Researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that there is now a non-invasive test which will tell if a fetus is a boy or a girl – at just 7 weeks gestation! The authors of the article said that the test may also help with the detection of genetic diseases on the X chromosomes, a condition that only affects males.
Today, the only ways to diagnose diseases of the X chromosome before birth are through chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis, both invasive tests that increase the mother’s risk of miscarriage.
The foetal gender test cannot diagnose the diseases. But if the sex of the foetus can be determined early on in the pregnancy, that would lead to a 50 percent reduction in the invasive tests that have to be conducted for sex-specific diseases.
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