IntelliGender Scam

So recently, I was informed about an at home, urine-based gender determination test called IntelliGender. Think a pregnancy test but for determining if you are expecting a boy or a girl. As this was the first time I had heard of such a thing, I was curious as to how this test worked. I went into my investigation having no real reason to doubt the test; I was expecting to find the usual list of binding proteins, antibodies, and the like. However, I received quite a shock when I found nothing of the sort. This dive ended up being a really good exercise in skepticism so I thought I'd share the experience (and break an almost year-long hiatus to boot).

My first step when investigating a product like this is to go to the product's page. See what the company has to say, what evidence they have to offer, etc. Even if a product is pseudoscience, they will generally have some links to a dense (but legitimate) study that only tangentially applies to their product or some manufactured study that, "proves," the product works. First thing I noted when going on the page was a very prominent testimonials section. Three videos in succession about how great the product was because it was featured on daytime TV or a celebrity used it. This may not seem like a problem but the fact that there was absolutely no form of proof along with it makes this definitely a red flag. The second red flag comes when following their link to their, "Accuracy FAQ Page." The very existence of the page is a flag in and of itself but oh boy is this one a doozy. For starters, they have their own version of the quack miranda warning,

In home accuracy rates may vary.  You must follow the instructions precisely in order to achieve the highest accuracy.    Please remember that the test is not 100% accurate.  IntelliGender is committed to providing fun products for moms along their pregnancy journey.  If your gender result proves to be wrong and you feel that this will in any way cause emotional stress, our GPK may not be for you.

The rest of the page is a variation on this theme. They tell you what may cause problems (don't explain why) and then tell you not to do something rash. Additionally, they assure you the kit is not measuring or effected by pH. That's all find and dandy, but, as a chemist, the image used for explaining what pH is irked me:

There are a bunch of problems with this that I won't go into for the sake of brevity, but it looks like they just searched google and grabbed the first image that came up. Claiming to have a legitimate scientific test then failing to find a pH scale that has correct information on it is a huge indicator of pseudoscience.

Now, multiple times on the FAQ testing was mentioned in some form. This got me excited; was I going to finally get an explanation of how this worked?

Sadly, no. After finally finding the link on the, "about us," page, I was greeted with, "Oops! That page can’t be found." Disappointing to say the least, and a huge red flag.

But, page mishaps happen. And though their website definately pointed toward pseudoscience, I wanted to give it as full a look over as I could. So I traveled to the infinite nexus of knowledge that is Google and searched for some independent reviews. The most unbiased looking page I landed on was an Australian product review site that added yet another nail in the coffin: a 2.1 star review that highlighted, "Not many reviewers received accurate results," as a major con. Having purported a 90% accuracy, this was definitely a bad sign for them. Furthermore, my search provided an very unexpected nugget for consideration: the product was ruled to be a scam by a San Diego Court. Now, by itself, a court ruling is not strong evidence; the standard of evidence in law is quite a bit lower than in science. But coupled with the other evidence (or lack thereof) this is pretty damning.

So I thought to myself, is this even possible, how does this even work? Well their site offers many examples of the results to expect:

And from friends who have tried it, they have definitely seen a change. So something happens. The test is actually pretty simple, you draw the sample into a syringe and inject it into a port in the top. After 5 minutes you should have your answer. So what could be going on? As far as I am aware, there are no accurate tests for determining gender via urine. And though they say they are detecting unspecified hormones in the urine, I find that implausible as the sensitivity would have to be a lot higher than a simple color test could provide.

Honestly, trying to nail down what this could actually be is near impossible. There is a waring on the box that the test contains Sodium Hydroxide, which, from my limited understanding is commonly used to bleach urine samples for color testing. It's a black box with no real indication as to its contents. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a specific gravity test. In urine tests, specific gravity is a common color based measurement and, get this, the color range is from green to light orange. I'd be willing to bet that what we have here is a run-of-the-mill scam trying to pass off a simple diagnostic test as something it's not. As it stands, the only proven ways to determine gender are done in a professional setting. Don't waste your money.