A Melbourne woman plans to fly to Thailand to dodge Australian guidelines, which avert families from verifying the sex of IVF babies.

The woman, named Olivia, has three sons and desperately wants to have a daughter to complete her family. "It's just something deep in me that I can't shake. I just feel this really strong wish to have a daughter to raise with my sons in a balanced family. We conceived naturally for our three sons. This is not something we've taken on lightly", she said.

As the families in Australia are not permitted to choose the sex of the child through IVF under the current guidelines, she, therefore, had to travel o Thailand for the procedure, which was costing her $15,000.

Olivia also said that she knew many other women, who were also going overseas to acquire gender selection treatment.

Professor Loane Skene, from the University of Melbourne and a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee, said that she too supported the plan.

She said that Australians were permitted to travel to the United States to have a surrogate baby and she did not see why Olivia and her family were being prevented from doing the same.

She further added that she did not, however, feel the need for change of the law as it would involve a lot of sympathy from people as it was a strong human urge.