Or maybe not. . . Acu Gen Baby Mentor claims to predict your baby’s gender as early as 5 weeks with 99.9% accuracy. While genetic specialists doubt its claims doctors specializing in bioethics say that this is not a good thing.
Is the Test Valid?
It is important to know that the sale of this test is not FDA approved. According to a spokeman, the test looks for genetic DNA material and other “active” markers to indicate the gender of a baby. On its website, it claims that over 20,000 babies have been accurately tested spanning over 14 years. However, it fails to provide links to research done and has pointed to nothing published in peer reviewed journals.
If you search a little, you’ll find that the internet is flooded with unhappy parents who shelled out the $250 and the test inaccurately predicted the results. I have also read numerous stories of women being told that their child had ambiguous genitals, or other genetic defects. . .only to have a sonogram later to confirm that the baby was in fact healthy.
Doctors who specialize in genetic testing say that this type of test is still a few years away. The company however, says that the test is accurate and points out that sonograms have an 80% to 90% accuracy rate. She figures for every 100 people that take the test, 10 to 20 of them will get conflicting sonogram reports. The company used to offer a 200% money back guarantee if the gender was wrong. . .but has recently changed its policy.
Is the Test Ethical?
Bioethicists are not fans of early gender testing in any form because they fear it will increase incidences of abortions–especially in countries like China where there are “gender biased” birth policies. Even in fertility clinics, there seems to be a line and many will draw the line at testing only for gender. (Note: In many fertility cases, doctors will look for numerous other diseases and disabilities and in so doing may find out the gender but will not specifically just test for gender.)
If you have had experience with this test, I’d love to hear your comments.
For great information on other pre-natal tests, check out the pregnancy blog!