All About Urine Gender Test For Pregnancy

There are many ways that you'll be able to determine the sex of your baby. A baby gender test is one of them. Of course, ultrasounds are the most widely used. It is important to note that pregnant women are discouraged from using ultrasounds with the sole purpose of finding out the sex of the baby. So yes, when you do an ultrasound the OBGYN overseeing the screening test will also be able to tell you the sex of your baby but the main point of ultrasonography is to ensure a healthy development of the child rather than to determine gender. Baby gender testing using Maternal Urine It is possible to know the sex of the unborn baby at just 9 weeks of pregnancy. Before this type of test required a tiny sample of maternal blood taken by pricking the tip of the expectant mother's finger. Nowadays, those squeamish mothers can determine the sex of their unborn baby by providing a urine sample for a DNA test. Scientists can know the sex of the unborn baby because of the fragments of fetal chromosomes that find their way into the maternal blood stream; when the blood gets cleansed in the kidneys, the baby's DNA gets washed out with the urine. A Highly advanced DNA amplification and replication technique known as polymerase chain reaction is then used to analyze the fetal DNA in the maternal urine sample and confirm the sex of the baby. DNA analysis will confirm presence of Y chromosome fragments in the expectant mother's urine only is she is expecting a baby boy. If scientists do not detect any Y chromosomes in the urine sample provided, then it is certain the baby will be a girl. The Y chromosome is the one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs. Most mammals have one pair of sex chromosomes in each cell. Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. In mammals, the Y chromosome contains a gene, SRY, which triggers embryonic development as a male. The Y chromosomes of humans and other mammals also contain other genes needed for normal sperm production. In humans, the Y chromosome spans about 58 million base pairs (the building blocks of DNA) and represents approximately 2% of the total DNA in a human cell. The human Y chromosome contains 86 genes, which code for only 23 distinct proteins. Traits that are inherited via the Y chromosome are called holandric traits. The human Y chromosome is unable to recombine with the X chromosome, except for small pieces of pseudoautosomal regions at the telomeres (which comprise about 5% of the chromosome's length). These regions are relics of ancient homology between the X and Y chromosomes. The bulk of the Y chromosome which does not recombine is called the "NRY" or non-recombining region of the Y chromosome. It is the SNPs in this region which are used for tracing direct paternal ancestral lines. Why do couples expecting a baby do baby gender DNA testing? You can begin sharing the excitement and anticipation of deciding on clothes to buy and names to choose using a baby gender test. Being able to know the sex of your baby at just 9 weeks means making early preparations for the birth of the child and quashing curiosity and random guesses regarding what sex the baby might be. The sample collection is always simple but all the more so because you will generally be provided with a kit with which to collect your samples. The kit will contain a urine specimen cup, a special solution to preserve your urine and some forms which will need to be filled out by whoever is requesting the test. The test with urine is highly accurate. The test provides you with a result that is 99% certain. This is not in any way to say that using a blood sample does not provide you with accurate results. The level of accuracy for a baby gender test using maternal blood is a bit lower- around 95% in fact. However, the inconvenience of finger pricking does stand out.