DR Rajan Joshi doesn't work miracles, but his customised diets can help influence the sex of your child—boy or girl—before conception. A gynaecologist who's trained at the Baylor Institute of Medicine in Texas, Dr Joshi has devised a diet formula which he claims has ensured him a 98 per cent success rate among the 5,000 patients who have visited him.
Dr Joshi's method is based on the theory advocated by Dr Joseph Stolkowski and Dr Jacques Lorrain of Canada who began to research why a majority of couples exhibited the same sex pattern: if the firstborn is a male, the second is also a boy. In a research paper published in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1980, they advocated that sperms carry a specific charge on their heads: the Y sperms hosting a positive charge and the X sperms a negative one. Fertilisation occurs when one of the 20 to 60 million sperms released in every ejaculation penetrates the jelly-like covering of the egg called the zona pellucida. While the ovum embraces the sperm that fertilises it, at the same time it releases substances that repel the other sperms. In their research, Dr Stolkowski and Dr Lorrain expounded that the charge on the zona pellucida, which attracts or repels the sperms, could be altered by manipulating four nutrients in the prospective mother's body over a period of six weeks before conception. According to them, raising sodium and potassium levels in the mother's body and slashing calcium levels strengthened the zona pellucida's hold over the Y sperm and helped in producing a male child. The reverse held true for a baby girl.
The Stolkowski method was expanded by Dr Sally Langendoen and Dr William Proctor into a book The Preconception Gender Diet in 1984. They recommended a high-protein, low-calcium, high salt, high potassium, salty meat and dried meat diet for a male child and a salt-free, no alcoholic beverage diet for a baby girl.
Based on the Stolkowski theory, Dr Joshi prescribes a diet regimen which, when combined with timing intercourse around the time of ovulation, can determine a baby's gender. The diets are to be avoided by women who have hypertension (as it would tamper with their sodium levels); renal problems (a malfunctioning kidney can't handle high sodium-potassium levels) or those under medication for other illnesses.
Predictably, Dr Joshi's method has evoked mixed reactions. The Stolkowski method was dubbed gobbledygook by Dr Elizabeth M. Whelan in her book Boy or Girl:How to Help Choose the Sex of Your Baby where she warned against the "inherent danger of faddish diets, especially when pregnancy is imminent". But defending his mentors, Dr Joshi says the diet is confined to the period immediately before pregnancy and stopped immediately after it's confirmed. Also, the alterations are only "micro-manipulations" and not "drastic" ones as is being suggested.
Other gynaecologists have called his method mumbo-jumbo and "unscientific".Dr Joshi's also accused of encouraging gender-fixation, mutilating the cause of the girl child and undermining the government's attempts to ban sex-determination tests after pregnancy. In his defence, Dr Joshi says: "I'm not talking of sex-determination after pregnancy. My method encourages planning the gender of the child before conceiving it. This is essential in a country like ours where despite the ban, illegal sex-determination tests are conducted boldly by clinics. Do you know how many clinics there are in Ahmedabad which deliberately mislead couples? They fool them into abortions, for that extra fee, by saying the sonography showed a female foetus, even if it's a male. I'm not advocating the cause of a male child. I can prove at least 700 persons who consulted me were keen on baby girls."
Navneet Chokhani, one of those who consulted Dr Joshi, would agree. "It wasn't the traditional hang-up about a boy child that led me to Dr Joshi," he says. "I have two daughters and like the idea of having a boy around the house. At a get-together a friend mentioned Dr Joshi, and we decided to give it a try. If I'd known of it earlier, I'd have stopped at a two-child family." Says Dr Joshi: "My method will put a stop to population explosion in India. There are some couples who keep producing babies, even if they can't afford them, only because they hanker after a particular gender."
HOWEVER, it isn't the good doctor's motive but his method that the Mumbai-based gynaecologist team of Dr Aniruddha and Anjali Malpani have put to question. Dr Malpani attacks Dr Joshi's premise that X and Y sperms carry opposite charges. According to him, both carry negative charges, with the degree higher in the Y sperm. He also scoffs at the idea of the zona pellucida having a charge. "The paper on electrical charges unearthed by Dr Joshi was published in 1980. It's outdated now." He says it isn't possible to alter sodium, potassium, magnesium or calcium levels in the blood, let alone in the cells, by dietary changes. "The body protects itself against unequal levels of sodium or potassium or calcium by maintaining a constant. If there's extra calcium in the body, it just throws it out. Also if dietary change in the woman determines the charge on the zona pellucida, then it should attract only either the X or Y sperm. So how do you explain dizygotic twins, or twins of different sexes?"
The Malpanis instead rely on the Pre-implantation Diagnosis (PD) method where the embryo is biopsied for diagnosis and on the sorting out of X and Y sperms by a method called flow cytometry, combined with invitro fertilisation, to "100 per cent determine the sex of the child". The PD method is crucial in identifying genetic diseases and disorders where it is essential to determine the sex of the child to avoid X-linked diseases, numbering around 300, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy and haemophilia. The Malpanis have introduced these combinations of methods, currently offered by a handful of clinics worldwide, in India. They've also set up a HELP library to introduce the lay public to the latest in medical research, through a book and an internet search facility called Medline.
But the PD method could cost up to Rs 2 lakh and Dr Joshi dismisses it on the ground that its clinical use involves mutagenic techniques. "My method," he says, "taps only nature and diet. As to Dr Malpani's objections against it, I do know X and Y sperms have charges with differing intensity. Only when speaking to lay persons do I use the term positive and negative charges. With regard to charge on the zona, the effect of ions on its membrane is established. In bio-chemical language, it's called allosteric modifications."
Another Mumbai gynaecologist, unwilling to be named, is scathing about such "unethical" promises. "Dr Joshi is claiming a 98 per cent success rate, while Dr Malpani is discussing PD which is only for couples who have a history of genetic disorder. Till recently I was proposing the Ericsson's method (of sperm separation) but I stopped when I realised most couples were reselling their imported kits. Also, Dr Ericsson himself went on record saying it was not working." She's reverted to two more old-fashioned methods, for which she charges consultation fees of Rs 3,500. These prescribe copulation on 'girl' or 'boy' days centred around the timing of ovulation and vaginal douches of vinegar (for girls) and baking soda (for boys) one hour before intercourse. Dr Joshi and Dr Malpani dismiss both methods by saying they have been rendered impotent in subsequent research.
But despite the undercurrents in medical research, despite the internecine backbiting, couples who flock to Dr Joshi swear by him, call him "god's agent". Among them are Varsha and Mehul Christian who say they were welcome to the idea of a child of any gender but when they chanced upon Dr Joshi's method, they decided to plan the gender of their next child. Stavan (prayer to God) was born to keep company to their four-year-old daughter Stuti (praise to God). Twenty something Sonali Shah was similarly inspired. When her seven-year-old daughter began nagging her for a baby companion, she along with husband Shau-nak decided to visit Dr Joshi. And son Nimit is the happy result of that visit.
But even as couples try these methods, the best option still is to decide against politically incorrect preferences. And savour instead the lusty squall of a child slipping its way into the world, be it boy or girl.
