What do the experts say

High-tech sex-selection methods have stirred hot debate in the medical community. Some doctors think it's a great way to balance families, while others think we're heading down a slippery slope. Mark Sauer, a fertility specialist and the program director at the Center for Women's Reproductive Care at Columbia University in New York, thinks that sex selection for family balancing is unethical and has no place in fertility treatments. "I can't endorse the destruction of normal human embryos because they happened to be of the wrong sex," he says. (According to one recent report, four of MicroSort's 500 pregnancies have been terminated for that reason).

Not all fertility doctors agree with Sauer. While the American Society for Reproductive Medicine officially opposes PGD for nonmedical reasons, it acknowledges that sex selection shouldn't be condemned in all cases, and doesn't favor making it illegal.

Low-tech sex selection has not sparked the same controversy, probably because these methods are far from foolproof and the assumption is that couples practicing them are investing less — both financially and emotionally — in their success. But do they work?

These techniques range from Shettles and Whelan to folk wisdom such as making love standing up and eating more meat if you want a boy, and eating lots of chocolate and having sex in the missionary position if you want a girl.

"I tell my patients that if they want to try low-tech methods, give them a go," says Brian Acacio, a fertility specialist and medical director of the Sher Institutes of Reproductive Medicine (SIRM) in Los Angeles. "They probably won't hurt, and there's a 50 percent chance they'll work."