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Multiples
frustrated and ttc
member
why is it my dr. doesn't know if they are ferternal or identical?
frustrated and ttc
member
in Multiples
I've seen siggys that say FT or IT at like 10/12 weeks gestation. How can this be since you can't tell the sex. And even if they are the same sex, how would you know they were FT or IT? I thought to see if they were identical, you had to have them tested when they get a couple months old. Am I missing something?
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Re: why is it my dr. doesn't know if they are ferternal or identical?
Identical twins can have their own placentas/sacs so without knowing if they're the same sex or not, then you wouldn't really be able to tell.
If I remember correctly, at my NT scan they were looking at the membrane and how it was separated and from that, the Dr. had a good inkling that mine were fraternal before seeing the sex.
So people that put they are having FT or IT in their siggy before they are born......actually don't REALLY know if they are FT or IT?
At my 6 wk. u/s they saw 2 follicles on my ovaries which shows I released 2 eggs=fraternal. They have also had a fairly thick wall between them. They won't tell me 100% but are making an educated, confident assumption that they're fraternal.
If I'm not mistaken, there are some identicals that wind up in the same sac and so those ones are obviously identical.
I could be wrong here, but the way I understand it is that my twins are identical because they share the same gestational sac. At my u/s last week, we saw two heartbeats in the same gestational sac (meaning one split into two). Fraternal twins are in different gestational sacs, meaning two different eggs fertilized.
We are still waiting to see if my twins will share the same amniotic sac (mono/mono) or have different amniotic sacs (mono/di), and we hope to know this Monday at 8w1d.
After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
quite often, unless you are having b/g twins - it's impossible to 100% know until the babie are born and do DNA testing (or, in my case, if they have different blood types). My boys also look nothing alike.
US images are not fault proof - and even if it shows to look like they are fraternal, sometimes it just appears that way, vice versa.
also, for me, we knew we had 2 eggs at IUI - so the chances were much higher that it was fraternal - since an egg splitting is a fluke.... doing IVF with 2 embies or IUI with 2 (or more) follies = most likely fraternal... though IVF with ICSI is thought to have a higher rate of ID's b/c the ICSI weakens the egg and it splits....
ok - more than you needed to know.... just rambling
from whAt I understand this is wrong
After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
this is what i thought
There are lots of things that can give you indications early, so some people know when others don't.
Some of the things that can tell you early if they are identical or fraternal
Same gestational sac: definetly identical
Different gestation sac: could be either identical or fraternal, but more likely fraternal
Early ultrasound showing that you only ovulated one egg: definetly identical
Early ultrasound showing that you ovulated more than one egg: most likely fraternal, but small chance identical
IVF where you put in than one: most likely fraternal, but small chance identical
Using clomid or other drug that can increase ovulation: most likely fraternal, but small chance identical
boy-girl twins: definetly fraternal
Once they are born, there are lots of things that can tell you for sure that they are fraternal such as different blood types or different eye colors.
Also, some people have several of the factors that make it most likely that their twins are fraternal, so they just start saying they are fraternal (that's what I did, but I wasn't 100% sure until they developed different eye colors).
you might have only ovulated one egg but couldn't it split afterwards? Thats how you get identicals anyway right?
This explains it fairly well:
https://multiples.about.com/cs/funfacts/l/aa060101b.htm
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my doctor would never say for sure that mine were identical, even though it was very obvious from the first u/s that they shared a gestational sac. that's a very very very good indication that they're identical. it's pretty darn obvious on early u/s if your babies share a gestational sac.
however, he still wouldn't give me a 100% answer. then again, the doctor i'm referring to is my MFM who didn't see me until 23 weeks, so he didn't even see my first 7w u/s firsthand. but i'll bet if he'd seen it, he would have told me mine were ID.
in the end, we did DNA testing to be 100% sure.
it's far easier to confirm IDs before birth than fraternals, since only IDs can share a gestational sac.
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Uh, yes, and that is what she is saying. Ovulating one egg but getting two babies means that egg split. Unless you are Sammysangel and another egg snuck out of the batcave.
This is my situation. They didn't test the placentas so I won't know for sure unless they look different or we do a DNA test. We go back and forth based on how they look right now.
From our first u/s at 8 weeks right up until our appt. with the perinatologist last week, everyone has already told us that our twins are identical. They are in the same chorion (share one placenta), but have a very thin membrane between them, which means they have separate amnions.
If someone has twins in separate chorions and separate placentas (or even fused placentas), I don't think they could know for sure, since it is possible for identicals to have separate chorions.
Although, if someone has had amnio testing done, couldn't they already know for sure?
She is actually very correct.
Savannah
Callista
Baby Trail Blog
"Someday we will look at our babies and know it will be worth it. If it was easy, we would not have had our babies, the babies we were meant to have." From Amy052006
CandS explained it very well.
Also, in terms of the odds: 1 in 3 sets of twins is identical, and 1 in 3 sets of identical twins is diamniotic-dichorionic. So if you have di-di twins (like I do), there is a 1 in 9 chance they are ID. So when I was pg I told people mine were "probably fraternal, but we'll find out for sure after they're born; if they look like they might be ID, we'll do a DNA test to know for sure."
As it turned out, they look quite different so we haven't needed a DNA test.
Just confirmed with my OB this week:
There is no way to be sure until birth. Mine have their own sac and placenta and I had 2 mature follicles before IUI, so most likely they are fraternal. When people ask, I tell them fraternal.
Just throwing in my 2 cents. I have identical triplets. I was told that they were identical when they were discovered during an u/s at 17 weeks. they shared 1 gestation sac but there were very thin membranes separating their amniotic fluid. There was also one placenta.
After they were born, the placenta was tested (standard procedure at that hospital) and I was told that it was just one placenta as they had always suspected.
There is no doubt that my girls are identical and I don't need DNA testing to prove it. 1 placenta and 1 gestational sac.