What are your chances of having twins? Well, on average, about 1. Turns out, there are a number of factors that can affect your odds of getting pregnant with multiples and having twin babies. So what are your chancing of having twins or multiples? Take our just-for-fun quiz to find out instantly! What is the birth rate for twins? Identical twins rates are equal to about 3. Worldwide, about 12-16 in 1000 people are naturally conceived twins. So, the chances of having twins are small. However,in 2010, births of twins in general in the U. The birth rate for fraternal twins has risen by about 76% in the past 30 years. The obvious reason is fertility treatments but surprisingly, they are not the only reason. What factors affect the chances of having twins? The chances of a woman having identical twins are about the same for everyone, as identical twins do not tend to run in families. This is because identical twins come from a single fertilized egg splitting in two and this is a random, rare event. Fraternal twins, on the other hand, can be genetic. Fraternal twins come from two separate eggs being fertilized by two sperm. Typically women only release one egg each cycle but women who conceive fraternal twins have released two. Releasing more than one egg in a cycle is called hyper-ovulation and is controlled by certain genes. Women who conceive fraternal twins usually have high levels of these genes, which makes sense. So who is more likely to conceive fraternal twins? Your chances of having twins depend on six factors: 1. Body type Twins tend to be more common in larger women as well as woman who are tall. In one study, women with a BMI of 30 or above were nearly 1. Those same women were more likely to have opposite sex twins than same sex twins as well. Researchers are still unsure why this is the case. Ethnicity and location On the surface it appears that ethnicity plays a role in the chances of having twins, yet location seems to have a large part as well. In Central Africa there are 18—30 twin sets or 36—60 twins per 1,000 live births. North America and Europe and caucasians in general have intermediate rates of 9-16 twin sets per 1,000 live births Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and hispanic and asian ethnicities in general have the lowest rates of 6—9 twin sets per 1,000 live births. The difference in chances of having twins between geographic locations more than ethnicity begs the question of whether climate, diet, or lifestyle have more to do with the chances of having twins than anything else. Diet We already know that diet does play a role. Women who eat full fat foods over non fat or low fat are more likely to conceive twins. This could be because fat is an important building block for pregnancy and those that eat more fat are better suited to carry two babies. It may also be that the difference in the amount of fat a woman eats affects hormones. Some information points to the daily consumption of yams being the reason Nigerian women have more chances of having twins. Maternal Age Older woman tend to have a higher chance of fraternal twins. Women over 35 tend to produce more FSH than younger women and women with higher levels of these hormones are more likely to have twins. The increase in FSH levels also shows declining fertility, which means they are less likely to get pregnant, but more likely to have twins if they happen to conceive. Number of Pregnancies The more pregnancies that a woman has had increase her chances of having twins. This could be a simple case of numbers. The more pregnancies you have the higher your chances of having twins. Fertility Treatments Women who take certain types of fertility treatments have increased chances of having twins. In vitro fertilization IVF increases your odds of having multiples by 20-40% depending on how many embryos are placed inside your womb. Fertility drugs increase the odds of you releasing several eggs at the same time by stimulating your ovaries. These kinds of drugs increase your chances of having twins or multiples to 10% or higher, up to as much as 30%. Why twins are more common these days What has caused the rise in multiples? One possibility is that women are waiting until they are older to have babies. As we mentioned earlier, older women have higher chances of releasing more than one egg in a cycle, thus, increasing their chances of having twins. Over the past decade, the rise in twins has steadied. This is probably due to the fact that fertility treatments have become more advanced and have lowered the risk for multiples while keeping the high possibility for conception. There are like showing earlier than normal and higher HCG levels. Some women who have been pregnant with twins report higher than normal levels of morning sickness. However, an ultrasound is the only way to be sure. An ultrasound can usually detect twins as early as 8-14 weeks gestation. Did you dream of having twins while you were or currently are! Do you think you could handle having twins? Share with us in the comments below! I was over weight, sadly ate alot of meat, cheese, dairy, chocolate, potatoes and cereal I worked alot. I currently have fraternal twins, in which I was 19 when I conceived them. The questions asked I have no experience with. I was hoping to gain insight on finding out how one would know which side twins may run of their family. My mother was adopted and my father has no idea. I would like to know before I try for another child is all. I am looking for diet information and things you need to do differently if you are having twins. I am told you will need to eat more but when does that start? There does not seem to be a lot of information on twins and how you deal with health and changes over a single birth! I have your book and I LOVE IT! Thanks so much for all your work. My favorite resource when I was expecting my twin boys. The author is an OB as well as a twin mama, who began a clinic to study multiple pregnancies, and especially how to keep those babies in gestation longer and out of the NICU. Recommended to me by a mom friend of triplets. Bottom line: eat, eat, eat!! I carried my identical, di-di twins to 40 weeks and delivered them on their due date with a non-medicated vaginal birth. Hi my name is Theresa I see this is about fraternal twins but I have a question about the chances of having Identical twins. If you could tell me anything about it. My sons wife is pregnant. Her mother is an identical twin her sister died at birth. I have an identical twin sister. My mother is an identical twin, my father has identical twin sisters and my brother has identical twin girls. Both sets of my great grand parents had twins also. So the saying twins skip a generation are not true in our case. I have 4 boys no twins I always felt that my son Zack the one that is expecting would one day have identical twins. There must be something in the genes.. I have a set of monozygotic identical twins. The mother is the only factor in dropping more than one egg; the father contributes sperm and does not have any genetic effect on how many eggs she drops in that generation of pregnancies. However, the man can carry and pass on the gene s of hyper-ovulation to his daughter, which may affect her pregnancies in other words, his grandchildren, skipping the generation of his own children. This is an example from my own family: my paternal grandfather had a set of fraternal twin siblings. He married my grandmother and they had 12 children, all singletons clearly, my grandmother carried no such twin gene. By the way, I wish that one quiz question was more accurate. As far as fraternal multiples go, having multiple sets of multiples on EITHER side presents a strong case. Having fraternal multiples on BOTH sides mother and father of the expecting mother should also present a strong case, since these genes can be passed down to a woman maternally or paternally. It said my chances of having twins were just average. Anything can happen ladies.
