Fraternal v's Identical

Hi,

I am still pregnant with my twin girls... 33 weeks tomorrow. They are in separate sacs. Does this definitely mean that they are fraternal twins?

Lisa

 

Not necessarily. ID twins can be in separate sacs as well. Sharing a sac is not very common (monoamniotic twins).

Congrats on your girls! Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

 

What Debbie said. :good: The only way to know for sure is to have them tested after they are born.

 

Wow! I totally thought they would definitely be fraternal! Thats amazing! And where do you get those kits? I've seen people talking about them on here... are they expensive?

 

I've never had to buy one because we knew our girls were ID (they were in the same sac!). I think there are several companies that do them for around $100. You have to mail it in. Somebody who has done it should be able to give you better info!

 

OY. Time for the doc to go back to his text books.

You may not need to do a test. Most frat twins look different. If their blood types are different, then you you know they aren't ID. I think the test basically involves swabbing the cheeck and sending it off to a lab. Pretty easy.

 

I am also having 2 girls in seperate sacs and the perinatal Dr said we will not know if they are Identical or Fraternal until delivery day. It's so exciting!

 

Yeppers..what the others said! I just sent off our girl's DNA swabs today!! We got ours from www.dnanow.com

Kit/Test was $99

We should have the results within a week. Basically, what happens in some cases (which I think is what is going to be the case for our girls) is that the egg splits REALLY early (whithin the first two days after fertilization) then the split egg is still in the fallopian tube and when it comes out, it can implant wherever it lands so the two pieces do not necesarrily end up right next to each other (so when the ultrasound shows they are pretty far apart, that explains it).

My girls look identical and have the same blood types, so we THINK they are!! Good luck! It's exciting finding out!

 

My mom works at the hospital and (obviously) the babies blood will be drawn there, I would ask for the results then to see if you can get a heads up and save yourself the cha ching :FIFblush: just a thought.

 

At the hospital, they tested my babies blood types and they were different, so I didn't have to do any further testing.

 

I had it done. I couldn't stand not knowing. Also, from a medical history standpoint I thought it had value. I used GFI Laboratory which charged about $100. I got my email results within a week and I have to say I'm very pleased with the results. It is a cool thing to see 12 genetic markers all come back the same. :friends:

 

Haha...I wasn't told before they were born since they were both boys and we didn't have a good view of two placentas, but after...doc said two placentas just fused so that means fraternal. After a while on here and doing research, I realized that was not the end all be all of answers. Mine have the same blood type and as they got older favored each other more and more. Ask the folks on here, I've asked a million times and the resounding answer is that my did/di boys are ID.

 

my boys favor each other the older they get also - its like my own little DNA test.

 

What do you mean by they favor each other?

 

Ditto this. But we were told that if they had the same blood type we could send out for a DNA kit. Needless to say---our blood types were different AND they looked VERY different!

But if we had doubts, we would have sent off the kit. Mine were Di/di---but even w/ IVF drs could not totally rule out identicals until they were born.

 

I've heard that sometimes you can ask for the placenta to be analyzed when they're born but I'm not sure... Anyone has ever heard of that? My twins are mono/di with a thin membrane so they think they're ID but not sure...

Thanks!

 

If your twins are mono/di then they are defintely identical.. I know that pathology was done on my placenta (mine were mono/di, too) but I believe it's standard protocol to do that at the hospital where I delivered. That type of analysis can determine how many placentas there are. Sometimes placentas can fuse and take on the appearance of one...

 

What does mono/di mean?

 

One placenta/two sacs.

 

That's what I'm wondering, were there 2 placentas at first and then they fused? Or just one from the beginning? I know that the membrane that separates them is very thin, but I guesss we'll know for sure when they are born...

Thanks for the info!

 

To favor each other is just another way of saying look alike.

 

If yours were mono/di then there was only one placenta from the beginning. I had two placentas that fused and was hard to tell by u/s whether it was one placenta or two fused.

 

Yep - that. My boys look more and more and more alike as they get older. By 1yr of age there really is no doubt that they are identical. They look TOO much alike to NOT be, even more so than at 6mths...

 

My ID twins were in separate sacs, but shared a placenta.

 

This is what happened with my girls. They were born with very different head shapes, my 6 months people were mixing them up, by one year there was NO WAY that they could be faternal.
I had thought they were going to be frat, as we have a family history of frat. At birth the pedi said one placenta, but I figured he was confusing a fused one for just one. But from 12month to 36 months they looked so much alike there was just no way they could be fraternal.