Thursday, January 3, 2013

Ramzi Theory (& a hello)

Lately I've been consumed with figuring out if this Ramzi Theory is legit. It boasts a 97% accuracy, and somehow I just can't fathom that being right. (Cliff's Notes of the theory: This study claims that you can accurately determine fetal gender based on which side the placenta is on, during 6-8 week gestation ultrasounds. If you'd like to read the entire published study, click here.)

In order to properly use this theory, you first must know which side your baby's placenta is located on. This can be troublesome if all you have is an ultrasound and no tech around to tell you which way is which. Popular rumor is that abdominal ultrasounds are transverse (ie: right is left; left is right), and that vaginal ultrasounds are true to form. However, this isn't true. When researching more into this theory, I saw certified ultrasound techs give plenty of reasons they felt this theory was inaccurate. They explained that many factors could determine which view they decided to use for your ultrasound and 9 times out of 10 there will be no marker on the image itself for you to know. If you're like some of the girls in my due date group, you may be lucky and your tech may have marked off your left or right ovary in the image and then you have the correct orientation.

My ultrasound with this pregnancy has no markers to let me guess which side is which. Yesterday at my first Ob visit, I asked the Obstetrician about the theory and she pretty much laughed. She said there was no way something like that was 97% accurate, because if it was it would be common knowledge in the medical community. (This study was published a few years ago so there would have been plenty of time for it to make it's way around) We were discussing my own ultrasound and she said even their techs don't label left and right for the doctor's to view because they are more interested in the fact that the placenta is developing normally rather than the side it's on. The only thing she said that would be labeled were my ovaries. So no accurate guessing for me!

With every gender theory, there is a legitimate 50/50 shot at being correct... so of course I've been having a ton of fun looking up other people's results. One board in particular that I visited had a poll for members to mark if it had been accurate for them... and the results? Literally split 50/50! No surprise there!

I am very curious to see how it plays out for our little one...
I tried it with Chase first, since I still have a 7 week ultrasound from my pregnancy with him.


Okay, so this one is hard to decipher because to me he looks like he's smack dab in the middle. But then again, we don't actually know the legit orientation of this ultrasound. I would say this is inconclusive.


Here are my ultrasounds from 6 weeks (ultrasound says 10 weeks, but that was incorrectly based off my LMP) and 7 weeks 1 day during this pregnancy:



6 week image is inconclusive because it is a sagittal view (according to the ultrasound tech I asked to interpret the image for me). 
7 week image appears to have the baby on the left (the brighter white), and the light circle towards the center of the sac is the yolk sac. I'm not sure where the placenta is in relation to this, but I would venture to think it's by the baby, yes? If so, and if this is in the correct orientation, this would predict a boy.

I guess we need to wait another 8 weeks to find out for sure!! ;) 

I have another ultrasound in a few weeks at maternal/fetal medicine, and I may try out the "nub theory" as well. 

Toodles! 
Jamie

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