Does Drinking Wine Really Affect Your Baby’s Gender?

We attribute so many positive effects to the drinking of Italian wine.

A quick explore of the xtraWine blog will show you posts about the many benefits that it has in terms of heart health and a range of other medical issues.

Of course, moderation in your consumption is the key to experiencing these benefits. But if you’re smart in how you drink, it’s entirely possible that you’ll be able to enjoy a healthier and happier you as a result of your Italian wine.

This makes it sound almost like some sort of magic drink. And wine lovers will certainly tell you that their tipple of choice feels like some sort of magic potion.

But does drinking wine have effects that even we don’t realise?

More specifically, does drinking wine have an effect on the gender of any children that you might conceive?

It’s an interesting question and one that you may not have heard before. But it’s possible that your bottle of Italian wine does much more than help your heart and combat the signs of ageing.

It just may have an effect if you’re looking to have a baby right now!

A Word of Warning

We’re going to get into the small amount of research that exists on this subject in a little bit.

First, we want to give you a word of warning.

The general consensus is that drinking Italian wine, or indeed any form of alcohol, when you’re actually pregnant can cause harm to your growing child.

Drinking while pregnant is not what this article is all about. After all, the sex of your baby gets determined at the point of conception. You’re not going to change it with a couple of glasses of wine, that’s for sure.

What we’re looking at is whether or not drinking wine has any sort of effect during the conception period. We want to know if it can increase the probability of you having a baby of a certain gender if you drink it before you get pregnant.

It seems like an obvious point to make. But we also feel that it needs reinforcing just to be absolutely clear.

Do not drink wine when you’re pregnant. And certainly don’t drink it with the idea that you might be able to influence your conceived child’s gender. You may cause terrible damage to the developing baby, especially if you drink to excess.

Looking at the Research

With that out of the way, let’s come back to our key question.

Can drinking Italian wine influence the sex of a baby that hasn’t been conceived?

Again, it seems like a strange question. But what we’re really looking at here is whether wine consumption can lead to such drastic hormonal changes that they have an effect on the sperm or the egg.

Specifically, it comes down to whether the nutrients that are in a glass of wine could, when combined with other dietary factors, influence gender.

We have to look to a 2008 study to find an answer.

This study found that the diet you eat can have a minor effect on the sex of your baby. If you eat the right foods, you could raise your chances of having a son from 10 out of 20 to 11 out of 20.

It’s a very small increase, that much is certain. And it shows straight away that there’s no sure-fire way of influencing a baby’s sex. However, you may be able to increase the chances of having a son if you stick to a certain type of diet.

And That Diet is…

Anything that increases a woman’s energy may be able to contribute to this increased chance of having a son.

The study didn’t look into the male side of things. That means all of the men out there don’t really need to worry about what they’re eating as long as they’re staying healthy.

For women, though, it appears that a diet that’s high in calories and certain nutrients can impact the chances of having a baby boy.

The researchers found that women who ate 2200 calories or more per day, with most of that specifically coming in the hours leading up to them having sex, were more likely to have boys.

Interestingly, the study also suggested that a diet that’s heavy in Vitamins E, C, and B12 can have an effect. So too can introducing potassium and calcium into your diet.

That’s where Italian wine may come into play. A glass of wine contains several B vitamins, in addition to some potassium and calcium. As a result, you may be able to add it to your conception diet.

But the key here is that wine alone will do little to have an influence. If you’re going to try to give this method a go, you’ll have to combine your wine consumption with high energy foods that contain the nutrients and vitamins mentioned above.

According to the study, you may also want to make sure you’re eating breakfast and foods that contain healthy fats.

And even then, the chances of conceiving a son only go up by 5%. 

The Final Word

So, can drinking Italian wine really have an effect on the gender of your baby?

When consumed alone, it’s very unlikely. There’s no specific research to suggest that wine on its own has any sort of effect.

However, that may change if you’re drinking wine as part of a high-energy diet. According to the research conducted in 2008, this may slightly increase your chances of having a son instead of a daughter.

But it’s far from an exact science. And the change is so small that one could argue that the results the researchers discovered may come down to chance as much as they have anything to do with the effects on diet.

So, we’ll conservatively say that the jury is still out.

However, our instincts tell us that drinking wine won’t really affect a baby’s sex. So don’t worry about it too much. Just make sure you’re not drinking when when you’re actually pregnant.