The Chinese pregnancy calendar to calculate whether it will be a boy or a girl
The Chinese pregnancy calendar is a traditional game which, starting from the date of conception and the mother’s age, is supposed to predict the gender of the baby.
The Chinese pregnancy calendar , also called the Chinese pregnancy table or Chinese conception calendar, is a kind of game to calculate whether the future baby will be a boy or a girl .
Its origins date back to about seven hundred years ago: in fact, it is said that this calendar was discovered inside a Chinese royal tomb.
The calculation is based on the lunar age of the mother and the lunar month of conception . In some versions of the calendar the month of the presumed date of birth is used instead of that of fertilization.
If you don’t know these two dates, we remind you that you can calculate them very easily:
- with the fertile period calculator you will know on which days conception is most likely to have occurred, based on the average length of your cycle (and if you know it also the luteal phase );
- with the expected due date calculator you can find out when your baby is expected to be born.
How to calculate the lunar age of the mother?
According to the traditional Chinese calendar , a person’s age is calculated from the moment of conception and not from the date of birth.
Consequently, the calculation of the lunar age is obtained by increasing one’s age by one year (which represents a rounding of the nine months of pregnancy).
For example, if the expectant mother became pregnant at age 33, her lunar age would be 33+1=34.
If desired, a more precise calculation could be made , even if a little more complicated, starting the count from one’s date of birth – 9 months .
So if mom was born on January 1, 2000, going back 9 months we’ll get April 1, 1999. If mom got pregnant in 2022 , her lunar age at conception will be 23.
How to calculate the lunar month of conception?
The date of conception is calculated by counting two weeks from the last menstrual period in 28-day cycles . For those with irregular cycles, it is necessary to know the day of ovulation and identify the month in which it occurs.
Once the month of conception has been identified according to our calendar (called the Gregorian calendar), it is necessary to find the corresponding Chinese lunar month , which is based on the date of the Chinese New Year of the current year.
Below you will find the conversion table between the Chinese lunar calendar 2022 and the Gregorian calendar .
Chinese calendar 2022 |
Gregorian calendar |
| January | February 1st – March 2nd |
| February | 3 – 31 March |
| March | 1 – 30 April |
| April | 1 – 29 May |
| May | 30 May – 28 June |
| June | 29 June – 28 July |
| July | July 29 – August 26 |
| August | 27 August – 25 September |
| September | 26 September – 24 October |
| October | 25 October – 23 November |
| November | 24 November – 22 December |
| December | 23 December 2022 – 21 January 2023 |
The Chinese pregnancy calendar 2022
Have you calculated the lunar age and lunar month of conception? At this point, you can finally have fun finding out if you’re expecting a boy or a girl using the table below !
Reliability of the Chinese calendar of pregnancy
It goes without saying that the Chinese pregnancy calendar has no credibility whatsoever . Chinese astrology practitioners believe that this method is very reliable (they even assume 93% accuracy!), but in reality it is only one of the many games that mothers and fathers of every historical era love to play to try to guess the gender of child.
To find out if the bow will actually be pink or blue, some parents wait for the moment of delivery, while most receive confirmation of the baby’s sex during the second trimester ultrasound , also called morphological . Others, on the other hand, find out if they are expecting a boy or a girl through earlier tests, which are carried out to identify any chromosomal and genetic abnormalities of the fetus, such as amniocentesis, CVS or fetal DNA screening tests .
Obviously all these tests must be carried out with precise timing; with the calendar, on the other hand, you can play from the same day you discover the pregnancy.
It must be reiterated, however, that this is a method without any scientific basis and therefore should not be taken seriously. As demonstrated by some researchers, in fact, this system is worth as much as heads or tails (that is, it has a 50% chance of guessing).
Can I use the Chinese pregnancy calendar?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using this method, as long as there is an understanding that it is just a hobby. It can be fun to test it out with family or friends and find out who it worked for and who it didn’t.
So, if you like games like this, play them serenely . The essential thing is not to take the results too seriously or use them to make important decisions (such as choosing the child’s name and embroidering it everywhere or deciding whether to paint the bedroom pink or blue).
How can I determine the gender of my child with certainty?
If you want to find out accurately whether you are expecting a boy or a girl, you need to talk to your gynecologist. Usually, confirmation of the sex of the unborn child occurs with morphological ultrasound , which is performed between the 19th and 20th week of pregnancy . This method is highly accurate, but does not give a 100% guarantee. Even sonographers, in fact, can make mistakes, in addition to the fact that the child could “not cooperate” and make sex determination impossible.
Among the methods to have absolute certainty, however, we have some prenatal diagnostic tests, which can be performed when you want to investigate the possible presence of genetic or fetal chromosomal abnormalities :
- the circulating fetal DNA test (NIPT) , a non-invasive screening test that can be performed from the 10th week of pregnancy ;
- CVS , an invasive diagnostic test that can be performed between the 10th and 13th week of pregnancy ;
- amniocentesis, an invasive diagnostic test that can be performed between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy (early amniocentesis) or, more rarely, after the 25th (late amniocentesis).
How to conceive a boy or a girl?
If you don’t have fertility problems and you want to increase your chances of having a boy or a girl in your next pregnancy, you can try the Shettles method :
- Calculate when to have intercourse to increase the likelihood of having a boy
- Calculate when to have intercourse to increase the likelihood of having a girl
But be careful: even in this case, it is not a certain system. Several studies, in fact, have denied the effectiveness of this method.
Kathryn Barlow is an OB/GYN doctor, which is the medical specialty that deals with the care of women's reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth.
Obstetricians provide care to women during pregnancy, labor, and delivery, while gynecologists focus on the health of the female reproductive system, including the ovaries, uterus, vagina, and breasts. OB/GYN doctors are trained to provide medical and surgical care for a wide range of conditions related to women's reproductive health.