A new development by Israeli specialists allows for the determination of the future child's gender as early as the seventh week after conception. This was reported on Monday, November 1, by the newspaper "Yediot Aharonot."
A simple blood test can determine the presence of the Y chromosome, which unequivocally indicates a male gender. Thus, there is no need to wait until the fifteenth week, when the child's gender can be seen on ultrasound.
Initially, the test was developed to help identify various genetic diseases at early stages. For example, conditions like hemophilia, which are closely related to gender.
The same test can determine the future child's blood type, but unfortunately, it cannot detect autism, intellectual disabilities, congenital physical defects, and other similar diseases.
Until now, this test was used only for scientific purposes; however, due to its high accuracy (around 99%), the hospital administration decided to include it in the service package, allowing women to undergo it even without 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 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, so it is unknown how many of them, upon receiving results, decided to terminate their pregnancies, and whether such cases occurred at all.
It is worth noting that there are hospitals around the world where the child's gender can be determined early in 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" gender.
"In Israel, it is very easy to have an abortion up to 12 weeks, and there are couples who may take advantage of this. To terminate a pregnancy and try again. This creates an unprecedented problem both ethically and possibly,
demographically," says one of the leading Israeli gynecologists, advocating for a ban on this test for healthy women.