She paid $100,000 to have a baby girl.

Gender selection isn’t a new topic.

Although it is only talked about in whispers, and with horror. Mainly because of the image of certain babies being dumped after birth because of the gender or the stories of parents aborting their unborn baby once they find out the gender.

Then there is always the question that is brought up:

Shouldn’t you just be grateful you can even have a baby?

But for Rose Costa (and some other mothers), gender disappointment is a very real thing.

Your Tango reports that Rose, 36, and her husband Vincent Costa, 37, decided to spend US$100,000 to ensure that their third child was a girl (they have two sons). Having no fertility issues, they decided to undergo seven rounds of IVF.

Rose is now four months pregnant. She tells The New York Post, "I love my boys very much and wouldn't change them for the world, but having a girl is really important to me. You feel incomplete as a mother until you have a girl."

Read more: 18 completely fun ways to influence your baby’s gender.

In Australia gender selection isn't legally allowed.

However, that doesn't stop Australian parents from taking up gender-selection.

Last year, we heard about Jodi McMahon, a mum of seven boys, and her desire to have a baby girl. “The desire for a girl was pretty acute,” Jodi told Woman’s Day at the time. “We tried all the old wives’ tales. We tried different positions, went on high calcium diets, I put Andrew on decaf coffee. We don’t smoke or drink, so in theory, we should have had all girls from the things we were doing.”

But they were never successful in conceiving a girl naturally. So the NSW Snowy Mountain's couple flew to California to get the procedure. The whole process costs around US$15,000 and requires a 12 day stay near the clinic. The family now have daughter Addison born in 2011 and Evie born in 2013.

Read more: “Why all women secretly want daughters.”

In November 2014, another mum spoke about her heartache at not having a baby girl.

After she re-mortgaged her home once she heard she was expecting her third child and spending $50,000 to have the specialised IVF treatment in the US, she fell pregnant with a girl on the second try.

Read more: The mum who paid $50,000 to have a girl.

According to The New York Post, Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of the Fertility Institutes has seen a 250 per cent increase in gender selection in the US. The couples are mainly from the US, but also come from other countries where gender selection is illegal. “Most of them don’t have fertility problems - they want to guarantee a boy or girl. It doesn’t matter if it’s their first or fourth baby - we take all comers," says Dr Steinberg.

Do you think parents should be able to choose the gender of their baby?

TAP on the image below to see the most searched for baby girl names.