Anyone else not know

So the post I was just reading about fertility treatments got me to thinking... and while we are on philosophical topics, I thought I would throw this out there. My husband and I are both in our early thirties and decided to "pull the goalie" last winter - on the second month we got pregnant and 8 weeks later they confirmed it was twins! I know we are extremely lucky. Anyways, the only twins that I know of in my family are on my mom's side but they were ID whereas mine are fraternal (b/g). I'm not aware of any instances of fraternal twins. I have heard that the older you get, you start releasing more eggs, but for pete's sake, I'm 31!

So I guess my philosophical question is - where did my twins come from? Or does there need to be an explanation? Anyone else in this situation?

 

The technical term is that you have "Spontaneous" Twins. Sometimes people say they are "Natural", but all kids are natural regardless of how they were conceived, and that term has been known to cause a lot of hurt feelings.

As far as releasing more eggs, just because it is more common the older you get does not mean that it does not happen to younger women as well. There is a mom on here in her 20's with 2 sets of fraternal twins.

Is that what you were looking for?

 

We are kind of in the same boat. But remember, MANY twins are lost prior to the beginning of the second trimester...so it is possible that someone in your family had twins but they "vanished" or whatever without anyone knowing...it wasn't very long ago that moms went the entire pregnancy without a single ultrasound (and twins were a complete surprise at birth!)...so, they MIGHT run in your family...you just don't know it! Also, I read a lot about this because I also wondered the same thing...and NOTHING says that fraternal twins are ALWAYS genetic...it says that they TEND to be genetic...so it is possible that by "fluke" chance you dropped two eggs.

I'll be interested to see what others have to say since this is really just my own theory.

 

My girls are fraternal. We have a theory of how they came to be.....I miscarried two months before I got pregnant with the girls. I think my hormones and body were all sort of out of wack, therefore I released two eggs. This is not confirmed by my doctor...strictly my own theory.

Heidi

 

I am in the same situation as you. I turned 29 last December, stopped birth control at that point and then we used the rhythym method for a few months while I charted and got to know my cycles for when we started "trying" which we had planned to do in May. Well...there was ONE TIME that we ignored the calendar and my temps in mid March and had sex despite the fact that I had a strong feeling that I was ovulating. Obviously we were ready for kids so it wasn't a biggie, but we were sort of operating on the assumption of "what are the chances?" that we'd possibly conceive on our only time having sex while not using contraception EVER!?

It happened! Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant, and at 15 weeks we found out it was fraternal twins.

For me fraternal twins do seem to be common in my Mother's side of the family. Every generation in the last three or four have at least two sets of fraternal twins. I personally hadn't even considered the possibility so I was so shocked to find out we were having two babies! I myself have wondered if ovulating two eggs at once was a normal thing for me (ie. was I always ovulating two eggs???) or whether it was a random occurrance.

Either way...we are thrilled, but you're right it is such a curious thing to wonder how and why it happened.

 

well our twins are identical mono/di twins which i understand don't run genetically through dna.
we weren't on treatments or anything, it just sort of happened....my egg split.

we almost believe it was fate because they were conceived when DH's grandmother passed away so we got twice the blessing.

 

I have ID twin girl (mono/di) and I'm one of the rare people who believe that identical twins are somehow genetic or at least it doesn't just happen. There has to be a reason why eggs split, there just hasn't been enough research on the subject or interest to research it. On my Mothers' side that we know of there were identical twins; her cousin (female) has identical boys and her Great Grandmother had identical girls. On my Dads' side; his niece has fraternal twins (boy/girl), and his Grandmother had identical twin girls. I know it doesn't seem like a lot of twins but considering that once birth control pills were being prescribed, families began having less children, so if that didn't happen and the families had more children, then possibly there would have been more twins in there somewhere. Let's not forget about the vanishing twin syndrome, so there really isn't a way to find out if there were more twins conceived in our families than we think there were.

Very interesting subject and a lot of different opinions, but I'll always believe that my identical twins run in our families. If the "super sperm" theory is correct and a man's sperm carries an enzyme that makes an egg split then my twins came from their Daddy's side (his cousin (male) does have identical twin girls. Whatever the case may be, I wish someone would decide to do more research on the subject of identical twins.

Congratulations and lots of luck to you!!

 

i would agree with you except that there are no known twins, fraternal or identical, on either side of our families so this was a complete shock to both of our parents. so that's why i tend to think it's just something that happens.

i do agree more research should be done though.

and thanks!

 

Our only explanation is that I've had multiple miscarriages,I needed to destress, I'm obese, and my age. I had lots of time off work and my depression and stress was pretty much gone. At 32 for me and 34 for him we just planned on us, and had progress with vacation, house, and job plans. SURPRISE! :laughing:

Now my mother did have a pregnancy that should have been mono/di. My second oldest brother was born with a split placenta and a mummified fetus. According to my Drs mono/di isn't heritary between my mother and I in this fashion. The doctor didn't tell my mother ever. My grandmother told her years later since she was the delivery nurse at the time.

The big secret between my brother and I, is that as a 16 yr old he fathered twins with a senior in high school. Her boyfriend adopted the identical girls and they moved away. I was fortunate enough to meet them a couple times in their teens. They know their circumstances, but nobody knew who I was. I just enjoyed the time I got with them.
That's the only instance of heritary twins in our familys.

I suppose it's possible in the family somewhere there was a vanished twin or another case of transfusion like my brothers.

 

it is really interesting to think of all the 'vanishing twin' instances that may have occured, given the relatively recent nature of our following pregnancies w/ultrasounds, etc.

We are in the same boat being me 31, dh 34. The only known twin on my side is my great-grandmother being a twin. Not sure yet if our boys are ID or Frat, but my guesses are fraternal and thus having a disposition due to my great-grandmother. It was my 2nd pregnancy and VERY unexpected!!! I will never forget the look on DH's face when I told him the news....

 

I tend to agree with you. I think there definitely needs to be more research done to figure it all out. My mom has identical twin boys and I have identical twin boys, there seems to be more to it than it just being an anomaly.

 

Sounds like your eggs just got overly excited in anticipation of "pulling the goalie"

 

Hmmmmm??? I am not 100% percent sure, but I am close to knowing how we ended up with Twins...

I had just gotten back from Iraq. It was a cool Winter night in February. We went out for a Romantic Dinner followed by going to the Piano Bar, where we talked, had a good time, shared some laughs and so on. Ah, it was so nice to be back home and catch up on things.

We then decided to go on a drive in the country. It was such a clear night and the stars shone brightly in the sky. We decide to park the car and.....OH WAIT!!!

I think I confused the question...UH... :blush:

Not really sure. Her Grandfather on her Dad's side is a Twin. I always thought it went off of the Mother's side, but I never really researched it. I was also stuck in Iraq for 4 months...ALONE...not sure if that helped create twins...

 

My twins are Di/Di.. not sure of the genders yet so dont know if they are ID or Fat. I DO have a theory on my twins though. I have no twins on either side of the family.. none... not a one. But I did loose my right ovary when I was 21 due to ovarian cysts. So my lonely left vary has been doing all the work for quite sometime. I do ovulate from the ovary every month also. I was only only BC for about 5 years from age 21 until now (I turn 35 this month). DH had to have a vasectomy reversal for us to get pregnant so I never needed BC. Amyways, I think my ovary is just worn out. I think it is functioning like an ovary that is much older... hence maybe the 2 eggs??? Now, if these kiddos are ID, then I have no theory other than it was just meant to be

 

I am not sure how I got my twins. At 28 I had b/g twins, at 33 two sets of b/g twins (they did not survive), and at 35 another set. No history of twins in my family. I guess I have had over-active ovaries, lol.

 

I think we ended up with b/g twins for 2 reasons:

1) I think there's something in the water in our neighborhood.....

Within 15 houses there are 2 sets of triplets and we'll be the 5th set of twins!

2) I think we ended up with twins because we laughed at one of the neighbors; last September we met a neighbor who had a 2 year old and was 6 months prego with twins. After they left my husband and I laughed and laughed and laughed about how much that would "suck". By December we found out that "surprise" we're having twins as well!!! Can you say KARMA!?!

I joke that you shouldn't drink the water in the neighborhood, but I'm really beginning to wonder. Maybe I can bottle it and sell it.

 

Ladies, all your posts are great! I'm glad to hear that there are others who are somewhat mystified. I honestly hadn't really thought about vanishing twins and the fact that maybe frat twins do run in my family but none had survived to childbirth and no one knew. I also think it's VERY interesting when ID twins run in families considering they say that it can't happen. I think the reality is that they don't know how the heck it happens! Also, I have heard that the instance of ID twins is more common among those undergoing fertility treatments, right? So if it's supposedly 100% spontaneous to have ID twins, that would directly contradict more fertility moms having ID twins. I think they just are not sure how ID twins really happen and it would be fascinating to know.

 

I used to always joke around when I was younger by saying that I was going to have twins to get it over with in one shot. Well... little did I know that I would actually get pregnant with twins! We found out we were having fraternal twins at 6 weeks. I was having some spotting, and my bloodwork came back looking really good, but they wanted to do an u/s just to be safe. The u/s tech said, "Well, everything looks good... and it's twins." We immediately started laughing because there was NO WAY it could be twins. Sure enough, she was serious, and it was twins. We've had two ultrasounds since to check for vanishing twin, but both babies are looking healthy, and they were squirming like crazy at my 10 week appt.

I have *literally* no twins on my side of the family for as far back as anyone can remember. What's even more crazy is that at the 2nd u/s, we discovered that the babies were about five days apart - I actually ovulated two separate times. (The "younger" one has since caught up in size... it's only about 2 days "younger" now.)

I have read several lists full of reasons why twins might be conceived, and I meet none of that criteria. I am 25, and I was off the pill for almost 6 months before we started actually trying, and we conceived natually. Believe it or not, these twins were conceived on our first try!

My husband and I are SO excited to have the twins (we can't wait to find out what they are, either!!). I've enjoyed reading several posts in the forum area; they have been extrememly helpful, and they have helped to put my mind at ease about several things!