Couple Who Couldn’t Decide On Their Baby’s Sex While Doing IVF Let Their Dog Choose For Them

Jul 21, 2023

Fertility treatments are treatments that enhance reproductive fertility. There are three types of fertility treatments, including medicines, surgical procedures and assisted conception (intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF)). According to the NHS, these treatments are offered to patients based on the cause of the problem and what's available locally.

Fertility treatments have fulfilled the dreams of couples who want to start a family. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 413,776 fertility treatment cycles in America in 2021—99% of the recorded fertility treatments involved in vitro fertilization (IVF). 

According to MedlinePlus, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is joining a woman's egg and a man's sperm in a laboratory dish. The acronym is divided into two parts — in vitro and fertilization. While in vitro means outside the body, fertilization means the sperm has attached to and entered the egg. 

IVF has been around for decades since the 1950s. Although research testing of IVF techniques on animals started in the 1950s, it wasn't until 1978 that the first successful IVF pregnancy and live birth were recorded. Following the first documented success, IVF went mainstream in the 1980s and is now one of the most popular fertility treatments. 

Several stages are involved in IVF, including ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, fertilization, embryo development, embryo transfer and pregnancy. In the early days of IVF, it was impossible to pick the embryo's sex, but thanks to preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A), couples can now do so. 

One such instance where a couple chose their embryo’s sex happened with San Antonio, Texas couple, Serena and Jacob Cukjati. In a TikTok video posted on June 30, 2023, the indecisive couple employed the help of their dog, Charlie, to choose between a male or female embryo.

Serena and Jacob had difficulty deciding between a male or female embryo. When the San Antonio couple could not decide, they turned to their dog for help. In the TikTok video, Serena explained the reason behind their indecisiveness.

"Okay, so we haven't been able to decide if we want to transfer a girl or a boy embryo first. We have two girls and one boy for those of you who are new," said Serena Cukjati, 35, in the video.

She revealed they had sought the doctor's opinion on what embryo to pick, but he informed them that they had a boy and girl embryo that were exactly alike. This meant that the couple had to make a decision. In the video, Serena held on to two tennis balls labeled "girl" and "boy." She explained that she'd throw the ball, and whatever ball Charlie picked would be the chosen embryo. 

"So we decided we're going to have Charlie pick our embryo essentially," continued Serena. "We wrote boy and girl on each of these balls and we're going to throw them at the same time. Whichever one he brings back, that's what we're going to go with and it's going to be final."

After throwing the tennis balls, Charlie sprinted toward the ball, picked one of them and scurried back to the couple. Although he made a choice, the couple is keeping it a secret until August.

The video, which has been viewed over 26,000 times, garnered over 1,000 comments, most of which were in admiration of the video or guessing the sex of the chosen embryo.

"Awww such a cute idea! 🥰" one user commented.

"Boy!! You can tell by the mark on the tennis ball!!!" wrote another.

What do you think of Serena and Jacob Cukjati's idea to register the help of their dog in deciding what embryo to choose? What embryo do you think the dog chose? Let us know and — and be sure to pass this article on to friends and family members.