Need some clarification on "twins in family" (long)

AllThatGlitters101

My mom is a fraternal twin. I know that it's possible that she passed on the gene to me from her mother for hyperovulation. However, is it possible for my grandmother having twins to be a fluke? She had 7 children total and 3 miscarriages. We will never know what the miscarriages were, but 1 out of 6 pregnancies that made it to term was twins.

None of my grandmother's daughters had twins. If it was in fact genetic, wouldn't one of the 4 daughters have produced twins?

I'm sorry if this is stupid or flammable. I've just been thinking about it, especially since my mom is convinced that my first pregnancy (I'm not even pregnant yet) will result in twins and won't let it drop. She really doesn't understand how it happens (and chooses not to educate herself), but I'd say by the looks of things, my grandmother's twins were just a fluke. 

My MIL's best friend had fraternal twins boys and one daughter and now her daughter had fraternal boy and girl twins. You can see the genetics there, which also makes me think it doesn't run in my family, but was a fluke.

Thoughts? 

TIA!

pea-kay

i'm pretty sure if your mom is a twin, then you definitely have it in your genes. it's still a remote possibility, but a bit more than the average woman.

good luck with your ttc journey! maybe we'll see you here one day.

MrsARC1105

Well my maternal gma had twins and her maternal gma had twins, so in my family is seems to skip a generation.  I wonder if it has something to do with recessive and dominant genes...

themathgirl

Just keep in mind also that just because you may ovulate 2 eggs does not mean that 2 always get fertilized or stick. You also may not ovulate 2 eggs every month. 

mlgd

I've heard that it skips a generation, but I'm not sure if that's an old wives tale.  My great-aunt had fraternal twins, but none of *her* children (my Dad's cousins) did.  We're guessing that grandmother could have carried the gene for it, passed it on to my dad, who passed it on to me.  

jettagurl

I don't think there's any way to figure out if you will have twins.  Like PP said, there's no guarantee that if you ovulate 2, that 2 will get fertilized.  I had two singletons prior to this twin pregnancy...but there could have been a second fertilized egg with both or one of those that just never matured.  The only twins in my family are 2 sets of frateral twins in my  great grandma's generation, so my g-g-grandma hyperovulated at least twice,  but in the three generations since there are no twins anywhere..and that is a lot of descendants (in the generation of the twins there were 8 kids who each had at least 2 kids - my grandpa's generation - and father's generation- which led to around 22 women).  When I talked  to my dr about the genetic relation, she said with that many women, it was pretty unlikely that my hyperovulation is genetic.  

Sorry if that is way confusing... but maybe helps a bit?  I really don't think there's a way of finding out if your hyperovulation is genetic (if you do hyperovulate), or if its just a chance happening (or a blessing!).  

kelliwill

I don't know about this too much either. ?I know that my half sister had fraternal twins, but our twins are identical. ?From what I read it sounds like fraternal twins can be genetic but with identical it juts happens. ?When I asked my doctor about how it happened for us, he said that it just happened, like winning the lotto, but again ours are identical. ?It sounds like fraternals run in your family so maybe that increases your chances. ?

AllThatGlitters101

Thanks. I know that no one can tell me if I will have multiples or not (unless they have psychic abilities and laser eyes to see in my ute). I was just mulling it around in my head and wondered what others thought. In my case, I just am not thinking that my mom being a twin necessarily increases my chances, especially since she and her sister are really the only twins we know of on her side of the family.

Who knows, though. I guess it was silly to post. I've just been thinking too much about it. 

Thanks again! 

MrsARC1105

If your case is like mine, your DH chanting "twins, twins, I know there are 2" at your belly makes it happen....

DEP

From what I understand, you are more of a risk of having twins if fraternal twins run in your family.  It's the tendency to pass 2 eggs that is genetic, as you mentioned.  However, as a woman gets older, as in my grandmother's case (my aunts are fraternal twins, 14 years younger than my dad), there is also the tendency to hyperovulate prior to menopause;  I think this is the case for my grandmother.  Anyway, there's no way to know for sure, but at the very least, you may be at risk.  In the end, a healthy baby is the goal!

cands

The specific odds for having fraternal twins for any one individual vary based on if they hyperovulate and how often they hyperovulate.

I remember looking this up and finding one study that said that a woman whose mother had spontaneous fraternal twins has a 10% chance of having spontaneous fraternal twins, and a woman whose grandmother had spontaneous fraternal twins has an 8% chance of having spontaneous fraternal twins.  So while that is higher than the roughly 1% chance in the general population, it's not exactly a guarantee of twins.

Those odds also make sense for your family.  If there are four women (your mother and aunts), who each have only a 10% chance of twins, it is very likely that none of them will actually have twins. 

norvina79

Twins run in every generation of my family on my maternal grandmother's side.  In my mother's generation there are 3 sets, all fraternal.  My mother has twins.  I was pregnant once before and miscarried.  This time I am pregnant with twins.  Some studies say that after a miscarriage women are more likely to hyperovulate.  Also remember that data today is not always the most accurate because there are a lot of people that do fertility...this was not an option 40-50 years ago.  It just makes it harder to track the naturally conceived twins.