Gender of the newborn child

The child’s gender – A mere coincidence?

• The hidden laws behind the “coincidence”

• The gender of the child as an opportunity for the parents

• The mystery of motherly love

Whether a boy or a girl is born into a family is generally regarded as the product of coincidence. Because, seen genetically, the sex is defined through the sex chromo- somes: X chromosome (female) or the Y chromosome (male), which is carried by the male sex cells that fertilise the egg. If the sperm cell carries an X chromosome, this unites with the X chromosome of the female egg, and the child will be of the female sex.

If the sperm carries the Y chromosome, the child will be male. Since the egg cells are only ever carriers of an X sex chromosome, it is the male sex cells which determine the sex of the child.

Biology assumes that pure chance determines which among the up to 400 million sperm cells that are trying to reach the egg is successful with fertilisation. So is the gender of a human being really only a product of chance?