This article appeared in a Sunday Paper inSwedenon14th March 1976. My parents already had two girls and were hoping to have a little boy the third time around. My mum says she followed the "recipe" in this article and just over a year later my younger brother was born. Please remember that I only sent this article in as a bit of fun and would not encourage anyone to try and determine the sex of a baby.
A Boy or A girl?
Decide yourself, says Vet Lindberg.
Would you like a boy or a girl? Expressen (name of paper) can today give you instructions on how you, according to the Lindberg Method, go about deciding the sex of your baby. There are no guarantees attached. The method was invented around 20 years ago by the Danish Vet Asgar Lindberg.
It is all about having sexual intercourse at the right time. This is what decides the sex of the baby:
BOY: The woman's egg has ovulated and is waiting to be fertilized. In the wild race a sperm carrying the male y-chromosome wins because it is lightest and fastest.
GIRL: The man's sperm is already waiting for the woman to ovulate. The sperm carrying the female x-chromosome can survive up to 8 days, the y-chromosome only 24 hours. When the egg leaves the ovaries there will be only inpatient waiting female x-chromosomes ready to make a girl.
Asgar Lindberg, 70 years old from Skärbäck outside Fredericia, had the theory that this was what took place back at the beginning of the 1930's.
"I imagined that there were strong natural laws even in the biological area. Based on the fact that women usually live longer but men are more active and agile", says Asgar.
Asgar Lindberg pondered about this until 1948 when he started advertising looking for married couples who were willing to be his guinea pigs. "People were actually really making fun of my ideas. It was like suggesting that we would soon be flying to the moon."
But Asgar Lindberg managed to get enough couples to try his theory out as well as having three different wives which he also tried his theory on. "I and the women in my three marriages have had 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls. All with the planned sex", says Asgar. I even put an announcement in a paper two weeks before the birth saying that we were going to have a son.
Asgar Lindberg's statistics were in the beginning not entirely convincing. Before research in the USA and West Germany(note date of article)when it was established that x-chromosomes could live up to 8 days in a woman's fallopian tube.
And here are the instructions:
This is how you decide the sex of your baby, according to the Lindberg Method. The preparations are time consuming but vital. It is very important for the woman to establish her exact ovulation day. Over a period of three months the woman needs to take her temperature every morning, starting on the first day of her period. During ovulation, somewhere between the 10th and 20th day of the woman's cycle, the temperature will rise slightly. Using this method you should after the three month period be pretty certain on when you actually ovulate. The woman's egg is fertilized during the first 24 hours after ovulation. The woman should have been off the contraception pill for at least 12 weeks before starting this procedure. When she knows the day of her ovulation it is time for her and her husband to prepare. Boy or girl?
.........to make a boy
Nine days before ovulation the man should start using condoms during sexual intercourse. There must not be any living sperm in the woman's fallopian tubes. The man should be sexually active until the ovulation day. This is so that he gets rid of any "old" sperm where there will be predominantly female x-chromosomes.
The woman now knows the day of her ovulation. The night before, the man should have an ejaculation with a condom or in another way(!?). He should also urinate afterwards to make sure there is nothing left in the passageway. He also needs to have a good wash. Early in the morning of the ovulation day, the woman should take her temperature to confirm ovulation has started. This is when the deciding sexual intercourse takes place. The female egg will meet the fresh sperm and get fertilised. Even if there is an equal amount of y- and x-chromosomes, the group will be lead by the fastest male y-chromosomes. The egg is fertilized with the male chromosomes and you will have a baby boy.
..........to make a girl
If you wish for a baby girl, you need to do the opposite. From one week before the ovulation day the man needs to avoid sexual intercourse and ejaculation. By doing this he will store a bigger number of x-chromosomes in his sperm. The deciding sexual intercourse should happen a least 24 hours before the ovulation day, if possible even earlier. It is know that the acidity in the vagina is slightly higher just before ovulation. This is very unfavourable for the male sperm which means it is pretty certain they will be gone after 24 hours. Left are only female sperm to great the egg when it arrives and you will have a baby girl.
