How Accurate Is an Ultrasond and the Baby's Sex?

Both of my kids were positioned in such a way that it was pretty obvious. Even still, I didn't believe anything until they came out and I could see for myself. I have known people whose ultrasound guesses weren't correct, so I didn't go hog wild buying any one particular type of clothing or accessories.
Like I said, my doctors were fairly certain both times and they were right.
I just think until you actually see the baby and hold it, THAT'S when you know if it's a boy or a girl.

I did want to know both times.

Best wishes.

I have heard if they say it's a Boy, It's a Boy. If they say it's a Girl, save the receipts :) It all depends on positioning. I have always waited for baby to be born before washing everything, just in case :)

You don't mention how many weeks you are. The further along the pregnancy, the more accurate. Nowdays, they are extremely accurate, not so many of those "ooops"es of 20 years ago. If they can tell you that they see ovaries, you can be pretty darn sure it's a girl - rather than going by genitalia. Does it really hurt to hold on to both the boy and girl stuff for the next six months or whatever time you have left til the baby's born?

I was told I was having a boy. My daughter is almost 15. Maybe things are more accurate now, maybe my tech was inexperienced, maybe it was the umbilical cord, who knows, but my baby girl wore a lot of blue clothes that first year :)

Look at it this way...there is a 50/50 chance that they will be right!!!! :-)

Both of my ultrasounds were correct, but I would not get rid of anything until your little bundle arrives. I had a girl the first time (as predicted by ultrasound) and it was so unbelievably obvious that #2 was a boy there was no question.

The Ultrasound tech will usually tell you how "sure" she is- I know with the three boys they were very confident in what "parts" they were seeing but with my daughter the ultrasound tech told us she was about 70% sure it was a girl and she ended up being right!

I found out with both my boys and it was very obvious and very accurate. I agree with some of the other posters about the experience level of your radiologist, but penises are pretty hard to miss!

It depends on the gestational age and position of the babies. My boys were not shy about letting it all show :) so we knew for sure what we were having from 22 weeks on.

I would say VERY accurate. Just had 3 kids in the last 4 years. We knew at the 1st ultrasound at 12 weeks what we were having with each one. Even though I couldn't tell ANYTHING, the tech and the doctor called each gender with 100% accuracy. I even asked them if they ever get it wrong or how common it was nowadays to get it wrong and they said no.. they're always right because today's machines are so much better than they were just 10 years ago. Since you already had 3 surprises, I'd go for the knowledge on this one.. that way you can FINALLY get rid of the hand-me-downs that you don't need anymore. :) Congrats and good luck!!

I see you have already had a LOT of responses. The farther along you are the more obvious it is, and the less likely they will have it wrong. I remember reading something about it could be seen as early as 11 weeks, but the odds of seeing incorrectly was very high. Most places won't even try before 16 weeks. With both of mine I was 18 weeks. Daughter for the first and son for the second, and they were right both times. I was very high risk so I had, what seems like, a million ultrasounds, and every time I went in they would ask if I knew the sex and I would tell them "Well at the last check it was a girl/boy" and they would always respond "Yep, still the same."

With my first two kids I didn't have the 3D ultrasound. There is such a difference. I would say the activity level of the baby will influence your outcome. My doctor always told me that a person would want to go more for the 21 or 22 week mark to find out the sex. After that it seems like the baby gets bigger and less active. An experience technician knows a lot of different things to get the results he/she wants.

I had three ultrasounds confirming my little girl, until she was born a little boy- good luck

I asked this question a year ago and got some mixed responses, we ended up finding out with our third because our older two were so anxious. Despite my fear. Anyhow we waited till week 21 to find out since that is when our midwife said we would be very, VERY certain of what the sex was. Anything before then can "change" especially a girl to a boy possibility because sometimes the goods just don't show early enough in boys I guess. Anywho them three little girl lines were very, very obvious, and well we had a girl.

I was pregant with twins and found out at 16 weeks that I was having girls....that was 8 years ago. My mom wanted a grandson so bad that she told me that others in her "medical community" since she is an MA told her that the testicles don't drop until 21 or 22 weeks.....I finally had to stop her mid-sentence and say "mom-I know how bad you and Patrick (my hubby) wanted a boy but there is no denial from the ultrasound that I am giving you to healthy baby granddaughters. I saw the smiley faces myself and I had a dream about girls.....call it what you want to but on December 14th and 15th of 2002 I gave birth to two healthy baby girls-lol! I have never met anyone that got a false except for the ones that were done years ago when ultrasound was fairly new ....but I've heard of it happening but never ever have actually personally met anyone that it happened to but like someone else mentioned-it depends on the tech and how good he/she is..........BTW once they got here no one and I mean no one cared at the fact they were girls and my mom has the closest relationship with them now and loves being nana to my girls just as she would have for boys....she always wanted a son but had tw3o girls herself then my sister had a girl then of course I had two girls myself....I guess we just can't have boys-lol! Although that is really and truly up to the male and not us females so....go figure ;())

Get a 3D one. There will be no question what the sex is.