Only afterwards answering the question, "Am I pregnant?", your adjacent one might be: "Am I having a male child or a girl?" Although plenty of methods — some legitimate, some just fun — can predict the sex of your baby earlier on, your 20-calendar week ultrasound commonly offers a fairly reliable answer — with a few caveats.

Learn how this second trimester sonogram works and how to tell if the images you come across point that a baby male child or daughter is on the way.

How does a "gender ultrasound" piece of work?

During any ultrasound, a sonographer uses a wand chosen a transducer to emit sound waves through your belly (or other times, transvaginally). These pings safely bounce off of your baby's tissues, fluids and bones, and the echos assist create an image (called a sonogram) of your baby on the screen.

You may become several ultrasounds throughout pregnancy, but the big gender reveal frequently happens during your second trimester at the 20-week ultrasound, if y'all desire to know what you're having.

Typically washed between weeks 18 and 22 of pregnancy, this exam checks that all of your baby'due south organs and limbs are developing as expected — including those telltale reproductive organs.

Although all babies start out with the aforementioned preliminary set of ballocks in the womb, at that indicate during your pregnancy, y'all tin tell the difference between a baby boy or girl on an ultrasound.

Significant that every bit long as your little one is in an opportune position, the sonographer will expect for those anatomical boy-girl distinctions to deliver the news you've been eagerly pending. So if you'd rather not know, tell the sonographer you desire to be surprised!

How accurate is a gender ultrasound?

How accurately an ultrasound predicts a baby's sex depends on when it'due south performed. While those scheduled late in the start trimester (between weeks 11 and 14) get it right about 75 percent of the time, those done in the 2d trimester have an almost 100 percentage accurateness charge per unit, though no exam is perfect.

As hard as it may exist to expect, if you want to avert repainting the nursery, hold off until the 2d trimester to human activity on whatever ultrasound results.

No matter when you find out baby's sex, proceed in mind that ultrasounds rely on visual analysis, which can exist more subjective and take room for fault. In fact the accuracy of the test can exist afflicted by:

  • The sonographer. The more experienced and trained your ultrasound technician is, the more accurate your results (and baby sex determination) volition be.
  • You. If y'all're experiencing gas or bloating (two common pregnancy symptoms) or have a full bladder, it can create shadows or cloud the prototype and arrive more difficult to come up with an accurate reading of baby's sex activity.
  • Your babe. Equally much every bit yous want your infant to cooperate, your petty one may take other plans. Crossed legs, the presence of the umbilical cord between the legs, or other less-than-platonic fetal positions can forbid the sonographer from getting a skillful enough expect.
  • How many babies. If you lot're expecting multiples, your babies may hide or block one some other — making it harder to learn each one's sexual practice.

If you're looking for more certainty or an earlier answer, genetic testing can as well reveal your infant'due south sex. Procedures like noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS) take a more objective arroyo, using placental or fetal Deoxyribonucleic acid to determine the sex. And in the instance of NIPT, you tin can observe out every bit early as week 9 of pregnancy.

How to tell if information technology's a male child on an ultrasound

While parents may have a hard time making out the various parts of their babies' bodies during ultrasounds, sonographers await for certain male characteristics:

  • A genital tubercle pointing up. This is what eventually grows into a penis (or a clitoris, in the case of a girl) and it'south what the technician volition look at most closely to determine your baby'southward sexual practice. If it's angled upward when looking at infant from the side, you lot're probable having a boy.
  • A dome shape. When looking up at the infant'due south bottom from below, a sonographer may spot what'southward referred to every bit the "dome sign" between the baby'south legs, which is the penis and scrotum.

How to tell if information technology's a girl on an ultrasound

The absence of the above signs doesn't necessarily guarantee the baby is female person. A sonographer'south trained eyes volition instead watch for these clues that suggest baby is a girl:

  • A genital tubercle angled downwardly. If it's pointed downward, information technology indicates a girl. This "nub" won't elongate and volition instead develop into the clitoris.
  • 3 lines. Rather than the dome sign, seeing what looks like three light, layered lines (besides called the "hamburger sign") in the genital area indicates a girl. Those lines are the labia majora, the clitoris and the labia minora.

While it'south non foolproof, a second trimester ultrasound done around calendar week 20 of pregnancy can oft respond your "boy or girl?" questions fairly accurately. So one time you hear the happy news in the doctor's function, you can start buying baby gear accordingly and sharing the clandestine with loved ones — unless you decide to keep information technology a surprise until the very end!