Ramzi Theory: Can Placenta Side Predict Boy or Girl?

What does Ramzi theory claim?

Ramzi theory says you can tell a baby's sex from which side of the uterus the placenta is forming on, as early as about 6 weeks. In the words of the publisher that now hosts the original article, the theory "claims that the location of the placenta, or trophoblast, can define fetal gender as early as six weeks via ultrasound":

• Placenta developing on the right: a boy.
• Placenta developing on the left: a girl.

In practice, people take a picture from an early scan, work out which side the placenta is forming on, and apply the rule. One paid online service described in a 2017 research paper offered to do this from scan pictures taken at 6 to 10 weeks. A lot of the online discussion is about whether a scan picture is "mirrored", and whether that differs between a scan through the tummy (abdominal) and an internal one (transvaginal). That argument shows the practical problem: unless the image is labelled, a photo of a scan does not tell you which side is the mother's left. No study has tested the rule either way, so there is no tested version to get right.

Where did Ramzi theory come from?

It is named after the doctor credited with it, Dr Saam Ramzi Ismail, whose article "The relationship between placental location and fetal gender (Ramzi's method)" appeared on the website obgyn.net on 14 June 2011. A 2017 peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews cites it in exactly that form — as a web article, not a journal paper.

The article is now hosted by the clinical news site Contemporary OB/GYN, which added an editor's note in October 2020. It says plainly: "Unfortunately, Ramzi's method has not been confirmed in any additional studies."

Accuracy figures for Ramzi theory circulate widely online. We have not repeated any of them here, because none has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Has Ramzi theory been tested?

Not in the form people use it. A search of PubMed and Europe PMC in October 2026 found no peer-reviewed study that recorded which side the placenta formed on in early pregnancy and checked it against the baby's sex.

What is on record is one anecdote. The authors of the 2017 paper sent a 7-week scan picture to a paid online service that uses Ramzi's method. It guessed correctly. The authors' comment was that, like every method of gender prediction, including a mother's intuition, the service "stands a 50% chance of correctly predicting gender in any single case".

That is the heart of it. With two possible answers, a method that does nothing at all will be right about half the time, and the right guesses are the ones people share. Without a proper study, a stream of success stories cannot tell a working method from a coin toss.

Does an anterior or posterior placenta mean a boy or a girl?

This is a different question from Ramzi theory, which is about left and right. We found one study of it.

A 2023 study from the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Najran, Saudi Arabia, scanned 142 pregnant women and compared placenta position with the baby's sex. It reported that most front-wall (anterior) placentas were with girls — 66 of 73 — and most back-wall (posterior) placentas with boys — 48 of 58 — a statistically significant association.

That is a single small study from one hospital, and we found no other study that has repeated it. It is not evidence for Ramzi theory, and on its own it is not a reliable sign of anything. Where your placenta lies is checked for medical reasons: in England, the NHS says your placenta is checked at the 20-week scan. If yours has been described as low-lying, see placenta praevia and low-lying placenta and low-lying placenta follow-up scans.

What can you actually find out at 6 to 8 weeks?

Not the sex from a scan picture. The only tested method that works this early is a blood test for the baby's DNA, and it is unreliable before 7 weeks.

• Scans. The earliest scan-based method with studies behind it, nub theory, starts at 11 weeks and is unreliable even then. In an Australian practice study of routine scans, sonographers' calls for babies under 12 weeks were right 54% of the time, and the authors advised that "predictions prior to 12 weeks should be discouraged".
• Blood tests. A meta-analysis in JAMA found that tests on the mother's blood for the baby's DNA were unreliable before 7 weeks, picking up a boy only 74.5% of the time. At 7 to 12 weeks, sensitivity was 94.8% and specificity 98.9%. Whether a screening blood test reports sex depends on where and why it is done: see NIPT and what it can tell you.

In England, the NHS offers the dating scan at around 10 to 14 weeks. For who is offered a scan before that, see early pregnancy scans, and 6 weeks pregnant for what can be seen at that stage. For the routes that do tell you, see when you can find out the sex.

If you enjoy guessing, Ramzi theory belongs with the old wives' tales and skull theory: harmless fun, with nothing published to say it works.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ramzi theory accurate?

There is no evidence that it is. It comes from a 2011 web article that was not peer reviewed, and the site that now hosts it says the method "has not been confirmed in any additional studies". We found no peer-reviewed test of the left-right rule. Like any two-way guess, it will be right about half the time.

Does Ramzi theory work on a transvaginal or abdominal scan?

Nobody has shown that it works on either. Much of the online debate is about whether a picture is mirrored, but there is no tested rule to apply in the first place. An unlabelled scan photo also does not show which side is the mother's left, so even the starting point of the guess is uncertain.

Does an anterior placenta mean a girl?

Not reliably. One 2023 study of 142 women in Saudi Arabia found most anterior placentas were with girls and most posterior ones with boys, but it is a single small study, and we found none that repeated it. Placenta position is checked for medical reasons, not to predict sex.

What is the earliest you can find out the sex?

In a JAMA meta-analysis, blood tests for the baby's DNA were unreliable before 7 weeks and picked up boys 94.8% of the time at 7 to 12 weeks. On a scan, judging the nub angle is unreliable before 12 weeks. In England, the NHS says you may be asked at the 20-week scan whether you would like to know.