Is it true that a woman is going to inject special hormones during her pregnancy to change the baby's sex from male to female before the baby is even born? No, this is not true. First, it would be impossible to change the sex of a fetus in utero. Second, the picture is stolen from a family's 2011 blog of their baby's sonogram. Third, and just as important, it's an apparent joke announcement from a Facebook page known to peddle in shocking memes and humor.
The claim came in a post (archived here) published to Facebook on October 14, 2020, by user "Scoota Bernstein" The post, complete with a sonogram image, reads:
Announcement: As you all know me and Lacey our expecting our new edition to the family in February 2021 and today we went for an ultrasound where the doctor lets us know the sex. Well the ultrasound revealed the sex was "male" and as most of you know Lacey has been having dreams since first getting pregnant of the baby telling her she's really a girl and please don't make her be male so after the ultrasound we went to a psychic who also concurred the baby is a girl so we've decided Lacey will start taking HRT hormones while still pregnant so our DAUGHTER can start her transition/become who she really is before she is even born. It was a tough decision but were confident in it, thank you all for your support and we look forward to introducing you all to our baby daughter in February 💖
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 19 13:08:30 2020 UTC)
A reverse image search shows the picture was stolen from this site from 2011.
Still, the post, which has received 18,000 shares and more than 260 comments as of October 19,2020, was met by shock and disbelief -- as well as people incredulous that it was commented on and shared. Consider this from user Matt Brown, which got 95 reactions:
Almost 13,000 people were dumb enough to rage share this post lmfao"
But other comments were more serious: "I hope someone takes your kid," reads one, while another reads "Sick bastards! Hope they never have another child! Abuse!" and "Child abuse flat out!! b***h we will beat your ass.." The last one, from user Michael R. Blouir, got 356 reactions.
The joke is not immediately obvious, as is clear from the comments. Some are incredibly harsh and threatening, others offer encouragement to the "family" and others are in on the joke played by the poster.
HRT stands for Hormone Replacement Therapy, which, according to NHS Inform, is:
...is a treatment used to relieve symptoms of the menopause. It replaces female hormones that are at a lower level as you approach the menopause.
Lead Stories, through Google searches, found that it is impossible to change the sex of a baby before delivery. But you can, as Healthline reports, do things ahead of getting pregnant to increase the odds of having a boy or a girl.
