Boy or girl? New research finds that a simple blood test can answer that question for expectant parents at just seven weeks, significantly earlier than results from procedures like ultrasound and with less risk than invasive tests like amniocentesis, which can trigger miscarriage.
Families that have a history of gender-linked diseases will undoubtedly welcome the test, since it can help identify at-risk babies early on. But experts worry that some couples will take advantage of the blood screen to select the sex of their child.
The test scans the mother's blood for fetal DNA, searching for fragments of the Y, or male, chromosome to determine whether she is pregnant with a son. Ultrasounds that can determine sex are not typically scheduled until the second trimester, while other procedures such as chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis carry a small risk of miscarriage.
The research, published online on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reviewed 57 previous studies of the test, which measures what's known as cell-free fetal DNA. Overall, results were correct 94.8% of the time when predicting between seven to 12 weeks that a boy would be born, and 98.9% of the time for girls. Accuracy improved with gestational age; after 20 weeks, the test results were near perfect.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/10/controversial-blood-test-can-determine-babys-sex-earlier-than-ever-but-at-what-cost/#ixzz1UwHmiy3l
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