What determines the sex of the baby?

Question

Does the male's sperm or genetics or is it the females genetics or both?

Please help!

Answer 1

The sex of a baby is determined by the two sex chromosomes inherited from the parents. A baby will normally inherit one sex chromosome from the mother, and one from the father. A woman has two X chromosomes, so she can give either of her X chromosomes. The father can give either his X or Y chromosome.

Since the egg already contains an X chromosome (from the mother), the gender of a baby is determined by the X or Y sex chromosome of the sperm cell from the father (thus adding one more thing to the "blame it on the husband" list if things don't go as planned).

A girl baby will result if the final arrangement is XX, and a boy will result if it is XY. As you would expect, about half of the sperm cells contain an X chromosome, and half contain a Y chromosome. It is possible to have an abnormal number of sex chromosomes, however, this is extremely rare.

Realizing that gender is dependent on the Y-bearing and X-bearing sperm cells, scientists have attempted for years to separate these two populations from each other. Fortunately -- or unfortunately (depending on your view) -- this has proven to be a very difficult task. The human sperm cell is one of the smallest cells in the body. The head is oval, tapered and flat. The genetic material is tightly packed inside the head. The tail is long and very motile, giving the cell its amazing swimming capability. Sex selection procedures are based on theoretical and actual differences between the two types of sperm cells.