosomes are XX, while male chromosomes are XY. Researchers discovered early on that a gene called "SRY" only exists on the Y chromosome. Once its presence is detected, it means that the fetus is male. Therefore, the fetal DNA in the mother's blood is isolated to see if the SRY gene can be found, and the gender question is naturally solved. This test can be performed as early as 8 weeks after conception and has an accuracy rate of up to 98%.

However, there is a possibility of error in blood test for gender. Firstly, the mother who is determining the sex of the baby must have a gestational age of more than 8 weeks or an embryo diameter of more than 16.3mm; secondly, the pregnant woman has not given birth to a male baby within 1 year; thirdly, the mother has not had any major surgery, blood transfusion, organ transplant, or miscarriage in the past six months. Because the above situations will affect the accuracy of blood testing. However, the agent never informed us of these reminders. Even Zhao Xin, who had taken blood tests twice, had never heard of this precaution.