Babble

i have been told that i have a high chance of having twins...but have been told that twins come from the female and male side of the family....is this true or is it from one or the other??

 

Twins come from the mothers side of the family.  There is also a high rate if you are over 35 years old.

I have alway been told that Fraternal Twins were a genetic thing (more than one egg released at a time), but as you get an X chromosome from your mother and father I don't think it is just inherited from your mother.

Also I understood that identical twins were not genetic and just a "fluke" occurrance that the egg splits.

Women do tend to produce more eggs after 35 so chances of having multiples after 35 go up :)

Is any one out there an expert?

Ok, a related question -- can likelihood of twins skip a generation?  There have been twins on my wife's side every other generation for some time, and of course we got twins ourselves.

The only evidence I have is anecdotal, but I have seen several instances where twins skip a generation.  Fraternal twins, anyway... identical twins, according to Discovery Health, are a totally spontaneous and unpredictable occurrence.

I just found out I'm pregnant (like, as in, two days ago).  Both my paternal grandmother and her younger sister had twins, and I'm slightly terrified it might run in my family! Part of me is kind of excited at the prospect and part of me wants to run the other way in terror!

 If it makes anyone feel better, twins run on both sides of my family (my paternal grandmother had twin siblings and my maternal grandmother is a twin), and I was 33 when I got pregnant.  Despite all that, we ended up with just one healthy baby girl.  So family history doesn't necessarily doom you (or get you two kids at once if that's what you want).

And to be honest, if you are told there are two, it may freak you out a bit but then with every ultrasound you'll probably be worried that they'll look one day and only see one. I was surprised to hear I was having two and after being scared out of my mind about that prospect I eventually started worrying we'd only end up with one. 9 months later we've got boy/girl twins and can't imagine life without either of them. Here's hoping you get whatever you're hoping for.

I have heard/read/watched, lol, that they are doing lots of tests now on the link between male genetics and identical twins. They believe that some sperm may cause an egg to split. Obviously, fraternal twins come from the mother as she releases two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm. Good Luck in whichever way you want it to turn out ;)

There's also a MUCH higher rate of identical twins among couples with IVF.  Apparently, the...I guess you would say base or "fluid" in the dish where they create the embryo is not exactly like the fluid in your uterus and it seems to have the effect of causing the egg to split more often.  So, even if only one egg is planted, a larger percentage of the time than with couples reproducing the regular way you will get identical twins from IVF. 

Fraternal twins can come down both side of the mothers family but the father has nothing to do with it. This is because fraternal twins are caused by the mother producing more than one egg per cycle, this can be due to genetics os age, after 35 your body starts producing more eggs to enhance your chance of getting pregnant.