What is Sperm Spinning?
Sperm spinning is a process which is designed to separate male and female sperm, allowing parents who are using the assistance of technology to reproduce to select the gender of their baby. Like many techniques used to assist couples who have trouble getting and staying pregnant, sperm spinning is not guaranteed to be effective, but it can greatly help to increase the chances of having a baby of the desired gender. Because gender selection is a fraught issue in many societies, sperm spinning is not without controversy, and many parents who choose to use sperm spinning do not discuss it with people outside the family. The idea behind sperm spinning is fairly simple. Sperm with an X chromosome tends to be heavier than sperm with a Y chromosome, so, in theory, spinning sperm in a centrifuge will separate out the male and female sperm, with the female sperm sinking to the bottom of the centrifuge. Once the sperm spinning process is complete, the sperm of choice can be introduced to an egg
Sperm spinning is where the semen is placed in a centrifuge and spun until the x-chromosome (girl) sperm is separated from the y chromosome (boy) sperm. After spinning, the x-chromosome sperm will be found in greater concentrations at the bottom of the sample and the y-chromosome sperm will be found in greater numbers at the top. The desired boy/girl sperm are extracted from the sample and used during IVF. It is reported to be 70% accurate.
