Nicola Chenery, 33, of Plymouth, who lives with her four sons and partner, said it would make her "family complete".

She and her partner, Mike, who is father of three of her sons, have saved �6,000 for gender selection IVF treatment.

The treatment process will begin in Britain and then Ms Chenery will travel to an undisclosed country next year.

I am just choosing the gender of my baby. I don't care what colour her hair or eyes are, or how intelligent the child is

Nicola Chenery

She said: "I love my four boys, but this is my last chance to have a baby girl."

"I am just choosing the gender of my baby. I don't care what colour her hair or eyes are, or how intelligent the child is."

Her consultant, fertility expert Paul Rainsbury, said there were two methods of selecting a child's gender.

The first is to sort sperm into X and Y chromosomes before artificial insemination, but there is no technology for this in the UK.

The second is to create embryos through IVF and determine their gender before implantation.

Treatment overseas

Mr Rainsbury said this pre-implant genetic (PGD) diagnosis was illegal in the UK except on medical grounds, such as whether the child was likely to develop haemophilia or cystic fibrosis.

But the treatment is legal in some countries for gender selection.

Rules over PGD are administered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

The authority says it is against sex selection for family balancing because it would imply one sex is more valuable than the other.

Ms Chenery said: "If it was a boy I would be shocked, but I would be fine. If this doesn't work I will not try again."