Modi twins!!

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

We thought they were fraternal this whole time. This is such a shock!

I was predisposed to hyper ovulation. I'm only 13 weeks so I guess it's not SO late to be finding out.

Am in for it? It's going to be two girls I know it!

jezebel57 · September 2013

Congrats- I am having mono/di boys. I thought ours were girls too!! Make sure you are seeing a high risk dr to monitor for TTTS at an early stage. Lots of luck to you!

CaliCarly77 · September 2013

ooh fun! My cousin just had mo-di identical girls two weeks ago - they are just so sweet!

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Is it normal for one to be "older" than the other. Because my dr has been telling me this from day 1. How is that possible if they "split"?

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

jezebel57 said:
Congrats- I am having mono/di boys. I thought ours were girls too!! Make sure you are seeing a high risk dr to monitor for TTTS at an early stage. Lots of luck to you!

My next appointment is with a MFM center. I won't have all my appointments with them but I'll have access. All of my tests have come back great. Fingers crossed.

PinkinProvence · September 2013

No, identical twins are conceived at the same time (as are most fraternal twins.) Also, hyperovulation results in fraternal twins not identical twins. Identical twins split from the same egg so it is not due to your predisposition to hyperovulate.

I would really make sure to get into details with your MFM and have them do an ultrasound because it sounds to me that your current doctor is very confused and not very experienced with twins.

Good Luck!

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

PinkinProvence said:
No, identical twins are conceived at the same time (as are most fraternal twins.) Also, hyperovulation results in fraternal twins not identical twins. Identical twins split from the same egg so it is not due to your predisposition to hyperovulate.

I would really make sure to get into details with your MFM and have them do an ultrasound because it sounds to me that your current doctor is very confused and not very experienced with twins.

Good Luck!

I know. What I'm saying is I didn't hyper ovulate if they're identical. I am still really confused about the time difference between them and the fact that they're identical. I know there's a 5% chance they're still fraternal with one placenta but... C'mon! That's not realistic.

I don't know who to talk to because my doctor seems confused and I won't go to the MFM center until next month. Should I just call them myself?

MuseumMaven · September 2013

Congratulations! My boys were mo/di as well.

The "age" is actually just the size, and while ID twins should be similar in size, it's not uncommon for one to be bigger than the other. So they're the same age, just slightly different sizes.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Ok that makes a lot more sense. Thank you!

Mrs. Alice · September 2013

Congrats! And they are the same age but can measure differently. In early measurements they will "age" them by weeks/days and it's considered normal for them to be up to a week apart in measurements.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Hopefully the MFM center won't confuse the crap out of me like my dr does. What I do with out you ladies? Sometimes even the books I read assume I already know this stuff. I gotta get some new books.

Jen0204 · September 2013

Don't be afraid to ask questions while they're doing the scans or when you meet with the doctor afterwards. I think with how much people are on the internet these days it's easy for doctors to assume that we know more then we really do. I know that quite a few times the doctor would use terms that I knew from here and my husband would ask me to explain it to him later. I asked a ton of questions and called between appointments quite a bit, especially at the end when my BP was an issue.

What everyone is saying is correct, they take measurements and tell you that Baby A is measuring at x weeks x days, and then tell you what Baby B is measuring at. Someone mentioned TTTS, which is Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and is basically where one baby is growing much more then other. This can be corrected if it's caught early enough, which is why with mo-di pregnancies it's very important to have regular, high level scans. When you say that all of your appointments won't be with your MFM, will the ultrasounds be done there? You mentioned in your other post that your NT scan wasn't successful because the equipment wasn't good enough - if that was at your OB's office I would push to have the ultrasounds done at the MFM's office. My ultrasounds were always done with my MFM. The tech would do the u/s (with the MFM jumping in on occasion to try to find the membrane if the tech had an issue), the MFM would come in to chat with me after the scan, and then my other appointments were all with my OB. My MFM is who put me on bed rest.

CNYBride05 · September 2013

I have monodi girls. Love em to bits! Congrats

babywillmake3 · September 2013

I am 14 weeks along with Mo/Di twins. Baby A was measuring 1 day behind gestational age and Baby B was measuring 5 days ahead gestational age. Your MFM will know a lot more and be able to give you better answers than your OB. My OB was very confused and told me we had Di/Di twins and "saw" two placentas" there was only one. This is what MFM's are for.

PurpleIris30 · September 2013

JuliaAndPete said:

No, identical twins are conceived at the same time (as are most fraternal twins.) Also, hyperovulation results in fraternal twins not identical twins. Identical twins split from the same egg so it is not due to your predisposition to hyperovulate.

I would really make sure to get into details with your MFM and have them do an ultrasound because it sounds to me that your current doctor is very confused and not very experienced with twins.

Good Luck!
I know. What I'm saying is I didn't hyper ovulate if they're identical. I am still really confused about the time difference between them and the fact that they're identical. I know there's a 5% chance they're still fraternal with one placenta but... C'mon! That's not realistic. I don't know who to talk to because my doctor seems confused and I won't go to the MFM center until next month. Should I just call them myself?

I'm not sure where you've seen the statistic that 5% of monochorionic (one placenta) twins are fraternal, but I don't believe that to be correct as it doesn't align with any studies I've ever read or what my MFM has told me. My mo-di twins have always measured a few days apart, but as other posters have stated, that is just due to a slight size difference not a conception or time difference.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Mono/di twins come from the same egg and sperm, and split between day 4-8.
Mono/di twins are identical about 95% of the time.

https://movingthroughlife.com/life/parenting-twins/the-science-of-twins/

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

I just did the math. If its wrong please let them know.

pixiem38 · September 2013

Mo/di twins are always identical.....didi twins can be identical or fraternal depending on when the egg split (if one egg).

PurpleIris30 · September 2013

JuliaAndPete said:

Mono/di twins come from the same egg and sperm, and split between day 4-8. Mono/di twins are identical about 95% of the time. https://movingthroughlife.com/life/parenting-twins/the-science-of-twins/

Yeah, definitely not a reputable source.

This is just a mom's blog -- not something you should rely on for statistics.

So here's the deal - monochorionic twins are almost always identical. There have been a handful of reported cases in the entire world (so we're talking so exceedingly rare that it's not statistically significant), where mo-di twins were not identical.

Here's a scientific article in the New England Journal of Medicine talking about one case: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa030050 Again, so rare that a journal article is written and published about it.

This article explains the possible situations in which this might occur. If you don't have an ultrasound until later in pregnancy, two placentas can appear to have fused together, looking like one placenta. To be clear, these twins would not be mo-di, but it may appear incorrectly to a doctor that they are mo-di.

It is also theorized that the outer cellular layer of two blastocysts could fuse together before implantation. Another theory could be that one egg could be fertilized by two sperm.

Again, these situations are so rare that I'm not sure it's even worth mentioning as a possibility, and why doctors can say with 99.99999% certainty (I made that number up, but safe to say with only a handful of cases in the entire world that it's a minuscule percentage) that true mo-di twins are identical.

Mrs. Alice · September 2013

PurpleIris30 said:

JuliaAndPete said:

Mono/di twins come from the same egg and sperm, and split between day 4-8. Mono/di twins are identical about 95% of the time. https://movingthroughlife.com/life/parenting-twins/the-science-of-twins/

Yeah, definitely not a reputable source. This is just a mom's blog -- not something you should rely on for statistics.

So here's the deal - monochorionic twins are almost always identical. There have been a handful of reported cases in the entire world (so we're talking so exceedingly rare that it's not statistically significant), where mo-di twins were not identical.

Here's a scientific article in the New England Journal of Medicine talking about one case: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa030050 Again, so rare that a journal article is written and published about it.

This article explains the possible situations in which this might occur. If you don't have an ultrasound until later in pregnancy, two placentas can appear to have fused together, looking like one placenta. To be clear, these twins would not be mo-di, but it may appear incorrectly to a doctor that they are mo-di.

It is also theorized that the outer cellular layer of two blastocysts could fuse together before implantation. Another theory could be that one egg could be fertilized by two sperm.

Again, these situations are so rare that I'm not sure it's even worth mentioning as a possibility, and why doctors can say with 99.99999% certainty (I made that number up, but safe to say with only a handful of cases in the entire world that it's a minuscule percentage) that true mo-di twins are identical.

There was actually a mom on here recently who did IVF and said she had b/g mo/di twins. Unfortunately I think she lost them due to prematurity. I think her Dr.'s were pretty baffled but I guess it can occur but like you said, it's so rare that it's not even really a percentile. It's still safe to say that all mo/di twins are identical.

kgs0505 · September 2013

Yeah, mo/di b/g twins are still fraternal, just with fused placentas that look like one. And as pp suggested, are a misdiagnosis of the doctor. Sometimes you just can't tell until they come out, but being b/g should give them a pretty big hint.

True mo/di twins will share blood vessels between them in the same placenta. This is where the risk of TTTS comes in. It's not simply a growth discordance. Earliest signs involve differences in the amniotic fluid, where one is super low (the donor) and one has too much (the receiver). It's no good for either twin, but actually worse for the one with too much fluid. It's hard on their heart. Most mo/di twins (90%) learn to share the blood supply fairly evenly. 10% don't figure it out and you get TTTS. If detected after 26 weeks (acute), they would likely watch and then deliver you early, if before that time (chronic), they can do interventional surgery to separate the shared vessels between the twins.

I have identical girls, and they are survivers of chronic TTTS. You should be seeing the MFM by 16 weeks at the latest.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

16 weeks? Maybe Tufts will call me sooner than I think. Because I don't have anything scheduled. Wow this is a lot to take in.

yinyang124 · September 2013

My boys were mono/di. I swore I was having girls too, but I was proven wrong at 16 weeks!

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Wow @ 16 weeks? Did you have a level II u/s? Why am I waiting until 18 weeks? I wish they would tell me something

amb2013 · September 2013

Mrs. Alice said:

PurpleIris30 said:

JuliaAndPete said:

Mono/di twins come from the same egg and sperm, and split between day 4-8. Mono/di twins are identical about 95% of the time. https://movingthroughlife.com/life/parenting-twins/the-science-of-twins/

Yeah, definitely not a reputable source. This is just a mom's blog -- not something you should rely on for statistics.

So here's the deal - monochorionic twins are almost always identical. There have been a handful of reported cases in the entire world (so we're talking so exceedingly rare that it's not statistically significant), where mo-di twins were not identical.

Here's a scientific article in the New England Journal of Medicine talking about one case: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa030050 Again, so rare that a journal article is written and published about it.

This article explains the possible situations in which this might occur. If you don't have an ultrasound until later in pregnancy, two placentas can appear to have fused together, looking like one placenta. To be clear, these twins would not be mo-di, but it may appear incorrectly to a doctor that they are mo-di.

It is also theorized that the outer cellular layer of two blastocysts could fuse together before implantation. Another theory could be that one egg could be fertilized by two sperm.

Again, these situations are so rare that I'm not sure it's even worth mentioning as a possibility, and why doctors can say with 99.99999% certainty (I made that number up, but safe to say with only a handful of cases in the entire world that it's a minuscule percentage) that true mo-di twins are identical.

There was actually a mom on here recently who did IVF and said she had b/g mo/di twins. Unfortunately I think she lost them due to prematurity. I think her Dr.'s were pretty baffled but I guess it can occur but like you said, it's so rare that it's not even really a percentile. It's still safe to say that all mo/di twins are identical.

hi everyone, I am the mom who had fraternal mono/di twins. If they weren't boy/ girl probably would never have been picked up. It is rare, bit not as rate as you think, I was one of a few cases at Weill Cornell Hospital in NYC. It happens in IVF, usually when ICSI and assisted hatching had been done, in my case, we transferred 2 embryos and they implanted so closely together that only one placenta formed. My babies suffered from unequal placenta share, not ttts. I often see that mono/di have to be identical and it drives me batty...although rare, just not as documented in journals as of yet. Juliaanspete, congrats on your twins! My case was rare, and many have called it a fluke. Just be your own advocate and never be afraid to ask questions.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

@amb2013 thank you SO much. Having a boy & girl is my dream. But at this point all I want is healthy babies. I don't even care about the gender anymore. I hope your LO's are doing well and everyone is healthy.

I have so much to learn. This whole "one placenta" thing is scaring me. I also feel like my dr is keeping me in the dark about all of this. I don't technically have anything scheduled with my MFM center yet and I feel totally alone.

I've learned more on this forum than I have from any books or websites or drs so far.

Could you or anyone suggest any good reading material?

Edit: typo

babywillmake3 · September 2013

@JuliaAndPete I messaged you. Check your inbox.

JuliaAndPete · September 2013

Got my appointment with the MFM center! Oct 15th. I'm going go in to talk with them then they'll do the anatomy scan.

Want a personalized experience?

Modi twins!!

Re: Modi twins!!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards