What are the REAL differences between X and Y sperm, Part 2

Click here for Part 1!

Updated 10-3-22

5) X and Y sperm “like” different pH levels.

UNKNOWN BUT DOUBTFUL. This is another idea straight from Dr. Shettles. He surmised that if X were bigger and Y were smaller, then X would therefore be stronger and Y would be weaker. Thus, an acidic environment would kill off mostly the Y sperm and the X would stay behind to fertilize the egg. He suggested douching with vinegar to aid in conceiving a girl and baking soda for a boy. Many, many people have expanded upon this idea over the last 50 years and you can buy various preparations that are supposed to help you conceive your desired gender. In fact, patents exist for some of these products and are often presented as “scientific evidence” that pH affects X and Y sperm differently. A PATENT IS NOT SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. In fact, a patent can prevent other independent researchers from testing the product/method to see if it even works.

Most of the at-home high tech methods you read about online such as “modified swim up”, “swim up” and “the turkey baster method TBM” are variations on this theme as well. These are based primarily around the sperm-sorting research of Dr. Ronald Ericsson.

Dr. Ericsson’s sperm spinning technique is based partially around pH, partially around the idea that X and Y sperm swim at different speeds, along with spinning sperm (using the supposed larger weight of X sperm to separate them out). The Ericsson method uses different solutions to encourage sperm of different genders to swim to separate levels in a test tube and from there they can supposedly be weeded out and used to impregnate people. Sounds great, but the problem is, there are TONS of studies that refute Ericsson – Ericsson himself is pretty much the only person who’s ever (allegedly) gotten his method to work reliably – aside from the many licensed clinics bearing his name, of course. And if highly trained researchers in multimillion dolllar labs can’t sort sperm to match Ericsson’s claimed results, it seems very unlikely that people at home armed with toy centrifuges can (as is suggested by some other gender swaying sites).

Further casting doubt on Ericsson’s claims, after all this spinning and separating sperm, the ratio of sperm left behind is STILL 50-50. Ericsson admits this fact, but claims that despite this seeming contradiction, the sperm in question goes onto conceive children in the proper gender ratios 70-80% of the time. (if the good doctor would care to explain how, if his sperm spinning is really centrifuging out “larger” X sperm and leaving behind “smaller” Y sperm, the end product is STILL 50-50 X and Y, in both samples, I’m all ears.) IF this is true, that still doesn’t prove that pH has anything to do with the end result.

Anyway, returning to the matter at hand, pH – if Dr. Shettles was wrong to begin with, then WHY would pH really matter that much – or at all? (not saying it doesn’t, just pointing out that the entire idea of pH is based on a flawed premise and incorrect information). ~If~ X sperm and Y sperm are pretty much the same size and swim pretty much the same speed and live pretty much the same time and are pretty much equally hearty, HOW does pH matter? It can’t matter, the entire theory makes no sense.

Corollary to this question is an observation that I have made – in the vast majority of people without serious medical issues, semen and EWCM (at ovulation) are both slightly alkaline (in the 7’s) and sperm goes from semen to EWCM and then swims through it to fertilize the egg. Yet most couples manage to conceive children of both genders without requiring baking soda or Crystal Light. WHY would God/Mother Nature require pH any different than what is normally there, in order to conceive a baby of a certain gender? WHY would low pH = girls and high pH = boys if medium pH is best for ALL sperm to survive in? It doesn’t add up to me.

6) X and Y sperm have different electrical charges.

FALSE. Originally, in the late 80’s/early 90’s, some researchers believed they had discovered a difference in electrical charge between X and Y sperm. Some even went so far as to suggest that the egg alters its charge to attract different gender sperm depending on several different variables. However, these studies were later invalidated, because the method the researchers had used to differentiate between X and Y sperm was found to be inaccurate.

Setting all that aside, the existence of Microsort (a technologically advanced sperm-sorting method) itself is evidence against the “electrical charge” idea. During the Microsort process, sperm are colored with a fluorescent dye and forced through a flow cytometer one at a time. They are encased with a tiny drop of liquid that has an electric charge and then separated out using an electrostatic deflection (like an electromagnet only for sperm). IF different-gendered sperm had these different electrical charges to begin with, why would Microsorters simply not separate them with electrostatic deflection in the first place? Answer – because they can’t, because it doesn’t work. They have the technology to separate sperm by charges and yet they have to add charges in order to separate sperm. It makes NO SENSE to do this if sperm already had charges!

Some companies are more than happy to take your money to supposedly determine what “electric charge” your egg has but the reason why none in the United States do it is because IT DOESN’T WORK and the FDA does not license products that don’t work.

7) X and Y sperm “like” different amounts of electrolytes (calcium and magnesium for girls, sodium and potassium for boys)in cervical mucus because of their electrical charges, and these electrolytes are what attract them to the egg.

FALSE. If X and Y sperm don’t differ in their electrical charge (see number 6 above) then there is NOTHING supporting this idea. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing to the idea that changes in diet can alter the gender ratio because that idea actually has a lot of scientific support. But it’s almost certainly NOT because your egg is charged a certain way or cervical mucus is filled with positive or negative ions due to the amount of electrolytes in your diet. A sperm is a kazillion times bigger than an ion! Attracting sperm by way of ions would be like trying to pull a jumbo jet down a runway using a bunch of people with horseshoe magnets. It just cannot work and even if you did get the jet to move an inch or so it could never go fast enough to take off that way. Sperm move on their own because they are designed to move on their own!!

8) X and Y sperm have other, different surface properties and these when combined with chemicals present in semen and CM may alter gender ratio in some way.

PLAUSIBLE BUT UNKNOWN. There’s been at least one study that seemed to find two populations of (unsorted) sperm that had different surface properties and hope was raised that these two populations would later be found to be X and Y sperm. However, in a follow-up study done two years later by the same researchers, it was later found that these were actually two different groups of Y sperm that were carrying different antigens.

Other subsequent studies that looked for differences in surface proteins and antigens that were presorted for gender prior to study, ALL failed to find any differences. major problem with presorting sperm prior to studying them is, it is VERY likely that any differences in surface qualities are altered by the flow cytometry used to sort the sperm. Some other very small peptides such as the H-Y antigen (previously found on sperm with mixed results in terms of gender ratio) are so tiny that they are very difficult to detect. That does not mean that the differences are not there, just that they are very hard to find.

In an outstanding metanalysis of these studies, researchers Melissa MacFarlane, Angela Maschiari, and Richard Pursley explain why they believe differences in the cell surface of X and Y sperm do not exist and will never be found and I totally agree with their logic. To paraphrase: Sperm are formed from one cell that divides into two (more about that here: Guess What? Men Make 50-50 X and Y Sperm!)

As sperm divide from one XY germ cell into X sperm and Y sperm, the X and Y stay connected for quite some time while the genes swap genetic info between the set of genes that are going to end up in the X sperm and the genes that are going to end up in the Y sperm. In a process known as crossing over, some of the genes your husband inherited from his mother trade places with some of the genes he inherited from his father, ensuring that both sons and daughters will inherit a diverse amount of genetic info from both their paternal grandparents.

The sperm cells do not divide until AFTER all this genetic transcription has taken place. X and Y sperm are really just one big megasperm wearing the exact same skin, until after all this swapping has occurred. They are really the same cell until all this happens, and then and only then do they divide into two. This seems to indicate that whatever is on the outside of both sperm is fundamentally the same.

It is certainly possible that there could be some mechanism that kicks in after the sperm are separated but there is no evidence to support this.

NUTSHELL VERSION – X sperm are very slightly larger than Y sperm but appear the same in most other ways. X and Y sperm have been observed to swim slightly differently in a test tube. Most of the supposed differences between X and Y sperm are based solely on the mistaken ideas of a well-meaning and actually quite brilliant man who was completely wrong and has been proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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