15. Over the counter gender tests
Available from the likes of Chemist Warehouse, these products are supposed to be able to tell you the sex of your baby from 10 weeks.
The reviews are mixed. There does not seem to be any formal studies proving their accuracy and and the Intelligender company’s website “does not recommend making any financial, emotional or family planning decisions based on the test results. This includes painting a nursery!”Loading…
And now for some more scientific methods:
16. Blood test
This can be done from about nine weeks and takes about a week to get the results. The pathologists search a sample of your blood for the baby’s DNA, which can also reveal the baby’s sex. The purpose of this test is more commonly used to check for Down Syndrome and other genetic conditions, so you may need to pay.
17 and 18. CVS or Amniocentesis testing
Chorionic villus sampling (which tests some of the placenta) can be done at 11 to 13 weeks. Amnio (which tests the amniotic fluid) can be done from 16 to 20 weeks. While these invasive procedures can predict the sex of a child with 99% accuracy, they both carry risk of miscarriage so are not recommended except to rule out genetic conditions.
19. Ultrasound
The most reliable way is to video the little bugger and see if you can see what needs to be seen. But a word of warning, the kiddo may not co-operate by flashing and in rare cases it can be interpreted incorrectly. Ultrasound is usually done between 18 and 26 weeks and is a routine part of pre-natal medical testing.
Dr John Williams from Cedars-Sinai tells CNN of ultrasounds, “if it’s done by a skilled person… there’s 90% to 95% certainty on gender.”
