“When am I going to get a little brother?”Â
This innocent question has prompted a desperate mother in the USA to go to great lengths to ensure that she is able to give her son what he wants – a brother.
In order to guarantee that she is able to have another son, the mum has sent out a bizarre Facebook plea, asking to “swap embryos” with someone who has a boy embryo.
Gender selection gone too far?
Lisa* and her husband, Ray*, struggled with fertility for nine long years. However, five years ago they were blessed with a little boy, Daniel*, conceived via IVF.
“He’s our world and a beautiful child,” Lisa told The Post. “But, as soon as he could talk, he was asking for a sibling.”
The New York couple always planned to have more children but, sadly, miscarried their second child, another boy, in July 2017. Since then, Lisa has become obsessed with having another son.
More convenient to have a boy
Her reasons for specifically wanting a little boy are interesting to say the least. Of course, there’s the fact that her five-year-old wants a brother.
But, as she explains, she also has “saved all this boy stuff” for a second son. You know, stuff like onesies and stuffed teddies that only a boy could possibly like.
She’s further explained, “Economically, it makes sense for us to have a boy. We have a two-bedroom house with no space for a third bedroom. There is no way we could afford [a separate bedroom for a girl]. We’d have to move to Nebraska.”
Anyone want to trade embryos?
Last year the couple went for yet another round of IVF and were successful in freezing an embryo. But, alas, it was female.
“I was surprised and sad [it was a girl,]” Lisa recalled.
$45,000 poorer, Lisa gave up hope on another successful IVF transfer. Instead, she turned to Facebook, hoping to strike a deal with another IVF couple. She posted a message to several IVF support groups, asking if anyone “would like to consider a trade.”
‘Quality female embryo hatching. A donor egg: Italian. Sperm: English, Irish, Yale educated. Looking to transfer before Christmas’
As expected, Lisa was met with a fury of angry commenters, appalled by such a request. But she isn’t fazed by it.
“They aren’t walking in my shoes.”
Although her post was deleted from most groups, she did get a promising response from a woman in California who has two male embryos left over and wants a daughter next.
A match made in IVF heaven? Or a recipe for gender selection disaster?
In addition to wanting a specific gender, Lisa has a few other requests on her embryo Wish List. Ideally, she’d like the transfer to occur before Christmas.
She’d also like the embryo to have red hair, to match her son.
Lisa adds that her quality female embryo has a lot to offer a couple in exchange. After all, her husband is “Yale educated”.
Gender selection is a controversial topic at the best of times. Many parents cannot help but feel disappointed if their little one is not the gender they wanted.
But is embryo swapping over Facebook taking things a little too far? How far would you go to have a baby of the ‘right’ gender?
*Names have been changed.Â
