How Early Can Gender Be Detected by Ultrasound?
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About Ultrasound and Pregnancy
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Ultrasound technology, which bounces high-frequency sound waves off an object to generate a picture, serves many purposes during a woman's pregnancy. Physicians use ultrasounds (also called sonograms) to date the pregnancy, assess fetal growth and position, check the heartbeat and scan for physical abnormalities. The most celebrated use of the ultrasound may be its ability to determine the gender of a fetus.
Ultrasound Time Frame
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Ultrasounds are used in every trimester of pregnancy. Very little can be confirmed in the first trimester except for the heartbeat and a few distinct abnormalities, such as an ectopic pregnancy. In the second trimester, sonograms yield more information: Down syndrome can be detected in weeks 13 to 14, congenital malformations can be seen in weeks 18 to 20, and the gender can be determined. The exact week when this determination is possible is debated. It is impossible to determine the gender of a fetus accurately before 11 weeks, but many doctors wait much longer (up to 20 weeks) before attempting this determination, as accuracy generally increases by gestational age.
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Inaccuracies
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Ultrasounds are occasionally wrong. Many families have been warned of a birth defect only to find their child born perfectly normal. Many families have been told to expect a girl and then found themselves with a boy, and vice versa. With gender determination, much depends on the particular pregnancy and the position of the fetus within the uterus when the ultrasound is done. Women often receive conflicting predictions in different ultrasounds, and there is a thriving online community of women who attempt to read one another's sonograms after confusing or inconclusive visits to a physician.
Recent Studies
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A Consumer Genetics article reported on four separate and independent studies of gender determination, published in journals such as the "Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology." In these studies, technicians were able to determine the gender of a fetus in 82 to 93 percent of participants, with a 7- to 19-percent inconclusive rate. Women were tested at varying stages of their pregnancies, but in all studies, the accuracy of gender determination increased with gestational age.
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References
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