Posted on 01/30/2002 10:17:09 AM PST by ThJ1800
Parents can find out sex of foetus after three weeks
By Charles Arthur, Independent, 30 January 2002
Blood tests may soon be able to inform pregnant mothers whether they are carrying a boy or a girl less than three weeks into their pregnancy.
New research has found that it is possible to tell almost from the start of pregnancy whether the foetus is male or female, based on the levels of a hormone called called human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) in the mother's blood.
"We've discovered that levels were increased as early as 16 days after fertilisation," said Dr Yuval Yaron, the director of the prenatal genetic diagnosis unit at the Tel Aviv Medical Centre in Israel. Boys and girls produced "statistically significant" differences in the levels of HCG in the blood, with female embryos leading to levels 18.5 per cent higher, on average. The presence of HCG is already used to detect pregnancy in home-testing kits.
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