Here is a Question I NEED an answer to...

I have to know....

Here's my history... I have 5 month old identical twin boys as a result of IVF... yes, identicals and YES strange that I got them from IVF.. Anyway..

WHY do people say "Do twins run in you or your husband's family??"

I can understand IF they were Fraternal or even Identical (to some degree) BUT why would having them in your husband's family make a difference?? With FRATS it definitely would make ZERO difference considering it is the woman who ovulates 2 eggs... Correct?? It wouldn't matter if every person in DH's family was a frat or if he was... has NOTHING to do w/ him... AM I wrong here?? I've read a TON of books and feel somewhat educated on the subject. I am pretty tired of answering stupid questions so I just say "NO".

My Dh's father is a Fraternal twin and his mother had frat twins. I have Identical twin cousins, and frat twin brothers.. BUT it doesn't matter that DH has a father who is a frat... Especially since mine are ID.. but people do not know that... When I say that (I have since stopped doing this... futile) once I tell them "oh mine are identical but my dh has frat twin father.." they say "OH then it does run in your family..." UGH. I just nod... "I guess." Smile.

Anyway, give me your thoughts!!

 

It doesn't. People just don't understand that. My sister's MIL is a twin and when Kathleen was expecting she would say "Oh, maybe it will be twins, they run in our family". Ummmmm....nope.


And I don't think that a lot of people know that identicals don't run in families either.

 

I think it is from upbringing. I remember being a kid and when you saw twins you just assumed that they ran in someone's family. I never heard just asking about one parent's family. I think that is why adults ask these questions. I have to admit I was dumb about twins until I learned I was having them. I never had the guts to go ask someone with twins but I wondered the question myself, just from what I learned has a child.

I know it is frustrating and can be annoying but maybe you can say....actually they run in both families! OR you can say, actually the twins come from DH and I.

I too did IVF so if you ever just want to talk....PM me.

 

Simple answer: people don't know enough about twins. I think thats why I don't mind educating people who ask me these questions. Even some nurses in the NICU didn't know that ID twins are simply a random occurance(sp?).

 

I don't know how many times I've had to explain this to DH's family <_< ! There are quite a few pairs of twins on HIS side, so they always assume that is why we had twins, because of him . I tell them every time, actually it was ME, I dropped two eggs and there is nothing he did to influence that, but they still don't get it. As Megan said, it's simply lack of knowledge on the subject. I honestly didn't know much about it myself until I got pregnant.

If I have the time & patience I'll take the time to explain and educate people, otherwise I just answer yes or no, depending on my mood :laughing: !

 

If fraternal twins are in your husbands family, he can only pass the gene on to hyperovulate to his daughters, thereby producing fraternal twins for them one day. As everyone else has said, he cannot contribute to your present situation. Identicals are a random act of nature and the luck of the draw for most part. I too, knew not much about why someone had twins until I became pregnant with identical boys myself. When people ask me, I just tell them that identicals are random and they just look at me and nod, even if they don't get it. Good luck to you!

 

I dont know how many time i have has to educate nurses and Dr's!!!!!!! Shouldnbt they know?? how stupid...

And it really does bother me when people ask if they come from my husbands side.. Is it his eggs that dropped 2/split? i dont think so..

 

Me and SIL both have fraternal twins and people ALWAYS say oh, so it runs in your husbands family because both of yall have twins? I gave up explaining a long time ago and just smile and say, "Yes, twins do run on his side...."

 

I don't know much about this but what I've read in my pregnancy books and the bottom line is that it seems to follow the maternal side no matter what (maybe I'm wrong though). But in our case we were told by our specialist and OB that there is a chance that our boys could be identical. There are no twins on either side of the family at all going waaaaayyyy back many generations... The docs won't commit to this until the boys are born obviously, but if they do turn out to be ID then I am at a loss to understand what happened with no preexisting family history.

When people ask do twins run in either family we always reply, "No, but they do now!" (We were not on any fertility treatments so we were very lucky.)

 

Funny isn't it?? What does my husbands family have to do with how many eggs I drop?

I also constantly get asked if my twins are identical (b/g) ... umm ... no??

I usually say "No, they are a boy and girl. If they were identical, we would have a big problem"

I just think people don't get the twins thing ... I always thought that both fraternal and identical had to run in the family ... then I found out that it's just fraternal, and it's jut on the mom's side.

I still think the funniest answer to "Do twins run in your family?" is "Not yet, but we are hoping they will after they start walking"

 

lol i get so annoyed with the question too!! ive just started to say, nope. it was myyyyy body that did this so dont even think about giving him the credit hehe.

 

It is true, people don't understand. And when a family has a lot of twins in it people just assume. In my case, my father is an ID twin, I am an ID twin, my sister had fraternal twins, and now I am (most likely) having fraternal twins. They do run in my family, but not the way everyone thinks!

 

AHHH, this question is already driving me crazy!! I know that unfortunately it's not going to stop when they are born either. So I guess we just have to come up with whatever response we're comfortable with that day.

 

My DH has a twin sister so people always say oh well that's were the twins come from then. And I have offically given up trying to explain it to people. It is an annoying question though.

Erica

 

Twins do run in my family but they are fraternal. Mine are not. When people ask, I usually just say "yes" and leave it at that. I don't usually have the time to educate everyone! If I have a few minutes, I say something like, "yes, they do, but mine are Id and they do not run in families. They are just a surprise by God.." That usually leaves it closed and they don't ask anything else.

 

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets frustrated trying to explain all this to people! DH and I actually have twins on both sides of the family, but obviously I know mine had nothing to do with the genes on his side. Try telling that to HIS side of the family though!

Here is a funny story: my brother and SIL found out they were pregnant in January of last year. One of the first things she did was call me up and ask, frantic, "Ok, level with me....what are my chances of having twins w/the family history on your side? (there are about 4 sets of frats) and I calmed her down, explaining that the twin gene had nothing to do with my brother, it's the women in the family who carry it, she's got nothing to "worry" about. About 2 weeks later she has a scare, goes in for an u/s thinking she lost the baby, only to find out there are TWO! She had fraternal girls last August. No family history on her side that she knows of. I had no idea how to explain that one!

 

QUOTE(korie99 @ Mar 18 2008, 01:34 PM) [snapback]675006[/snapback]
Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets frustrated trying to explain all this to people! DH and I actually have twins on both sides of the family, but obviously I know mine had nothing to do with the genes on his side. Try telling that to HIS side of the family though!

Here is a funny story: my brother and SIL found out they were pregnant in January of last year. One of the first things she did was call me up and ask, frantic, "Ok, level with me....what are my chances of having twins w/the family history on your side? (there are about 4 sets of frats) and I calmed her down, explaining that the twin gene had nothing to do with my brother, it's the women in the family who carry it, she's got nothing to "worry" about. About 2 weeks later she has a scare, goes in for an u/s thinking she lost the baby, only to find out there are TWO! She had fraternal girls last August. No family history on her side that she knows of. I had no idea how to explain that one!


OH GREAT!! So.. it looks like her "theory' was proven correct in a stupid way! UGH!! Totally crazy!! That's funny!!

I just think to myself... "HOW in the name of all that is Holy would me dropping two eggs or my egg SPLITTING (like it did) have anything to do with HIS side of the family?? How would have even make sense for a moment?? If you know anything about sperm meeting egg--- don't you know this??

And YES YES YES as a PP mentioned.. Something that has absolutely FREAKED me out (seriously scared me) is the number of DOCTORS I run across who ask this???????????????????/ EEEEKKK!! I seriously think... "And I am paying $900 to be seeing you right now??" Man. It's widespread and I do not consider myself a genius or anything even close to it but if you truly think about it---- it cannot be the man Soo crazy!!

 

My girls are ID and I end up surprising a lot of folks when I tell them that everyone has the same 1 in 250 shot of having twins that I did!

Although, depending on who we're talking to, DH has been know to say it was his 'Supersperm' that caused the egg to split! :lol:

 

People just think if twins run on any side of the family you can have twins. They just don't know a lot about twins. But they are from the mother's side. I have come to the conclusion that people are just clueless when it comes to twins!

 

Well personally, I believe it can come from the fathers side. The tendency to hyperovulate and or god knows what else. I have a half brother from my dads first marriage ID twin boys. A whole brother w/ frat tw boys, and me with frat tw girls.


Then there is my DPs niece. Her dad is a fraternal twin. She has frat tw girls. Mighty coincidental to me. :winking0009:

 

The only thing I know for sure is that when twins are genetic it is from the mothers side. It does not matter how many sets of twins are in the DH family. I don't really know anything else. My twins came from either the two sets on my mothers side or the clomid I took. Not much help, but that is all I know.

 

Twins do run on DH's side. His sister had a set 5 months after I did, and we go to church together. It DRIVES ME CRAZY trying to explain to people it CANNOT COME FROM HIS SIDE.

I should really just give up, but miseducation and people who think they know more about my life than I do drive me crazy.

 

lol.... I keep laughting i keep getting this question does it run in the family on Dh's or my side. Um...

if they were fraternals i have like 100 year old great aunts lol if that counts.

I'm getting identicals we're about 90% sure on that, so i just tell people identicals are spontaneous and it can't run in the family, i even had to remind my sons pediatrician of this. LOL