What is the whole story about chances of having twins??

[Ophelia]

What is the whole story about chances of having twins?? If my boyfriend has brothers that are twins and his father had twin siblings is it possible if we had a child it could be twins?

[Lieselotte]

I don't know.

Just off the top of my head I think it might depend on what kind of twins they are. If they are fraternal (2 eggs released and fertilised) then that would depend only on the mother's body and may be passed down in the mother's side of the family.

If they are identical twins (one egg fertilised then split), then I think there could be a male factor to it, maybe causing the egg to split.

Again, I am just making this up as I go along...

Lilo

[Mary_Mary]

Unless there is a history of twins IN YOUR OWN FAMILY you have little to worry about.

Identical twins are just a fluke and can happen to anyone.

As far as fraternal twins go, a woman CAN potentially inherit the tendancy to release two eggs, but as far as I know there's nothing that would indicate that a MAN would have any influence over whether his partner would have twins.

Even so, fraternal twins can and do 'just happen' to people.

There is NO HISTORY AT ALL of twins in my family or my ex-husbands family. Unless you go back three or four generations. Yet I had twins. Mine are identical.

I have a friend who had TWO sets of twins, both fraternal, so obviously she tends to release two eggs fairly often. (She also has one singleton.)

You occasionally hear about families who have several sets of twins, but I've only heard of a handful of families where there were twins in two successive generations, or even every other generation.

[aussietwirler]

The 'twin gene' is passed down from your maternal side (so your Mum & her Mum etc).

My Grandmother's sister was a surviving twin. They say it often skips a generation, which it did in my case and I now have twins which we think are fraternal (having DNA testing to confirm)

Identical twins are not inherited and just a 'freak of nature'

I belong to a Multiple Birth group and know families with 2 or more sets of twins in it, and families with twins in every generation or every second.

If you are over 35 your chances of having fraternal twins increase, as you body starts to 'throw away' more eggs.. so the older you are the higher your chance, even if not in the family.

Funnily enough you have a higher chance of having ID twins with IVF, although they don't know why yet.

[TIFFnTWINSMOMMA]

For my family and my husband's the 'twin gene' skipped 3-4 generations. I was talking to my aunt who has been putting together or family tree thing and she found every 3-4 generations there were twins born, some only had one survive, but some had both survive. On my husbands side he had family 4 generations before him have twins, but I don't know much about their family history. Our twins are monocromatic, and believed to be identical because they share one placenta, just two sacs. I was wondering if it was a gene, inherited thing also. I have heard conflicting stories...either way I am having them and I am so excited to be having them.

[CaptHeather]

I believe there might be a minuscule chance of increasing your likelihood of having identical twins if identical twins run on DH's side, but it's a very very small increase from what I understand, and it doesn't appear to be statistically significant.

The only proven genetic component is if the tendency to release two eggs during ovulation runs on the mother's side of the family.

Also, besides knowing that identical twins seem to happen more with IVF as though the eggs are somehow more prone to splitting, be aware that some women are hyperovulatory coming off of birth control. My high risk OB suspects that my twins are due to coming off the Mirena IUD and not trying to prevent that first month. If you're concerned about twins, don't try to conceive until you've had your first menstrual cycle after going off birth control.

[aussietwirler]

Fraternal twins always have their own sac and placenta & are genetically passed on from the female side.

ID twins can have a whole combination of the above, depending on when the egg splits.

ID twins are not genetically passed on, although some families with ID twins will argue this point. I have a friend with 2 sets of ID twins who will argue this fact LOL

I've just had a surprise result with our DNA results, as I'd always believed my boys were fraternal, due to them having their own sac & placenta, plus frat twins on my Mothers side.

Turns out my boys are ID!!! This is because the egg split prior to 32 cells, thus developing their own sac and placenta.

I've been reading heaps about it, and it's all very fascinating :)

[Mary_Mary]

When my boys were born I was told that they were 'probably' identical.

I didn't know that I was having twins until AFTER my first son was born, so I hadn't read up on twins before they were born.

In my reading after they arrived I learned about twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, which occurs ONLY with identical twins. Once I learned about that it became obvious to me that my boys had a mild case of that. (This is a situation where some of the blood vessels in the placenta are shared, meaning that SOME blood will flow from the placenta, through one twin, then through the other twin, before returning to the placenta to get more oxygen and nutrients.)

My boys were a whole pound apart at birth (disparate body weights), the smaller one was very pale (slightly anemic) and the larger baby was very red in skin tone (due to 'extra' red blood cells being 'trapped' in his body at birth.) Classic symptoms of twin-to-twin transfusion.

In cases where the sharing of vessels is less well balanced the condition is most dangerous to the smaller twin in utero (if really extreme they can be squeezed out of existence completely) but after birth it can be more dangerous to the larger twin due to extra blood being trapped in their body and their organs having to cope with filtering it all instead of sharing the task with the other twin.

[aussietwirler]

TTTT can be very dangerous and you were very lucky.. also bit of a worry your docs never picked it up.

In the case of TTTT they share a placenta, so very obviously ID. There can be so many complications with ID twins, so I was very lucky that mine split so early.

I had a girlfriend loss her ID twins to TTTT at 35 weeks and a girlfriend who was told to terminate hers as they would not survive it was that severe. Well she went to another Doc who had her take ultrasounds every couple of days (but told her not to buy any baby stuff until after 25 weeks). She managed to have them via emergency C-section at 34 weeks (donor baby was failing) and those beautiful boys are now 2.5 :)

Twins are an amazing gift and I find the whole topic fascinating now that I'm part of that 'club'.

[TIFFnTWINSMOMMA]

How do you know if your twins have TTTT. Our twins share a placenta, but have their own sac. Can they detect this in the ultrasounds?

[aussietwirler]

Your Docs should pick it up if it is an issue. Basically one baby gets all the goodies from the placenta and the 2nd one doesn't. One will have more fluid around him and the other could look like he's wrapped in cling wrap. I only know from what my girlfriend told me and from other Mum's in the Multiple Birth Group.

I think this is the American website on TTTS for a more educated response

http://www.tttsfoundation.org/

[cweezy]

Unless there is a history of twins IN YOUR OWN FAMILY you have little to worry about.

Identical twins are just a fluke and can happen to anyone.

As far as fraternal twins go, a woman CAN potentially inherit the tendancy to release two eggs, but as far as I know there's nothing that would indicate that a MAN would have any influence over whether his partner would have twins.

Even so, fraternal twins can and do 'just happen' to people.

There is NO HISTORY AT ALL of twins in my family or my ex-husbands family. Unless you go back three or four generations. Yet I had twins. Mine are identical.

I have a friend who had TWO sets of twins, both fraternal, so obviously she tends to release two eggs fairly often. (She also has one singleton.)

You occasionally hear about families who have several sets of twins, but I've only heard of a handful of families where there were twins in two successive generations, or even every other generation.


I am 37, have a 12 year old singleton, no history of twins on either side of our families, ever, and just found out I am having twins. I have already been asked if I had IVF, lol...and nope, just conceived on my wedding night, lol.

Odd though, one baby is 9w6d and the other is 9w4d. Doctor said that doesn't mean fraternal though, necessarily...I would think since they are not on the same day it would be fraternal, but there's also a + or - 3 days on their dates.