Test at home for baby's gender at 10 weeks of pregnancy

Rebecca Griffin didn't want to wait 20 weeks for a sonogram to find out whether she was going to have a boy or a girl.

And she figured a lot of other expectant parents felt the same way.

So starting in 2005, Griffin, a longtime commercial real estate broker and a mother of three boys and a girl, brainstormed with another Plano, Texas, mom (who prefers to remain a silent partner) on how to create an inexpensive home-based test that could predict gender. Working with a Dallas chemist, she began testing for her product, and IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test was born in November 2006.

The 10-minute test, which can be used as early as the 10th week of pregnancy, is been available in the family planning section at Walgreens and CVS stores for $29.99.

The IntelliGender kit tests the urine of mothers-to-be for gender-specific hormones (although the makers decline to discuss details while their patent is pending). A yellow to orange color will represent a girl; a smoky green color indicates a boy. If multiples or fraternal twins are expected, girl results indicate that all babies are females. A boy result means that at least one of the multiples is male.

So far, the makers say, the product is 82 percent accurate when taken in the home, with laboratory results coming in at more than 90 percent.

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