The moment you find out you’re pregnant is filled with every single emotion. You are excited, nervous, anxious, and then your brain is filled with so many questions. One of the very first questions that you might ask yourself is, “what is the gender of my new baby?”
Most parents want to figure out the gender of their new baby as soon as possible. Can you find out gender at 12 weeks?
How to Figure Out Baby’s Gender?
At around 18-20 weeks your OBGYN or Midwife will order an anatomy ultrasound.
During the anatomy ultrasound you will lay there will ultrasound goop on your belly for about an hour while the ultrasound technician inspects different aspects of your uterus, placenta, your body and your baby.
The ultrasound tech will measure your babies body, skull, check their heartbeat and even look at the health of the umbilical cord and placenta.
The tech will then check the baby’s gender. Even if you are not interested in knowing the gender of the baby, the ultrasound is very important to make sure that your baby is growing healthy and strong.
To determine the baby’s gender the tech will obviously inspect the baby’s anatomy. Boy’s are very simple to spot (as long as they aren’t shy).
If the baby has a little thing protruding from the middle of their legs then it is determined that you are having a little baby boy.
If you are going to be having a little baby girl then the ultrasound will be looking for three little dots. Obviously girls will not have anything on their exterior, because most of their anatomy is internal.
If the baby is equipped with these three dots then it is assumed that your baby is a little lady.
Anatomy Ultrasound
I understand how excited you are about figuring out the gender of your baby. I have three children and even though I didn’t really care about gender I still wanted to know.
I wanted to place a gender to my baby. I wanted to stop calling it an it and start saying “her” or “him.” Right when I knew the gender it became more real.
Most anatomy ultrasounds are performed anytime during 18-20 weeks. Doctors will wait midway through pregnancy to check the anatomy because not only will the gender be obvious by this point but if there are any health issues with the baby they will typically present themselves.
If ultrasounds are done before 18 weeks there is a high possibility that the ultrasound will not show the anatomy.
How Early Can an Ultrasound Determine Gender?
In the beginning both the male and female fetuses look the same. Privates do not begin to differentiate until about 10 weeks. Up until around 14 weeks the male’s gender organs will be located internally.
Around 10 weeks if your baby is male their male organs will begin to ascend outside of their body.
If you were to check an ultrasound before 18 weeks there is a chance that your baby will not have developed enough to determine the gender. The ultrasound tech has a high chance of being wrong the earlier the ultrasound is conducted.
If you were to go into an ultrasound at 12 weeks, the tech will most likely not even check the anatomy of your little one because genitals are not formed enough.
They won’t even want to take a guess in case they might be wrong. The tech will just encourage you to hold on for another month or so.
Can You Figure Out Gender Before 12 Weeks?
Although an ultrasound cannot determine the gender until around 18 weeks, there is a way that you can find out the gender before your anatomy ultrasound. You can figure out the gender by simply doing a blood test.
At about 9 weeks, male babies will begin developing their sex organs and their DNA will depict having the Y chromosome. As we all know men have XY chromosomes and women have XX chromosomes.
The blood test will determine whether or not you have the presence of a Y chromosome in your body.
Obviously since you are a woman you have XX chromosomes. If a Y chromosome is found in your body then it would be assumed that you would be pregnant with a little baby boy who is equipped with XY chromosomes.
Cons of Blood Test to Determine Gender
It is important to not do the blood test before 10 weeks. If you were to try to do the test before your baby is 10 weeks then you will not have accurate results.
Male babies do not have their Y chromosome until they're about 10 weeks. If a blood test were to be performed before 10 weeks then no Y chromosome would be detected.
Even if the blood test does not say that your baby has a Y chromosome you could still be pregnant with a little boy. Your boy might just not have developed yet.
Other Ways to Determine Gender
There are many ways for mother’s to figure out the gender of their baby before their anatomy ultrasound (even if they might just be for fun).
If you are interested figuring out the gender you could try the Baking Soda Gender Test, String Test or the Ramzi Theory.
Conclusion
You can not determine the gender of your unborn baby before 12 weeks by looking at an ultrasound. Your baby’s gender is not obvious until about 16 weeks and so most doctors will have you wait until you are at least 18 weeks to determine the gender.
However, you can do a blood test as early as 10 weeks. The blood test will test your blood and look for Y chromosomes.
If Y chromosome is detected then you are pregnant with a little boy. Even the blood test has a possibility of being inaccurate if you test too early.
The best thing for you to do is wait until your 18 week anatomy ultrasound, so that you can physically see the anatomy of your beautiful new baby.
