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Gender Selection Canada

Last reviewed 2026-10-27

Why Canadian patients are not told the sex of their embryos

This is the consequence that surprises people, and it is the single most searched-around fact in the Canadian market. You can have PGT-A in Canada; it is standard practice for identifying chromosomally normal embryos. But because the statute prohibits identifying the sex outside the medical exception, you will generally be given your results without it. Patients often assume the clinic is being cautious or paternalistic. The clinic is avoiding an indictable offence.

It also explains a pattern that otherwise looks strange: Canadian searches cluster around embryo grades and sex — people reaching for any other route to an answer. There isn't one. A grade describes appearance, not chromosomes; the detail is on embryo grade and gender.

The exception, and how narrow it is

Sex may be identified and selected to prevent, diagnose or treat a sex-linked disorder or disease. That is a clinical indication established by a specialist — a known risk of a condition such as haemophilia or Duchenne muscular dystrophy — and not a preference, however strongly held or however many children of one sex a family already has.

Travelling, and a word of caution

Canadians travel, mainly to the United States, where the drive from much of the country is shorter than a domestic flight. We will give the same answer we give everywhere: prohibitions in this field generally bind providers operating in the country rather than patients who travel. But Canada's provision is criminal rather than regulatory, and it is drafted more broadly than most. That is a genuine reason to take Canadian legal advice before committing, rather than relying on the general pattern or on anything written here.