📘 About the Old Wives' Tales Quiz
The old wives' tales gender predictor is a light-hearted quiz on four of the best-known pregnancy folk signs: morning sickness, food cravings, the shape of the bump and the ring test. Answer the questions you know and the quiz tallies what each tale is supposed to mean.
Please read this first: these tales are folklore, not science, and together they are no better than a coin toss. The quiz is here only for fun. Power Calculators does not support, promote or provide sex determination or sex selection, and we strongly oppose female foeticide. Every child, girl or boy, is equally precious.
Pre-natal sex determination and sex selection are illegal in India under the PC&PNDT Act, 1994, and are restricted in many other countries. Never use this, or anything else, to make a decision about a pregnancy.
🧮 Formula
This is a tally of folk beliefs, not a test. Each sign is explained below with what the evidence actually shows.
💡 Important disclaimer — please read
This page is for entertainment and general information only. The set of old wives' tales has no scientific or medical basis and cannot tell you the sex of a baby. Its answer is a guess with about a 50% chance of being right.
Power Calculators does not support, promote or provide sex determination or sex selection, and we strongly oppose female foeticide. Every child, girl or boy, is equally precious. We do not offer, advertise or refer anyone to any service for finding out or choosing a baby's sex, and no feature on this site is meant for planning a pregnancy around the sex of the baby. For the same reason we do not publish month-by-month planning grids or suggest 'best months' to conceive a boy or a girl.
Nothing on this page is medical or legal advice. For anything about your pregnancy, talk to a qualified doctor.
💡 The law: sex determination and sex selection
India: the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDT Act) bans determining or revealing the sex of a foetus, bans sex selection before or after conception, and bans advertising any such service. Offences are punishable with imprisonment and fines, and doctors can lose their registration. Sex-selective abortion is also an offence.
Many other countries also restrict sex selection for non-medical reasons or ban sex-selective abortion. Laws differ from country to country, so it is your responsibility to follow the law where you live. If this page is not lawful where you are, please do not use it.
If you are being pressured to find out a baby's sex or to end a pregnancy because of it, you are not alone. In India you can call the Women Helpline on 181, or the emergency number 112.
💡 The four tales and what the evidence says
Morning sickness: the tale says severe sickness means a girl. This is the only one with a small grain of truth. Large studies, including a 1999 Swedish study in The Lancet, found that women admitted to hospital with very severe pregnancy sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum) were slightly more likely to be carrying a girl: about 56 in 100 instead of the usual 49 in 100. That shift is far too small to tell you anything about one pregnancy, and most women with ordinary nausea have boys and girls in the usual proportion.
Food cravings: sweet for a girl, salty or sour for a boy. There is no evidence for this. Cravings are linked to changing hormones, taste and smell, and habits, and they vary from week to week.
Belly shape: carrying low for a boy, high for a girl. There is no evidence for this either. How a bump looks depends on the mother's height, abdominal muscle tone, whether it is a first pregnancy and the baby's position, not the baby's sex.
The ring test: a ring on a string over the belly that circles means a girl, and one that swings back and forth means a boy. The movement comes from tiny, unconscious movements of the hand holding the string, known as the ideomotor effect. It cannot sense anything about the baby.
💡 How accurate are old wives' tales?
Studies that asked pregnant women to guess their baby's sex from these kinds of signs found their guesses were close to chance. Adding up several unreliable signs does not make a reliable one, so the quiz remains a coin toss.
❓ Frequently asked questions
Does severe morning sickness mean a girl?
Not reliably. Very severe sickness needing hospital care is slightly more common with girls (about 56 in 100), but for ordinary nausea there is no useful link, and plenty of women with severe sickness have boys.
Do sweet cravings mean a girl?
No. There is no evidence that cravings are linked to the baby's sex.
Does carrying low mean a boy?
No. Bump shape depends on the mother's body, muscle tone, number of previous pregnancies and the baby's position.
Does the ring test work?
No. The ring moves because of tiny unconscious hand movements (the ideomotor effect), so whoever holds the string influences the result without realising it.
How accurate is this quiz?
About 50%, the same as chance. It is just for fun.
Can this help me conceive a boy or a girl?
No. No calendar, chart or folk method can influence or predict a baby's sex, and we do not offer any gender selection tool. Sex selection is illegal in India and restricted in many other countries.
Is it legal to find out a baby's sex in India?
No. Under the PC&PNDT Act, 1994, determining or revealing the sex of a foetus is illegal in India, and so is sex selection. No doctor, clinic or test may tell you the baby's sex before birth. Folk methods like this one do not determine anything.
Does Power Calculators support gender prediction?
No. We do not support, promote or provide sex determination or sex selection, and we strongly oppose female foeticide. This page explains a piece of folklore and why it does not work. Every child, girl or boy, is equally precious.