Di/Di Identical

I was taking Clomid when I conceived my twin boys.

They say that with Di/Di twins, you have a 20%-30% chance of identical twins.

I would think that percentage goes down quite a bit if Clomid was taken...does anyone know about what percentage of Identicals are conceived while on Clomid? TIA!

 

I don't know what the % is, but I would guess it is significantly lower if you took clomid. I have di/di identicals.

 

Thanks so much! If you see this and don't mind my asking, did you take clomid when they were conceived?

Either way, it doesn't matter what I end up having, it's just really fascinating to me to see if anyone has conceived identicals while on clomid.

 

I don't mind you asking
No, I didn't take clomid when I conceived them, and I was very surprised when they were born and were id! Right when we found out we were expecting twins my DH said "id girls" but I wasn't convinced until they were born. They did a blood test in the hospital and also tested their placentas. Are you having boys or girls? (I'm assuming you know that you're having 2 of the same gender since you think there is a possibility they are id)

If you do have di/di identicals, be prepared for people to argue with you about it! People don't understand that babies can be identical and not share anything in utero, and will argue that they had to have shared something or they must not be identical.

 

I don't know about with clomid, but I recently learned that identicals are 20 times more likely with IVF than with sexual conception.

Lesson I learned: just because it's a fertility treatment, that doesn't mean the chance of identicals is reduced. It's actually increased.

 

I appreciate the info.

I'm having boys. So there is a chance for identicals. I'm sure with other fertility treatments it raises your chances for identicals, but with Clomid, I would bet it lowers that chance.

They're measuring SO close, as close as twins could be...I am thinking they are only measuring a day or two difference. They have the same length.

 

I don't know about Clomid, but I have heard the same thing about IVF. I used IVF and my dr gave us about the same odds od identicals or having one set of ids and a single etc.. (we used 2 embryos) my girls were di/di and are fraternal - they also measured the same until our 30 week check at which point baby A had slowed down and I ended up on bedrest.

CONGRATULATIONS on your twins!! twins are so amazing!!!

 

I think twins and the differences of ID's and frats are so amazing. My boys are 3 now but I was told the entire pregnancy that they were ID. They "shared" a placenta, had a hairline thin membrane between them and grew at exactly the same rate until about 32 wks. The dr's said based on these factors, the ID growth pattern and especially their membrane and placenta, gave it away and they were 99% sure they were Id. They came out with red hair and blond hair! LOL! Apparently the placenta had fused so early on into the pregnancy that the fusion sight was undectable in any of the u/s's. And they had implanted so close to each other that I guess the membrane was just very thin. We didn't find them until i was 13 wks along so they were already a little bigger. I just think it's so interesting how some babies don't share anything and are ID's and some can appear to "share" a placenta and come out frat. THey did finally find where they fused after I had them and the placenta was examined and sent for a pathology report. Pretty amazing. I LOVE having twins!

 

I'm sure the chances of identical twins doesn't exactly decrease with clomid. The chance of twins altogether increases with any fertility medication. Identical twins are at least as likely, if not more likely, with any fertility treatment. Although, it is usually assumed that they are fraternal since fraternal twins are more likely in general and with fertility treatments they are usually able to see how many eggs might have been released (or transferred in IVF).

Embryo splitting is just a random occurrence and the fertility drugs only seem to increase the odds of that happening.

 

Interesting.. I didn't know that you can have Identicals that share nothing in utero... The docs must just assume my girls are frats, they have never mentioned a possibility they could be id's.

 

QUOTE(mom2betimes2 @ Apr 5 2008, 06:01 PM) [snapback]706770[/snapback]
Interesting.. I didn't know that you can have Identicals that share nothing in utero... The docs must just assume my girls are frats, they have never mentioned a possibility they could be id's.


My docs told me that it was 'most likely' my girls were frats, they shared nothing. The docs didn't go so far as to say that they couldn't be ID, just not nearly as likely.

And lo and behold, they're DNA test confirmed ID!

 

Yes, identicals can share nothing in-utero. It all depends on when the embryo splits. If it splits prior to day 3 then the babies usually have their own placentas and their own amniotic sacs. If it splits between days 4 and 8 (I think I read that about 50% do) then they often share a placenta, but they have their own amniotic sacs. If it splits after day 8 then the babies usually share the placenta and the amniotic sac.

Until recently I thought they had to share both placenta and amniotic sacs. It wasn't until I had two doctors telling me they thought my twins could be identical that I learned about the different types of id twins. It's so fascinating!

 

QUOTE(Chillers @ Apr 5 2008, 09:05 PM) [snapback]706962[/snapback]
My docs told me that it was 'most likely' my girls were frats, they shared nothing. The docs didn't go so far as to say that they couldn't be ID, just not nearly as likely.

And lo and behold, they're DNA test confirmed ID!



Interesting! Were you surprised that they were ID? Didn't I read somewhere that they can test their blood type in the hospital to see if they are ID? Or do you need to have a full DNA profile done? I'll definetly be interested to know if my girls are frats or ID! When I have my weekly ultrasounds, they always ask ME if they are ID or not. How am I suppose to know? lol

 

QUOTE(mom2betimes2 @ Apr 8 2008, 06:33 PM) [snapback]712295[/snapback]
Interesting! Were you surprised that they were ID? Didn't I read somewhere that they can test their blood type in the hospital to see if they are ID? Or do you need to have a full DNA profile done? I'll definetly be interested to know if my girls are frats or ID! When I have my weekly ultrasounds, they always ask ME if they are ID or not. How am I suppose to know? lol


I was and wasn't surprised they were ID at the same time (if that makes any sense at all, lol!) When they were first born due to head shape and Searra's stork bites, we thought it was really easy to tell them apart and that they looked very different. Strangers had a hard time though and the older they got, the more difficult it was to tell them apart. For some reason now (at 15 mo.) even DH and I have 'issues' on certain days...

They did do blood typing in the hospital, it just told us they were they same type, so that would have only helped us if it was a different type, as even just regular siblings can have the same blood type. But if it was different, then there's no way they could be ID.

We waited until they were 8 mo old to do the DNA test, in our case this was the only 'definitive' method (since they were same sex, same blood type and did not look obviously different ~ brown/blue eyes or blonde/redhead) and I just had to know one way or another! I was getting tired of either lying to strangers and just saying yes, they're ID or telling them I didn't know and having them look at me like there was something wrong with me!

That's funny about your u/s! If your girls share nothing, there's still a 20-30% chance they're ID!

 

QUOTE(Lizzybo @ Apr 5 2008, 04:57 PM) [snapback]706454[/snapback]
I'm sure the chances of identical twins doesn't exactly decrease with clomid. The chance of twins altogether increases with any fertility medication. Identical twins are at least as likely, if not more likely, with any fertility treatment. Although, it is usually assumed that they are fraternal since fraternal twins are more likely in general and with fertility treatments they are usually able to see how many eggs might have been released (or transferred in IVF).

Embryo splitting is just a random occurrence and the fertility drugs only seem to increase the odds of that happening.



I think what she means by the chances of identicals decreasing is that instead of having a 20-30% chance of identicals when they are di/di, it is more like 10% because you were more likely than usual to have ovulated 2 separate eggs since you were on Clomid. Your overall chance of identicals probably remains at 1 in 250 if not more but, if you are carrying di/di twins, it is more likely than usual that they are fraternal.

You will see an increase in the number of identical pregnancies due to fertility medication but I believe that there is an even larger increase in fraternal pregnancies. So while your chance of having identicals is now more than 1 in 250, the chance that your babies are identical instead of fraternal actually decreases. Does that make any sense? Statistics can be quite confusing when you are converting them into language form.

 

It makes sense. I just recently learned from a conversation with a doctor, a specialist that deals only with twins, that there are current studies that are showing that identicals are actually more common in assisted pregnancies than they are with unassisted pregnancies, all things considered. He said that's all they know for now, is that they are 4-20 times more likely in assisted pregnancies, but they don't know the reasons why, yet. He said it's not simply that there are more twins in general with assisted pregnancies (that's mainly the frats bumping up the stats due to more eggs). With IVF, it's suspected that assisted hatching could be one catalyst. These stats were for IVF, though, so I'm not sure about studies with clomid.

Basically, I just don't think it's right to automatically assume frats from assisted pregnancies since identicals, even di-di, are more common than most people think.

 

I just wanted to chime in and say that 30% of all identical twin pregnancies are di/di. That doesn't mean that 30% of di/di pregnancies are identical. Does that make sense? I think it's only about 10% of twin pregancies are identical, regardless of type of conception - but I could be wrong there.

Congrats! Exciting nonetheless!

Jenny

 

QUOTE(Chillers @ Apr 8 2008, 08:45 PM) [snapback]712557[/snapback]
That's funny about your u/s! If your girls share nothing, there's still a 20-30% chance they're ID!


The one thing my girls share is their love of punching mom in the ribs. LOL

 

QUOTE(ferfischer @ Apr 9 2008, 02:57 PM) [snapback]713383[/snapback]
I just wanted to chime in and say that 30% of all identical twin pregnancies are di/di. That doesn't mean that 30% of di/di pregnancies are identical. Does that make sense? I think it's only about 10% of twin pregancies are identical, regardless of type of conception - but I could be wrong there.


You're entirely right. I wasn't even thinking about the statistics I was copying from a pp as I wrote my reply. I looked around and the percentage of identical twin pregnancies is around 10% with about 30% of those being di/di. That would mean *about* 3% of twin pregnancies are di/di identicals. Since every fraternal pregnancy is di/di then you could say that your chance of having di/di identicals is around 3%.


QUOTE(Lizzybo @ Apr 9 2008, 04:40 AM) [snapback]712984[/snapback]
It makes sense. I just recently learned from a conversation with a doctor, a specialist that deals only with twins, that there are current studies that are showing that identicals are actually more common in assisted pregnancies than they are with unassisted pregnancies, all things considered. He said that's all they know for now, is that they are 4-20 times more likely in assisted pregnancies, but they don't know the reasons why, yet. He said it's not simply that there are more twins in general with assisted pregnancies (that's mainly the frats bumping up the stats due to more eggs). With IVF, it's suspected that assisted hatching could be one catalyst. These stats were for IVF, though, so I'm not sure about studies with clomid.

Basically, I just don't think it's right to automatically assume frats from assisted pregnancies since identicals, even di-di, are more common than most people think.


Yes, but that's more common than in the general population. You have a 20% overall chance of having twins with IVF and the vast majority of those are fraternals. Other IVF moms have also been told that your chance of identical twins is higher with IVF but you have such an amazingly higher chance of having twins overall that I don't think your chance of fraternal/identical would go up. I'd have to see numbers but I'd bet that it drops your chances of identicals versus fraternals even though you have more identicals than you would without IVF. That is totally speculation though. I definitely agree that it would get annoying that people automatically assume that all twins from assisted pregnancies are fraternal since that is not true at all.