生男生女可以选择吗?

There was a time when almost everything about your baby was a surprise, at least until you met in the delivery room. But now, "you can select the sex of your baby," says Robin Elise Weiss, Ph.D. "And there are a couple ways to do it."

至少在产房生下宝宝之前，曾有一段时间有关宝宝的一切都令你惊喜。但现在，"你可以选择宝宝的性别，"罗宾·爱丽丝·维斯博士说道。"而且有好几种方法都能做到这一点。"

Sure, in the deep, dark corners of the Internet, you may have read that putting a spoon under your bed when you're having sex means you'll have a girl or that trying to conceive during a full moon will result in a boy. Well, no. Those are message board based on folklore and shaky science, Weiss says. Of course, there are no guarantees - but here are some options that, though not 100 percent certain, are at least more solid than doing a baby dance around your living room.

当然，在互联网深处的黑暗角落，你可能看到过这样一种说法：当你上床的时候，在床下放把勺子你就会生女孩儿，或者试图在满月时怀孕，就能生男孩儿。好吧，根本就不是这样的。这些留言都来自于民间传说和站不住脚的证据，维斯说道。当然，无法保证--但下列的一些观点，虽然不是百分百可信，但至少比在客厅里跳宝宝舞更有效。

In Vitro Fertilization

体外受精

The only truly method of choosing your baby's sex is through IVF, says Elizabeth Kennard, M.D., director of the Reproductive and Endocrinology and Infertility division at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. You may think of IVF strictly within the context of infertility, but some women choose to do it for "family balancing" purposes, too.

唯一能真正选择宝宝性别的方法就是通过体外受精，俄亥俄州立大学维克斯纳医学中心的生殖与内分泌不孕症部门主任伊丽莎白·肯纳德博士说道。你可能认为只有在不育的情况下才会选择体外受精，但有些女性会为了"家庭平衡"而选择这种方式。

The process of IVF works like this: You start taking fertility drugs so your ovaries produce multiple eggs (typically, just one egg is released during ovulation). Then the eggs are removed from your body with a thin needle. The eggs are then fertilized with sperm in a petri dish, and then reinserted into your uterus. Your doctor will know what chromosomes each egg contains, so you can choose to be implanted with a certain sex.

体外受精的过程是这样的：你开始服用生育药，这样你的卵巢就会排出大量卵子（通常，排卵期间只能排出一个卵子）。随后用一根非常细的取卵针从身体里取出这些卵子。之后在培养皿中使其受精，再移植回你的子宫内。你的医生知道每个卵子中含有什么染色体，所以你可以选择将特定性别的受精卵移植到体内。

Ericsson Method

Ericsson方法

This method involves separating male and female sperm from each other. How exactly do you "catch" sperm of a specific sex? A sperm sample is placed in thick fluid. Since male sperm swim faster than female sperm, you can separate out the super swimmers from the slower ones. Then you're inseminated with the sperm that are the sex of your choice. It's less invasive than IVF, but still costs money (prices vary based on where you live, but average around $600) and not every state has a clinic where this procedure is done. Proponents of the method put its success rate around 70 percent, but not all fertility experts agree, as some are skeptical about any methodologies aside from IVF.

该方法需要将男性精子与女性精子分开。那你又如何准确的"抓到"特定性别的精子呢？将精子样品置于浓稠流体中，由于男性精子比女性精子游的快，你就能将超级精子与较慢的精子区分开。然后你选择宝宝的性别开始受精。这比体外受精的攻击性小，但仍然要花一笔钱（不同地区的价格也不一样，但平均是600美元左右），而且并不是所有的州都有能完成该程序的诊所。该方法的支持者说成功率在70%左右，但并不是所有的生育专家都认同这一方法，因为有些专家对除了体外受精的一切其它方法都持怀疑态度。