An IVF expert defends the right of parents who want to choose the sex of their third child saying it only affects a small number of families and it is strictly regulated.

The proposal is part of a review of IVF laws in Australia being undertaken by the Health Department.

Choosing a baby's gender for cultural or racial reasons would be banned in favour of an approach that would allow parents to balance families with boys and girls.

Families would not be allowed to choose the gender of their first or second child, except for medical reasons.

Professor Michael Chapman, a senior fertility expert with IVF Australia, said the vast majority of people did not want to choose the sex of their children, but a small percentage of families did.

"I suspect it's about 100 women a year in a population of something like 45,000 women go through IVF each year," he told 774 ABC Melbourne.

"I probably see a patient every four or six weeks who's distraught that they've got three boys and they want a girl."

Professor Chapman said many of those couples were "putting themselves at risk" spending thousands of dollars to go overseas to be able to select the child's gender.

"We're protecting them from that," he said.

"I don't think this should be a Medicare item absolutely not. It's a personal decision."

Ethical concerns around gender choice

774 ABC Melbourne talkback caller Christine, from St Kilda, had two children through IVF.

"I feel quite comfortable about the idea of selecting gender for the third one," she said.

"Clearly there's a lot of ethical issues about choosing gender for the first or second. But I think by the time you get to the third, you've already got two bodies out there contributing to the future reproduction pool."

The idea of gender selection was considered by talkback caller Linda, from Tallarook, who had one boy with Down Syndrome, but upon reflection, she changed her mind.

"I kind of would've almost invalidated my boy with Down Syndrome if I was looking to get the perfect boy, as though he weren't good enough," she said.

Managing expectations

Professor Chapman said concerns about designer babies were not relevant.

"We were accused of that when we started doing IVF 25 years ago," he said.

"We now have over 200,000 child in Australia born by IVF making people's lives happy."

He said the technology was there and would be strictly controlled, requiring approval under National Health and Medical Research Council (NMHRC) regulations.

"The IVF industry is one of the most controlled medical procedures in Australia. And this would fall under that same control system," he said.

Professor Chapman said allowing parents to decide the gender of their third child was about "dealing with the patient's desires [and] their needs to fulfil what they see as their ideal situation".

"We're in the 21st century," he said.

The chairman of the National Health And Medical Research Council (NMHRC) review, Professor Ian Olver, said he expected the final report to be completed at the end of this year.