Many couples trying to conceive hope to have twins. Their reasons vary, from ensuring that their child has a close sibling through childhood to simply wanting a large family. While multiple births occur in about 3 percent of all pregnancies in the United States each year, experts say there are some steps women can take to increase their chances of having twins. Diet, ethnicity, genetics and lifestyle all play a role in whether a woman is more apt to have twins. Scroll down to step 1 if you want to learn about ways to raise your chances of having twins. Understand that the average person's chance of having twins is about 3%. But you are probably not average. If you have any of the below, your chance increases. If you have a lot or all of the below, your chance increases a lot. Conversely, if you are a young, underweight female of Asian descent with no twins in the family, the chance of twinning will be extremely low. If you already have twins, your chance increases at least 4x. Hispanic and Asian people have the lowest chance of having twins. Women with 4 or more pregnancies increase their chances of twins dramatically. Know that older women are less likely to GET pregnant, but if they do, they are more likely to have twins. The older you are, the more likely you are to have twins. If you are around 40, your chance is substantially higher, around 7%. At 45, if you can get pregnant, the odds are about 17%. IVF also increases your chance of twinning. A woman over 45 Correct! While it's more challenging to conceive when you get to an older age, women who get pregnant later in life are much more likely to bear twins. If you are around 40, your chances are over double the average, and if you are able to get pregnant around 45, your chance of having twins goes up to 17%. Read on for another quiz question. A woman who just had her first child. Women who have other children are more likely to bear twins than women who have not. Still, while your chances of having twins grow with each pregnancy, the likelihood won't dramatically increase until you've had 4 pregnancies or more. Be well nourished, and eat certain foods. Overall, underweight people are less likely to have twins. Consult your doctor about any plans for weight gain. Consume dairy and yams. There are foods that are possibly linked to better chances of twins. Nutrients in the vegetable are believed to stimulate the ovaries into producing more than 1 egg during ovulation. On the other hand, there is no harm to eating yams, and Stop birth-control pills right before. Try stopping the pill right before trying to get pregnant. When women first stop taking the pill, their bodies work furiously to re-regulate their hormones. During the first month or two after getting off the pill, ramped up ovaries sometimes release 2 eggs. Some studies suggest it is true. Putting on weight in a healthy way Not exactly! Since women who are well-nourished, or even slightly overweight, are more likely to bear twins, amping up your diet might help your chances. Still, there are other methods specifically related to your likelihood of producing two eggs during ovulation. Let a doctor help you increase your chances of twins. Some doctors will help anyone have twins, like the doctor of the Octomom. Age and fertility windows are other reasons for needing to have twins. Talk to your doctor about an oral medicine called Clomid. It is normally used as a treatment for women who do not ovulate, but when taken by women with no issues it can raise the chance of having twins to over 33%, depending on the woman. Go through IVF Intro Vitro Fertilization. Normally the doctors will try to implant many embryos in the hopes that one sticks, but if one sticks, two is also likely. Overall, the chances of having twins in IVF are between 20% to 40%. There are many clinics that do IVF, so get referrals and shop around. It's not cheap or quick, but it is not unusual these days either. It is usually only given to women having difficulty conceiving due to age or Second Infertility. Clomid is often used for women who do not ovulate and it can certainly be helpful to those struggling to conceive. Still, many doctors will prescribe it to women looking to bear twins, and it can increase your likelihood of doing so by over 33%. You might have triplets. Clomid can increase the likelihood of having twins by up to 33%, if you have no issues, like an inability to ovulate. Clomid works by encouraging the ovaries to drop more eggs in a cycle and sometimes it works even better than expected, so be aware that triplets are a real possibility! Read on for another quiz question. This is only genetically passed down from a mother to her daughter. This means that your mother being a twin helps a lot, but your mother-in-law being a twins doesn't affect you at all. You could try eating certain things that could possibly give you a son; however, no one knows if they actually work or if it is just a boy by nature. As for twins, there isn't anything you can specially take to raise your chances. If you have twins in the family, that always raises the chances. Or ask a doctor, but it should only be gender specific for a legitimate reason, such as a rare disorder or genetic problem, not because you just wanted 'a boy. The odds for identical twins remain the same for everybody, regardless of family history or any other factors. Only a family history of fraternal twins on the maternal side will increase odds of fraternal twins.
