Sherry Bonelli of PregnancyStore.com, retailer of Acu-Gen's Baby Gender Mentor, has posted a comment to my article comparing Baby Gender Mentor with ultrasound results, and raised some questions I'd like to address.
What are Maureen's "hidden agenda" and "ulterior motives"?
My "agenda" is on the top of every page of this Web site: that bit about the "straight truth". You'll see it in bold print on my home page:
I'll tell you the straight truth... because I'm not trying to sell you anything.
Maureen
At the risk of sounding cheesy, I'll say that it's more than my "motive", it's my mission to be an impartial source of information on a topic where there's precious little objectivity to be found, mostly because everybody else IS trying to sell something.
But even if you don't believe any of that, from a practical standpoint, where is there any profit in it for me, either way? Let's look at two possible outcomes when the "truth will out" and the babies in question are born:
- Baby Gender Mentor turns out to be right in every case. The result? Maureen looks foolish for ever questioning this "foolproof" test.
- Baby Gender Mentor turns out to be wrong in some of these cases. The result? Fame and fortune for Maureen! No, not really. I don't have any competing product to sell. I will simply have the unfortunate task of writing, Sorry, this is yet another case of, Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
And if it turns out to be the second case, I will be very sad and disappointed. I would much rather report that this product is the real deal. Sherry Bonelli has been widely quoted as saying, "more than half of expectant parents want to know the baby's sex in advance". Well, among my compatriots who visit this Web site, that ratio is a lot higher. For those who have endured 6 months on the "girl diet", or spent $20,000 to get pregnant using MicroSort, "want to know" is a gigantic understatement. "Dying to know" or "obsessing night and day" might be closer to the truth. And I'm one of this group, I'll frankly admit; I was dying to know my baby's gender before the second line on the pregnancy test barely had a chance to show up.
I would love to be able to tell my readers, "Now YOU can choose the time to learn your baby's gender, and with absolute certainty! No more second-guessing the ultrasound, no more silly Draino test or Chinese calendar nonsense, it's the END of the 20-WEEK-WAIT!"
If it turns out that Baby Gender Mentor can make good on its promise, that 99.9% of these babies pop out of the birth canal with gender matching the Baby Gender Mentor result, then I will strongly recommend this service on this Web site, because my readers will want to know about it.
The science behind Baby Gender Mentor
The science, technology and fundamental principle behind the Baby Gender Mentor are totally new and novel -- unlike anything else that's out there or published to date.
Sherry Bonelli
("New and novel" but proven in a 14 year trial?)
I don't think any rational person would expect a science that is new, novel, and unpublished to be blindly accepted without question. A product that is launched to the public without first passing muster in the scientific community is certainly open to skepticism. How can any consumer afford not to be wary of fantastic claims? If I believed every claim a company printed on their box, I'd be sitting here waiting for my Ab-Energizer to effortlessly melt away my unwanted pounds, while a magic "better than Botox" cream erased all my wrinkles.
Yet any question about Baby Gender Mentor is regarded as some kind of fraud or "conspiracy", rather than an honest effort to evaluate a new product. Valid and reasonable inquiries are met with vagueness and outright paranoia, and even name-calling.
Any medical person or scientist who claims to know how the test is done is not true and undoubtedly wrong.
Sherry Bonelli
Well, I'm neither, but I can read the studies listed on the PregnancyStore Web site, and draw the conclusion that Acu-Gen is detecting cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood.
I have also noticed that the description of this test has been completely changed.
Originally, the test claimed only to detect Y-chromosome-specific DNA; Y-DNA indicates a male pregnancy, and in its absence, a female pregnancy is assumed. Of course I am not privy to Acu-Gen's secrets, but it is fairly obvious to infer that this test could be done using PCR to amplify a Y-specific sequence, such as SRY or DYS1 or other genes. This isn't a breakthrough; rather, it's a well-documented procedure using standard equipment. (The idea of providing this service in an at-home kit, however, is novel.) At that time I concluded, and posted on this Web site, that the science definitely looked valid, although I had reservations about detecting fetal DNA in the mother's blood so early in pregnancy that the placenta had not even developed yet.
The new claim, however, goes far beyond this, stating that both "fetus-originated" X and Y chromosome sequences can be detected. This is something completely different. I can speculate on a couple of ways to do this -- by identifying DNA through epigenetic markers; or looking for X-sequences that don't match either of the mother's two X chromosomes. Such techniques would have great potential for prenatal diagnosis, and so I hope this is true.
"Unsubstantiated statistics"
...none of the statistics and legality of the allegations can either be substantiated or stand the trial of time...
Sherry Bonelli
There are no "allegations" in my article. There is simply a comparison of results and a question:
What do you think is going on here? Is the ultrasound wrong, or Baby Gender Mentor? Only time -- and birth -- will tell.
Maureen
If there is no doubt that Baby Gender Mentor will be completely vindicated by "the trial of time", why is this question so threatening? I would think any retailer, who has enjoyed such a bonanza of free publicity as this product has received, would be laughing all the way to the bank, thinking of the day soon when all doubts will be resolved and Baby Gender Mentor will be proven correct in every single case, and all of the naysayers will look like crackpots who probably think the Moon landing is a hoax, too. And how Maureen will have nothing but a nice illustration of how inaccurate ultrasounds really are at predicting a baby's gender.
Our clients... have the right to contact Acu-Gen directly to resolve the confusion instead of being part of the unsubstantiated statistics at this website.
Sherry Bonelli
It is correct that the pregnancies I have listed are "unsubstantiated" and anecdotal. I do not claim to be running a clinical trial.
But here is another unsubstantiated statistic: Acu-Gen's 14-year trial testing 20,000 women with 99.9% accuracy.
A documented medical trial would provide information like this: "We tested (number) of women between the __th and __th week of pregnancy. The women were __ years old and this was their __th pregnancy. We conducted this research in (city) and we recruited women (how). We confirmed our results (how). Pregnancies resulted in (boys, girls, multiples, miscarriages)."
I repeatedly questioned Acu-Gen for ANY details about this astonishingly successful trial, and got only: "this service has been running in Asia for 14 years". (Raising a whole new set of questions I won't delve into here.)
As much as Acu-Gen is convinced that their own tests are valid and substantiated, I am convinced that the pregnancies I have listed here are real and substantiated and a realistic test group. Only a few of these women even know that I have taken note of their Baby Gender Mentor and ultrasound results, which they have posted publicly just as pregnant women everywhere discuss the outcome of every possible gender prediction from ultrasound to old wives' tales.
On the other hand, women who have sought out this Web site specifically because of their conflicting ultrasound and Baby Gender Mentor results, are excluded from these totals. The statistics do NOT include Danielle, Mandy, and others, simply because I didn't know about their pregnancy before they got conflicting results. The only women I have included in these totals are women who have previously posted or blogged about their pregnancy, sharing everything from morning sickness to extra bathroom trips in the middle the night. They may not be a statistically perfect universe, but they seem undoubtedly to be real pregnant women who have absolutely no motive beyond just wanting to know their unborn baby's gender -- exactly what Baby Gender Mentor is promising.