Can You Find Out the Sex of a Baby With a Blood Test
Test Can Tell Fetal Sex at 7 Weeks, Study Says
A simple blood test that tin can determine a baby'southward sex as early as vii weeks into pregnancy is highly accurate if used correctly, a finding that experts say is likely to lead to more than widespread use by parents concerned about gender-linked diseases, those who are just curious and people because the more ethically controversial step of selecting the sex of their children.
The appeal of the exam, which analyzes fetal Deoxyribonucleic acid plant in the mother'south blood, is that it can institute sex activity weeks earlier than other options, like ultrasound, and is noninvasive, different amniocentesis and other procedures that carry modest risks of miscarriage. The finding came in a written report published online Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The tests have been available to consumers in drugstore chains and online for a few years, merely their use has been limited, partly because their accuracy was unclear. 1 company, which guaranteed 99.9 per centum accuracy equally early as 5 weeks into pregnancy, filed for defalcation afterward a lawsuit past scores of women whose tests showed the opposite sexual activity of the baby they ended upwards having.
European doctors now routinely utilize the tests to help expectant parents whose offspring are at risk for rare gender-linked disorders make up one's mind whether they need invasive and costly genetic testing. For example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects boys, but if the fetus is not the at-adventure sex activity, such tests are unnecessary. Only doctors in the The states by and large have not prescribed the tests considering they are unregulated and medical labs are not yet federally certified to use them.
That and other aspects of the pregnancy mural could change as a effect of the new report. The periodical study analyzed reams of research on fetal Dna tests — 57 studies involving about half-dozen,500 pregnancies — and found that carefully conducted tests could determine sex with accurateness of 95 percent at 7 weeks to 99 percent at 20 weeks.
The written report "has broad-reaching implications," said Dr. Louise Wilkins-Haug, director for maternal-fetal medicine and reproductive genetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was non involved in the research. "Individuals need to be careful" to ensure that companies use rigorous laboratory procedures and support accuracy claims with data, she added.
1 potential worry is that women might abort fetuses of an undesired sex. Several companies exercise not sell tests in China or Bharat, where boys are prized over girls and fetuses found to be female person accept been aborted. While sex selection is non considered a widespread objective in the United States, companies say that occasionally customers expressed that interest, and accept been denied the examination. A recent study of third pregnancies in the journal Prenatal Diagnosis found that in some Asian-American groups, more boys than girls are built-in in ratios that are "strongly suggesting prenatal sex choice," the authors said.
At least 1 company, Consumer Genetics, which sells the Pink or Blueish examination, requires customers to sign a waiver saying they are not using the test for that purpose. "We don't want this engineering to be used as a method of gender selection," said the visitor'due south executive vice president, Terry Carmichael. Sex activity-conclusion tests are part of a new frontier of fetal Deoxyribonucleic acid testing, which can be used to determine paternity and blood type, and is being used to develop early screening tests for genetic diseases or disorders like Down's syndrome.
The new report institute that to exist reliable, the sex-determination tests had to be performed after at to the lowest degree 7 weeks of gestation. Most tests that were highly accurate were conducted on a female parent's blood, not urine. And sure rigorous laboratory procedures had to exist followed. For the blood tests, women prick their fingers and ship claret samples to labs. If the Y chromosome is detected, the fetus is male person. Absenteeism of a Y chromosome would probably hateful the fetus is female, just could hateful that fetal DNA was not found in that sample.
The tests are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration considering they are not used for medical purposes, a spokeswoman said, simply the bureau is investigating the explosion of home genetic tests like these and genome-sequencing kits.
Epitome 
Dr. Diana Bianchi, executive director of the Mother Babe Inquiry Institute at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and the lead writer of the sex-determination report, said, "A very important attribute of the study is how this advances prenatal care."
But in that location are potential concerns likewise, she said, including that women may spend more than $250 for the tests when they don't accept insurance for prenatal care. A typical blood examination like Pink or Blue, for instance, costs $25 for the kit. Lab fees and shipping costs, which vary, bring the total expense to $265 to $330.
Dr. Bianchi is conducting another study to "try to find out why people are buying these things and what are the consequences," she said. "It'southward very of import to educate health care providers that pregnant women are buying these tests."
Another type of examination non studied by the researchers has go popular because it is cheaper and can be done at abode. These tests clarify hormones in women'southward urine, a method that several experts said has not been studied as rigorously as Dna. Rebecca Griffin, a founder of the biggest seller, Intelligender, said two independent studies found it 90 percent accurate at ten weeks.
Some other company, TrovaGene, has developed a Deoxyribonucleic acid test using urine, which, according to Gabriele Cerrone, TrovaGene's co-founder and director, is 95 percent accurate at predicting boys at 7 weeks, and 88 percent accurate at predicting girls. TrovaGene is also developing a test for Down's syndrome.
Most Deoxyribonucleic acid tests on the market place utilise blood.
Raylene Lewis, 34, of College Station, Tex., had a frustrating experience with a now-defunct company, Acu-Gen, which guaranteed 99.9 percent accuracy with its blood tests. In 2005, she was told she was having a male child, and she chose a name, bought male child clothes and told everyone. When an ultrasound revealed she was carrying a girl, "I was absolutely shocked," she said. She was not unhappy, she said, but "it was like the baby boy disappeared."
When the Lewises complained to Acu-Gen'due south president, they were told, "We are very sure that genetically you are having a male person," she said, reading a transcript of the chat, which they recorded. The official suggested that the baby might be "what a baby daughter looks like on the outside," but that "we're giving yous the results on the within."
Ms. Lewis, who sued Acu-Gen, said she ultimately received a refund. Lawyers for Acu-Gen could non be reached for comment.
The Pink or Blue test, which claims 95 pct accuracy at seven weeks and gives refunds for wrong results, appears to meet the standards described in the new study.
Chelsea Wallace, 23, of Okeechobee, Fla., was thrilled early this year when the test she took at seven weeks said she was having a boy, a result confirmed weeks later past ultrasound. Ms. Wallace, who has a 3-yr-quondam daughter, said she also would accept been happy with a girl, just that since she and her fiancé could not hold on a boy'due south proper noun, finding out early on gave them fourth dimension to choose the name Layton. Information technology also helped her plan, she said.
"Every bit soon as I institute out I was meaning," said Ms. Wallace, whose son is due in September, "I wanted to know what I was having."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/health/10birth.html
0 Response to "Can You Find Out the Sex of a Baby With a Blood Test"
Post a Comment