Turtle vs. Hamburger: How We Tell If You’re Expecting a Boy or Girl

Finding out if your baby is a boy or girl is one of the most exciting things that happens when you’re expecting. Read on to learn how we tell which you’re expecting.

Before 16 Weeks

Even for us, it is impossible to tell whether you are expecting a boy or a girl before you reach 16 weeks. Both genders look the same before this, so even if you think you spot something on an earlier scan, it won’t be what you think it is. All of us started out with a tiny genital nub, which later differentiated into the male or female organs. Some people think that they can tell which way the genital nub will develop, but no one has proven they are able to do this reliably.

At Your Sexing Scan

We can perform a sexing scan at any time after 16 weeks. You can also find out your baby’s gender at any other ultrasound you have after this time, such as the routine abnormality scan that is performed at around 20 weeks.

Although telling whether you’re expecting a boy or girl might seem like an easy thing to do, it can be a little bit more complicated than you might think. You might not be able to do it when you look at the screen yourself. It can sometimes be difficult to get a clear view and even when we do it can still be tricky. Male and female genitals still look quite similar at 16-20+ weeks and the differences we’re looking for can be quite subtle:

• The “turtle sign” is the best clue to male gender- it is the tip of the penis peeking out from behind the developing testicles
• The “hamburger sign” suggests you are having a girl- this shows as three lines along the genitalia

We should be able to tell your baby’s gender at the sexing scan, but there is still a small chance that we might make a mistake. When this happens, it is usually because we couldn’t spot any signs of a boy so we thought your baby was a girl. It is much less likely that we will be mistaken if we tell you it’s a boy.