Myth or Truth: Chinese Gender Prediction Calendar

Last updated on 1 July, 2024.

What started off as something as innocent as wanting to know if I was pregnant with a girl or boy, has recently turned into a mind-blowing phenomena that defies all scientific logic. Introducing, the Chinese Gender Prediction Calendar.

I was forwarded a version of this Chinese Gender Prediction Calendar many years ago when I was pregnant with Clara. Thinking it was a silly old wives’ tale, I unassumingly plotted my lunar year of birth and the lunar month of conception and didn’t think much of the prediction despite validating that it was true via the NIPT (Nest) test several weeks later.

It wasn’t until many years later, that this has been come back up in conversation now that many of my friends have multiple children of the same gender and were curious of any proven ways to conceive a boy or girl. Or in my case, we knew our family would be complete with two children and although we didn’t mind having two girls (it would have actually been easier to be able to reuse everything!), we thought it would have been nice to have one of each. For us, there was no harm in trying for a boy as we truly would have been over the moon with either!

Without further ado, here’s the chart which I’ve neatly reformatted:

How does the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart work?

Also commonly referred to as the Chinese Gender Predictor, the Chinese Gender Calendar or the Chinese Gender Chart, the chart aims to predict the gender of a baby based on the lunar month of conception (on the X-axis) and the lunar age of the mother (on the Y-axis).

Note that both inputs need to be the lunar calendar date equivalent. It’s a complicated process to convert the Gregorian date to the lunar date so I use this Gregorian to Lunar calendar converter. For accuracy, you’ll need to convert both the mother’s date of birth from the Gregorian calendar to the corresponding date in the lunar calendar, as well as the month of conception.

To use the chart, simply consult the respective column (lunar month of conception) and row (lunar age of mother at conception) to see where it overlaps. Obviously, if it overlaps on a blue box, then it’s a baby boy, and if it’s a pink box, it’s a baby girl. For example, if a woman is 36 years old, her lunar age is 37; if she conceived in lunar November., then according to the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart, she will give birth to a baby boy.

Similarly, you can use this chart to try to conceive a baby girl or boy, which is what we did! And if my case study is anything to go by, we did get the baby boy we were trying for!

Where did the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart come from?

The history of this particular gender prediction method is part mystery, part legend.

According to one account, the chart was supposedly found in an ancient Chinese imperial tomb some 700 years ago during either the Ming or Yuan Dynasty. The earliest Chinese dynasty dates back to 2070 BCE, so this method might have been used for thousands of years.

Another tale circulating the internet suggests that it was created during the Chinese Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 A.D.), and it was deduced from the theory of yin and yang, five elements (metal, water, wood, fire, and earth), and the Pa Kua (Eight Trigrams). It’s said that the Chinese Gender Calendar Chart was relied upon by the Qing Dynasty imperial family for the gender selection of sons. It was kept in the palace and was not available to the public. When the Qing dynasty lost the battle with Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900, the documents were sent to the British. They were apparently given to the King, and it was translated from Manchu into English. The chart later appeared in Austria, and when one Chinese scholar saw it, he copied the content, brought it to Taiwan, and published it in the newspaper in 1972.

Either way, there are stories that claim the accuracy of this chart is as high as 92%.

Common Mistakes in Using the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart

From my experience, there are three common errors made when using this chart and they both stem from choosing the wrong age. It seems simple though, but here’s why:

Mistake #1 – Using your western age and not your lunar age

The age of the mother should be her lunar age. In general, the traditional method to calculate this, is to add one to the western age. The idea behind this is that the Chinese calculate their age from the time the baby is in the womb, which means that a baby is already one when they are born.

However, there are exceptions to this. If a baby is born before that year’s lunar new year, then their lunar age of the same year would be two!

The headache-proof method is to just use a Gregorian to Lunar calendar converter to get your lunar age.

Mistake #2 – Using your current age and not your age at the time of conception

This is an easy oversight. The age you should be using needs to align to your age on the month of conception, not your age at this present moment. Again, remember that this needs to be the lunar age, not your actual age in the Gregorian calendar.

Mistake #3 – Not knowing the exact conception date

Obviously without knowing one of the inputs, you cannot expect a correct gender prediction. However, you can take an average by adding 14 days to your last menstrual period to get an estimate ovulation time where conception could have occurred.

Can you select a baby’s gender using the chart?

To get technical, the gender of your baby depends only on the chromosomes in the sperm released by the male. A combination of the Y chromosome from the father with the X chromosome of the mother makes it a boy while the X chromosome from the father combines with the X chromosome of the mother to make it a girl.

I acknowledge that this chart completely discounts the male and there’s absolutely no scientific support for the chart, but based on over 20 calculations, I currently have a 100% accuracy rate amongst my family and friends as well as with my own two pregnancies.

So now tell me… Is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart accurate for you?