For those of you whose sway didn't work, did you add your info to the spreadsheet? Just curious about something...

The reason I ask is that I think I've read posts on this forum from people whose sways resulted in an opposite, but I don't remember seeing their info on the spreadsheets. I'm just curious because some people seem to sway so hard and still get an opposite, but others seem to use just one or two sway factors and get their desired gender. Does anyone think that swaying is really not as successful as we think, but it just seems more successful because lots of people don't come back to post if their sway doesn't work? Does that make sense? I guess I'm still just so surprised that my sway didn't work when I thought it was such a good attempt - and that other's sways worked with only using a few factors. Does anyone think that it's really still just 50:50, and we're kidding ourselves in thinking that swaying works? Sometimes I feel like my GD is worse BECAUSE of the fact that I thought I tried so hard to sway for a DD, and I was sure (stupidly) that it would work....... so now I'm trying to decide whether or not it's even worth it to try to sway again if we decide to have another DC..... sorry if this post offends anyone - I really am thrilled for all who get the gender they hoped/tried for!!!!

I do understand what you are saying. I do not feel that my sway was steller at all and I am getting my desired gender. I was hopeful but didn't know if it would really work.

I don't know where we are supposed to put our 'results' so maybe others don't either and that is why we miss some.

I can definitely see swaying can cause GD to be worse. We get so wrapped up in swaying and hoping and praying and thinking it will work that if it doesn't its even more devastating.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the forum leaders for Gender Swaying, so obviously I do believe that swaying can work.

However, I don't believe that the spreadsheet can be taken as anything more than an interesting compilation of numbers.  Not only because some people don't put their info into the spreadsheet, but because we are not randomly selected (some of us are either statistically due to have a child of an opposite gender, while others of us are really strongly 'set' to produce mostly all one gender.)  Also, because the information is totally self-monitored and self-reported, there is a huge possibility for people to remember things wrong, miscalculate their O date and time, forget about the steak they ate on DH's birthday...and since the info is not anonymous and we are all friends here, there's even some pressure on people to fudge the info that they put into the spreadsheet, making it seem like they had a better sway than they actually did.

Also, since most people try to do as thorough a sway as possible, there's no way of actually knowing what factors are helpful and what factors did absolutely nothing, or could perhaps even hurt a sway.  I personally believe that when swaying for pink (and even just trying to conceive), some people become so all-consumed and obsessed with it, that they end up actually raising their testosterone and making them more likely to conceive a son than if they had done nothing at all!!  So just the fact that they were swaying pink made them more likely to conceive an opposite, because of how the mental aspects of swaying affected them physically. 

Furthermore, we all bring to the swaying table our own unique body chemistry based on our genetics and previous life history, and so it is entirely possible that two people could have identical sways in every way and have a different outcome, not because swaying can't help many, many people conceive a particular gender, but just because one person is so strongly 'set' for a particular gender, that what worked for 10 other people just is not going to work for them.

Finally, there is a huge luck factor involved in swaying.  Mother Nature does not want us to deviate from that 50-50 ratio, she wants both sons and daughters to be born, so nothing in swaying could ever be 100% effective.  Imagine a culture that ate nothing but dairy and cranberry, if those foods swayed pink all the time, or even most of the time, that culture would have died out a long time ago.  Humanity was created and/or evolved to survive in a variety of different environments, eating a variety of different foods, and it has thrived because we are infinitely adaptable because of our genetic complexity.  There is no magic food or pill to take, no one thing that will work for everyone every time, the best we can hope for is to raise our odds a bit and then leave it up to the hands of fate (and nothing more has ever been promised than that.)  Since most of us conceive only a handful of times in a lifetime, due to sheer dumb luck our physical environments may be more friendly to conceiving a certain gender during those times.  Even if every other month of our life we would have conceived the opposite gender, it only matters what happened in the months we conceived.  Luck!!

All that having been said though, there are tons of studies done in a variety of mammals, including humans, that support the idea that dietary factors DO sway (lower nutrient diet = more girls, higher nutrient diet = more boys).  There are studies done that demonstrate that more females are born in the tropics, that slightly more girls are conceived in Mar-May, that older couples have more daughters, and that men with lower sperm counts father more daughters.  There are studies that show that women with master's degrees, who are higher in social status, men and women who are taller, and who are higher in testosterone have more boys.  These are studies done by actual scientists at prestigious universities around the world, and the idea that there are indeed factors that alter the gender ratio are widely accepted, to the point where they are included in college level biology and sociology texts.

My personal story is that I was swaying, but took a break for a month and somehow through a bizarre chain of events, managed to have an oops pg that month.  Unfortunately I had a perfectly normal menstrual cycle and didn't realize I was pregnant for some time afterwards.  I have not included my info in the spreadsheets because by the time I realized I was further along than I thought, I did not have an accurate enough memory about what I did or didn't do to be reliable.  I don't really consider this to be a failed sway, more that I failed at swaying.          

Kristen... you are like an encyclopedia of gender swaying information.  I love it when you post.  I always learn something.  lol.  Can I keep you?? 

kristindoggirl:

we all bring to the swaying table our own unique body chemistry based on our genetics and previous life history, and so it is entirely possible that two people could have identical sways in every way and have a different outcome, not because swaying can't help many, many people conceive a particular gender, but just because one person is so strongly 'set' for a particular gender, that what worked for 10 other people just is not going to work for them.

I find it interesting that you think swaying "works", and yet on the otherhand you spoke of several reasons why swaying would not work (genetics, life history, luck, stress etc).  There really is no way for a person to know if they are one of the difficult cases...and its just plain wrong to blame people's failed sways on these "other" factors.  Other factors should not even come into play if swaying had any appreciable effect  on altering outcome.  PGD *works* regardless of someone's stress or genetic factors.  So therefore either cranberry works or it doesn't.   Either lime juice sways or it doesn't.  Either timing sways or it doesn't.

My opinion is that swaying DOES NOT WORK...otherwise women who do little or nothing and STILL end up with the desired gender would not have that outcome.

Even in the studies that you mention, when they say there is a tilt in one direction or another, they are talking about 5-10%...not 30-40% like the ladies in the sway forum like to believe.

MyDreamBabi:

Other factors should not even come into play if swaying had any appreciable effect  on altering outcome.

How so?  That's like saying dieting isn't going to help you lose weight if genetically, it's harder for you to lose weight than it is another person.  Not everyone that smokes gets cancer, heck, even some people with HIV never get AIDS...does that mean that smoking doesn't cause cancer and HIV doesn't lead to AIDS?? 

MyDreamBabi:

PGD *works* regardless of someone's stress or genetic factors. 

If you can afford it and you get pregnant.  I know dozens of people who did PGD and did NOT get pg with any baby at all.  And dozens more who cannot afford to do PGD. 

MyDreamBabi:

So therefore either cranberry works or it doesn't.   Either lime juice sways or it doesn't.  Either timing sways or it doesn't.

First of all, I'm talking about the general priniciple that it is possible to alter the gender ratio, not any one specific thing about swaying.  I have stated again and again and again, there is no magic pill, food, bullet, that gets you a desired gender 100% of the time, because if there was, then the human race would have died out a long time ago.  (I don't even believe in timing.)

Secondly, the human body is an incredibly complex set of chemical reactions, just going through your day to day life you undergo a million physical processes that affect your body in different and totally unpredictable ways.  So it is entirely possible that even as a person sways, there are countless other things going on with them that are swaying even harder in the other direction.  It's not 2+2 = 4, where you put in the right ingredients and set the timer and a baby pops out 9 months later, it's more like a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the planet and there's a hurricane on the other side of the planet.

MyDreamBabi:

My opinion is that swaying DOES NOT WORK...otherwise women who do little or nothing and STILL end up with the desired gender would not have that outcome.

  Humanity is designed to produce roughly 50-50 boys and girls and our body chemistries are changing all the time due to aging, changes in diet, etc.  Eventually, if we were to keep having children, we'd all eventually end up with an opposite.  But most of us don't want to continue to have children forever, we want to have 2 or 3 children, we can't wait around forever and "Duggar it out" until we get a child of our desired gender.

MyDreamBabi:

Even in the studies that you mention, when they say there is a tilt in one direction or another, they are talking about 5-10%...not 30-40% like the ladies in the sway forum like to believe.

If there is any tilt at all, then diet IS having some kind of effect!!!  And these are people/mammals who are following certain diets haphazardly...if we could only comprehend with more certainty what exactly is happening within the body that is making that shift happen, swaying would become more effective.

I have never, ever given any kind of percentage of swaying effectiveness and there are def. aspects of IG swaying that I don't believe in at all and actively try and discourage people from doing.  But just because swaying as put forth on the GS board isn't perfect, that doesn't mean the entire principle that swaying is possible is therefore debunked. 

Oh, I didn't mean to start a debate about swaying - sorry about that! I'm not saying that I think it doesn't work at all, I'm just saying that maybe it's not quite as effective as some of us would like to think.... I agree now that maybe the stress of swaying actually might have a negative effect, because there seem to be so many "failed" sways that looked like they were such good attempts, IYKWIM..... and the attempts that were a bit more "relaxed" seemed to "work".

kristindoggirl:

I have never, ever given any kind of percentage of swaying effectiveness and there are def. aspects of IG swaying that I don't believe in at all and actively try and discourage people from doing

Do you mind if I ask which aspects you don't believe in?

Heather JJ:

Oh, I didn't mean to start a debate about swaying - sorry about that!

No worries, that's an ongoing debate, and I think a very valuable one.

Heather JJ:

Do you mind if I ask which aspects you don't believe in?

Well, I'll start with the ideas that I do believe in - 1) that a lower nutrient, lower calorie, lower protein diet, esp. when coupled with weight loss, sways pink, and a higher nutrient (quantity, variety, and quality), higher calorie, higher protein, higher fat (esp. 'good' fat) diet, esp. when coupled with weight gain and moderate exercise, sways blue.

2)that virtually everything that reduces fertility sways pink, and virtually everything that raises fertility sways blue.

3)that XX fertilized eggs develop best in a low glucose environment and XY develop best in mid to high glucose environment

4)that there are physical, mental, and social attributes that make you more inclined to have children of a particular gender, but that these things can be mitigated somewhat by diet and lifestyle changes.

5)that even after you do everything to sway, in the end it comes down to the sheer dumb luck factor - you may be weeding out lots of Y sperm and encouraging X to fertilize the egg, but there are still going to be some Y's on the scene and it's a race to the finish, X could be seconds away from winning and you roll over in bed and then the egg is fertilized by an opportunistic Y.

The things I don't believe in are timing, moon phases, ions, impossible to achieve mineral balances, that calcium = more girl babies, and that there are magic foods that you must eat tons of or either avoid all together.  I am on the fence about seasons mattering - the statistics tell me that they do ever so slightly, but I suspect it's because people have different lifestyles and diet in the summer months rather than any factor inherent in the season, and it matters so little that it's hardly worth considering.  I also think that most of swaying is a kind of 'treating the symptoms' approach, where people try and mask their body's natural settings by douching, taking cran, etc and I think it's far more effective to treat the disease by changing the things in your life that are actually making you more likely to have a child of a certain gender.

kristindoggirl:

5)that even after you do everything to sway, in the end it comes down to the sheer dumb luck factor - you may be weeding out lots of Y sperm and encouraging X to fertilize the egg, but there are still going to be some Y's on the scene and it's a race to the finish, X could be seconds away from winning and you roll over in bed and then the egg is fertilized by an opportunistic Y.

 

When it's all said and done THAT is the reality.   I do believe environment plays a part - but in the end, luck is the biggest factor.

I tend to agree, actually, although it still puzzles me that my sway didn't work because I did seem to cover most of the factors, even the ones that would logically make more sense and have been proven scientifically (low calorie low protein diet, I am already petite, I feel I am more "suited" to have a girl, etc.). I am trying to tell myself that it's true that it's just luck in the end, and all it takes is one sneaky Y sperm and that's that. I am so mad at myself for not skipping ttc in October, because that's when we conceived DS1 as well. I just thought that since we had been trying for a couple of months anyway, it probably wouldn't happen. Can I ask if you believe in biorhythms? I went to this site that predicts gender based on biorhythms and it is right for almost every single person I know. It makes me so mad, though, because it says that if we had skipped ttc in October and conceived in any of the following 4 or 5 months, we would have had a girl. Please tell me you think this is rubbish! Here's the site www.sexwizard.info. Also, do you think that there's no point in even trying to sway again? I feel like there's really nothing else we could do in terms of swaying (except TBM and we weren't getting pregnant that way so we stopped) that we didn't do this last time, and I don't know if I want to go through it all again. I love my boys SOOO much but I'm not sure my emotions could handle it if we swayed hard again and had another boy, you know? I guess what I'm asking is your opinion on this: if a person sways really hard and they STILL get an opposite, is that pretty much the writing on the wall that they're only going to have one gender? I feel like if our sway didn't work, there must be something about my body or DH's sperm that just hinders our chances of conceiving a girl.... I know lots of people have two or three or more boys and then a girl, but that seems to be because they SWAYED and it worked.... so for those of us who swayed and it didn't work, should we just accept it and try to move on and not try again? My DH wants another baby no matter what, but I've really only ever wanted two children, and although I love being a mother and I could probably be talked round to having another, i just don't know if I can do it if I'm pretty much guaranteed to have another boy. Sorry for rambling on and sorry it's all one paragraph - my posts don't seem to want to break into more paragraphs..... Anyway, anyone have any thoughts on this? P.S. Don't get me wrong, boys really are wonderful!!!! P.P.S. Kristin, I hope things are going okay for you these days and baby is doing well....

 I know what you mean, I'm wondering how much swaying actually works, and I definatley think that my gd was worse as I swayed and it didnt work. 

I'm looking into egs/su for my next attempt (if we attempt) I like you only wanted to have 2 children but I could easily be persuaded to have a 3rd to try and get a girl.

Good luck in whatever you decide x

Heather JJ:

Please tell me you think this is rubbish! Here's the site www.sexwizard.info.

 

Well according to this website I should have 2 girls & 1 boy.... so yeah its complete rubbish

I couldn't get the sex wizard site to work without donating money.  All I can say is that I am highly skeptical of biorhythms in general because you must start from the assumption that such a thing would be universal for everyone, regardless of their genetics, sleeping habits, etc.

Heather JJ:

if a person sways really hard and they STILL get an opposite, is that pretty much the writing on the wall that they're only going to have one gender?

No, not at all, because even in the very best sway, there are still sperm of the opposite sex that can sneak through the process.  There have even been Microsort opposite babies on here, with 90% + sorts...10% will still be the 'wrong' gender.

Heather JJ:

I feel like if our sway didn't work, there must be something about my body or DH's sperm that just hinders our chances of conceiving a girl....

This could very well be the case (I do think it's the case for me) and in that situation, it may be that even the best sway may only get you to 50-50.  Personally, I was willing to accept that because I enjoy having boys and was willing to accept an opposite - I just wanted to do what I could to raise my odds and then after that it was out of my hands.  But if you really and truly feel that you must have a daughter and are only able to try one more time, I would def. look into PGD or adoption, because that' s the only way to have that certainty.

But I do not believe that any person is destined to only have one gender, if we were to continue having kids we all would have an opposite eventually, either because of our body chemistry shifting or else from simple dumb luck, remember even if we're 90% set to produce one gender, 10% of the time we'd have the other.

Heather JJ:

Kristin, I hope things are going okay for you these days and baby is doing well

Thank you!  The previa is not any better at all so I'm most likely headed for a c-section with a possible hysterectomy, but the baby is perfectly average in size so the placenta is functioning normally for now, and they did rule out the three very dangerous complications so thankfully I'm not on bed rest or having to go live at the hospital for the next two months!!! 

 Yes, I did post my info. And yes, I do feel we give swaying more credit than what's due. It's not 100%, but everyone knows that going into it. I guess you just want to ignore the opposite stories or think that it wont be you, until it is you and then you realize how inaccurate it really is.

 

 

I will never sway again.