However, since only women ovulate, the connection is only valid on the mother's side of the family. While men can carry the gene and pass it on to their daughters, a family history of twins doesn't make them any more likely to have twins themselves.
However, for a given pregnancy, only the mother's genetics matter. Fraternal twins happen when two eggs are simultaneously fertilized instead of just one. A father's genes can't make a woman release two eggs. It sounds like fraternal twins do indeed run in your family!
A lot of people wonder what their chance is of having twins. You might have heard that twins “run in families”. And that can be true! Compared with the general population, women with a mother or sister who have had twins are twice as likely to have twins themselves.
When both eggs are fertilized, the resulting siblings are fraternal twins. Because this gene can be passed on, the tendency to have fraternal twins can in fact run in families. Identical twins, on the other hand, result from one fertilized egg randomly splitting in two, creating two siblings with identical DNA.
The quick answer to this question is that, in a twin pregnancy, it is the mother's genes that determine twins. First up, giving birth to identical twins is not genetic, but conceiving fraternal twins is. The mother may have the genetic trait of releasing two eggs in one menstrual cycle.
According to the Office on Women's Health , women who are aged 30 years or older are more likely to conceive twins. The reason for this is that women of this age are more likely than younger women to release more than one egg during their reproductive cycle.
Do Twins Skip Generations? Many people believe twins skip a generation, but that's just a myth. The idea that twins skip generations likely comes from the fact that the genetic factors contributing to twins only come from the gestational parent's side.
So if you, your mother or your maternal grandmother are or were fraternal (non-identical) twins then your chances of having twins may increase to as many as 1 in 7.
If you're 30 or older, you're more likely than younger people to release more than one egg during a menstrual cycle. You have relatives who have had multiples. If you or other people in your family have had fraternal twins, you may be more likely to have twins, too.
Most cases of identical twins don't appear to run in families and instead seem to be a spontaneous occurrence, say experts. But there are some families with a larger-than-usual number of identical twins, suggesting there may be a genetic link.
While men can carry the gene and pass it on to their daughters, a family history of twins doesn't make them any more likely to have twins themselves. 3 But, if a father passes on the "twin gene" to his daughter, then she may have a higher chance than normal of having fraternal twins.
Since identical twins share the same DNA, the children of two pairs of identical twins are legally cousins, but genetically more similar to siblings.
The DNA of monozygotic twins tends not to be 100% identical, and epigenetic and environmental differences further widen the gap between twin pairs. It's not nature or nurture; it's a complex interaction between our genes, our environment, and our epigenetic markers that shape who we are and what illnesses befall us.
The first wife (died ante 1770), of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c. 1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia, gave birth to 16 sets of twins.
Everyone has the same chance of having identical twins: about 1 in 250. Identical twins do not run in families. But there are some factors that make having non-identical twins more likely: non-identical twins are more common in some ethnic groups, with the highest rate among Nigerians and the lowest among Japanese.
Age. People over 30, and particularly those over age 35, are more likely to conceive twins. 4 This is because the level of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) rises as birthing parents get older. FSH is responsible for the development of eggs in the ovaries before they are released.
While the typical definition of Irish twins is two children spaced 12 or fewer months apart, people do sometimes use the term more loosely to include children born 13, 14, or more months apart, particularly if the children end up in the same grade in school.
There are more twins in the “millennial generation” than any other generation, thanks partly to a twin boom in the '90s. The main reason was a new technology called in vitro fertilization, which in its early days frequently produced twins, triplets and other multiple births.
Identical twins are almost always the same sex, although there are some rare exceptions to this rule. Because identical twins occur when a single fertilized egg splits and forms two embryos, each embryo has the same chromosomes (usually, XX for girls or XY for boys).
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That's not all, Monga says. Women pregnant with twins complain of more back pain, sleeping difficulties, and heartburn than those who are carrying one child. Being pregnant with twins also carries a higher rate of maternal anemia and a higher rate of postpartum hemorrhage (bleeding) after delivery.
Asian Americans and Native Americans have the lowest rates for twins. White people assigned female at birth have the highest rate of higher-order multiple births (triplets or more).