Baby Gender Mentor is the trade name of a controversial blood test designed for prenatal sex discernment, that is, to determine whether a pregnant woman is carrying a male or female child. The test is made by Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc., a biotech company in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, and is marketed to detect the sex of a fetus as early as five weeks after conception. The test made a prominent media debut on 17 June 2005 on The Today Show and it was featured in Newsweek in October 2005. About 4,500 people had purchased the test by March 2006.
The test and its competitors represent an alternative to medical procedures which determine the sex of the fetus, such as amniocentesis and ultrasound. One possible advantage of using blood tests for prenatal sex testing is the minimally invasive nature of this method. In contrast, there are small, demonstrated risks associated with amniocentesis, and some authorities believe that there could be theoretical risks associated with ultrasound. Women may have many motivations for using a test to learn the sex of their fetuses early in pregnancy, including mental preparation and planning gender-specific purchases, or more controversially, sex-selective abortion. The Baby Gender Mentor test is not regulated by the FDA, nor approved for diagnosis of any disease.
According to the Baby Gender Mentor web site, the test involves using real-time polymerase chain reaction and a proprietary technology to detect markers on the Y-chromosome, which can be isolated from the pregnant woman's blood if the fetus is male. However, the company has kept details of the test proprietary, refusing to publish their data until they receive a patent.
Customers and scientists have questioned the accuracy of the test, and legal action is being pursued against Acu-Gen as well as a major supplier of the test. The lawsuits claim that Acu-Gen's products are inaccurate with babies having their sex confirmed with ultrasounds and at birth. In their defense, Acu-Gen replied that ultrasounds were incorrect and that some of the babies had gender abnormalities.
Read more about Baby Gender Mentor: Test Methodology, Initial Media Attention, Accuracy of The Test Disputed, Possible Uses For Test, Warranty and Availability, About Acu-Gen
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