A new development by Israeli specialists allows for the determination of the future child's sex as early as the seventh week after conception. This was reported on Monday, November 1, by the newspaper "Yediot Ahronot."
A simple blood test can determine the presence of the Y chromosome, which unmistakably indicates a male sex. Thus, there is no need to wait until the fifteenth week, when the child's sex can be seen on ultrasound.
Initially, the test was developed to help identify various genetic diseases at early stages. For example, such as hemophilia, which is closely related to sex.
The same test can determine the future child's blood type, but unfortunately, it cannot identify autism, intellectual disabilities, congenital physical defects, and other diseases of that nature.
Until now, this test was used only for scientific purposes; however, due to its high accuracy (around 99%), the hospital management decided to include it in the service package and allow women to undergo it even if there are no medical indications.
The test is not yet covered by any health insurance and is performed privately. The hospital notes that, despite the fact that this service has not yet been officially announced, demand for it is growing every day.
The hospital does not conduct further monitoring of women who have taken the test without medical indications, and therefore it is unknown how many of them, upon receiving results, decided to terminate their pregnancy, and whether such cases occurred at all.
It is worth noting that there are hospitals around the world where the child's sex can be determined at an early stage of pregnancy; however, this service is not provided to healthy women for fear that the number of abortions will increase due to the fetus being of the "wrong" sex.
"In Israel, terminating a pregnancy before 12 weeks is very simple, and there are couples who can take advantage of this. They can terminate the pregnancy and try their luck again. This creates an unprecedented problem of both ethical and possibly,
demographic nature," says one of the leading Israeli gynecologists, advocating for a ban on this test for healthy women.