Height

gingy

Hello everyone!
We've pretty much decided on our donor. Height and looks are pretty important to us because my husband is good looking and tall. Does anyone know how much of role genetics play in determining height? The donor we have chosen is the same height as my husband but in reviewing my donor's family history it looks like he is the only one with height. Both of my parents are tall so I have that on my side. Any advice?

Mom4Kiddos

Well, I can only tell you my personal experience. My father was 6'1" and my mother is 5'10". My mother has height in her family on her father's side while my father was by far the tallest in his family on both sides. I am 6'1", extremely tall! My husband is 5'11". Our donor is 6'3" and was taller than both his parents and his brother (his mother was only 5'4" I think). My daughter is turning 2 years old next week and is between 35-36 inches tall. She is at the top of the percentile chart, but according to my baby book I was much bigger than she is at the same age. It's really a toss up, IMO. Good luck to you!

CSS

My mother is 5'2 and my father is 6'4. And I ended up being only 5'1. On my mother's side, we have a lot of short women, so I suspect that was a dominant gene.

My husband is 6'2, so I picked a donor who's 6'3 and similarly built (lean). But you never really know how it's going to turn out. Our child could be end being short because of that propensity on my side.

--CSS

Arkmom

My Mom is 5'2" and my Dad is 6'4" as well. My sisters and I turned out small medium and large at 5'2", 5'6", and 5'11", which means, when you adjust for the five inch average hight difference between men and women, one of us is the same hight as each parent and one is halfway inbetween. I doubt it it usually works out that neatly. I would say though, if your donor is as tall as your husband and the child still turns out to be short, just know that the very same thing could happen if you were using your husbands sperm anyway.