Finally . . . It’s a Boy! : Controversial Sperm-Separation Technique Delivers Closing Chapter in Irvine Couple’s Saga

IRVINE —  It is, in fact, a boy.

The news, delivered last week with their fifth child, unleashed a flood of grateful tears from Gary and Jeanne Neumann of Irvine.

Already parents of four daughters, the Neumanns had tried every known folk remedy to produce a son, resorting last December to a controversial sperm-separation technique at a Santa Ana fertility clinic. Ten months later, they are true believers in a method that purportedly helps parents choose the sex of their child.

“I really do believe science did work for us,” said Jeanne Neumann, 34. Following the birth Oct. 11 of Gareth William Neumann III at the new Irvine Medical Center, she said she and her husband “sobbed for hours. It was totally emotional.”

Five days later, she said, it is still hard to believe. “I have to stop and think: This is a son, not a daughter.”

In the little-known but increasingly popular method, sperm is washed to weed out chromosomes of the undesired sex and the woman is artificially inseminated. Critics contend the process cannot guarantee success, that science still cannot determine which of a multitude of sperm will penetrate any given egg.

Since a Sept. 5 article in The Times, the couple has explained their motives and the process on two television programs: the Home Show and the Today Show. The Today Show included interviews with a couple who wanted a boy and considered abortion when they learned they had conceived a girl. The Neumanns turned away reporters for PM Magazine who wanted cameras in the delivery room, she said.

Meanwhile, the Fertility Center of Southern California in Santa Ana has received hundreds of telephone calls from couples hoping to choose the sex of their child.

Half the callers were Anglos, and of them, a slight majority wanted girls, said director Herlinda Sullivan.

The rest of the callers, mostly Indian and Asian, nearly all preferred boys, she said.

The Neumanns never attempted to learn the sex of their child during pregnancy and said they never would have considered abortion.

Jeanne Neumann said she believed she was carrying a boy, however, because her fifth pregnancy was different from the previous four. She carried the child lower, more in front, and was nauseated night and morning, rather than morning only, she said.

However, at one point during her pregnancy, when she dreamed she had a girl and woke up in a sweat, Jeanne Neumann said she realized she was not fully prepared for another daughter. She said she knew then she had to work harder to persuade herself that they would be happy no matter what.

They decorated around the baby crib with both pink and blue.

If she had had a girl, she says, “She would have been loved like any other baby regardless of sex. This is a baby to begin with, a wanted child and the sex part was secondary.”

On further reflection, she says she is no longer sure she would have revealed to a daughter the lengths they went to to obtain a boy.

In fact, she said this would be her last interview, partly because they do not want their daughters to think their place in the family is invalid.

The girls are not resentful, she said. Tuesday they asked her to bring Gareth to class at Springbrook School, she said.

But that is the last of his appearances for a while, she said.

“This baby will not be on TV. We don’t want him to grow up with people saying, ‘You were a sex-selection baby.’ We don’t want him to be pulled out of a crowd like the first test tube baby.

“We just want a quiet normal life, as quiet as it can be with five kids.”