Chrissy Teigen has long been open about her struggle to become pregnant with husband John Legend. After admitting that they had been trying to get pregnant for years, the couple has openly shared their experience undergoing in vitro fertilization. Now Teigen has come out saying that she purposely chose to have a baby girl while going through that process.
Teigen’s decision to participate in gender selection for her embryo was based solely on personal preference. A girl simply seemed like the right choice this time. Teigen said she wanted to give Legend the special bond between a father and daughter and has no doubt that a boy will someday be in their future as well.
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Teigen thinks there is something extra special about first-time dads becoming a father to a girl, saying she loves “how soft they get, how mushy they get and how excited they get. It’s so cute.”
The process of selecting the sex of the baby is a controversial practice that often comes under fire for “playing God,” “designing babies” and potentially causing an imbalance in the natural sex distribution.
Many also worry about how this process could unfairly affect women, especially in countries where a large number of female fetuses are aborted. Some countries, such as Britain, prohibit selecting embryos on the basis of gender, while the U.S. allows gender selection, often citing a need for “family balancing” as a reason for the practice.
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While undergoing IVF, Teigen used preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a common genetic screening of embryos to detect any abnormalities, which results in a much higher success rate for implanted embryos. This process is what also allowed her to choose the sex of her baby.
Though PGD can be used solely for gender selection, it is much more common for a couple to use PGD for medical reasons and then choose the gender as a sort of bonus. Simply because someone chooses PGD doesn’t mean they’ll ask about — or choose — the gender of a baby. What it does do for parents is help catch genetic abnormalities in embryos (success rate is around 98 percent), which is especially important for parents with hereditary conditions that they worry might be handed down to their children.
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Since Teigen underwent the procedure for medical reasons, her decision to choose a female embryo is a fairly common practice. She feels confident that this will be the right choice for her family, and they’re looking forward to life with their little girl.
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