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One thing I found out after my wife and I discovered we were having identical twins is that manipulation of embryos increases the odds of having identical twins

by KMag 3y ago

One thing I found out after my wife and I discovered we were having identical twins is that manipulation of embryos increases the odds of having identical twins. In our case, the embryos were frozen, thawed, a few cells removed for pre-implantation genetic testing, frozen, thawed, and implanted again. Two embryos were implanted, but only one took hold. Then the one that took hold decided to become two people.

jedberg 3y ago
When we did IVF we were warned of the same thing! In fact, when you see an older couple with young twins, it's a really good bet that they did IVF. :) (We ended up getting singles twice, but we like to tell people they started as twins until we cryogenically froze one of them for two years)
- KMag 3y ago
  Fraternal twins are much more common than identical twins, because most IVF clinics will implant two embryos at a time, due to the chances of implantation failure. (Also, for non-IVF, fraternal twins are also much more common, for different reasons.)
  - jedberg 3y ago
    Our clinic offered a buy one get one free deal instead -- if the first implantation is unsuccessful, the second one is free, just to avoid that risk.
  - rrdharan 3y ago
    > because most IVF clinics will implant two embryos at a time This is very country dependent and is actually changing quite rapidly. I believe these days in the USA standard of care is single embryo transfer. It’s well known that twins are a much higher risk pregnancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5846681/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5846681/ FWIW when my wife and I went through the IVF process our provider (RMA, who are basically a large US-wide franchise) informed us that multiple embryo transfer was not an option offered by their clinic (not that we would have chosen it, but point is it wasn’t presented as a choice).
klipt 3y ago
Maybe it's a stress response. "One of my cells just disappeared! Better duplicate myself just in case"

by KMag 3y ago

jedberg 3y ago

When we did IVF we were warned of the same thing! In fact, when you see an older couple with young twins, it's a really good bet that they did IVF. :) (We ended up getting singles twice, but we like to tell people they started as twins until we cryogenically froze one of them for two years)

KMag 3y ago
Fraternal twins are much more common than identical twins, because most IVF clinics will implant two embryos at a time, due to the chances of implantation failure. (Also, for non-IVF, fraternal twins are also much more common, for different reasons.)
- jedberg 3y ago
  Our clinic offered a buy one get one free deal instead -- if the first implantation is unsuccessful, the second one is free, just to avoid that risk.
- rrdharan 3y ago
  > because most IVF clinics will implant two embryos at a time This is very country dependent and is actually changing quite rapidly. I believe these days in the USA standard of care is single embryo transfer. It’s well known that twins are a much higher risk pregnancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5846681/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5846681/ FWIW when my wife and I went through the IVF process our provider (RMA, who are basically a large US-wide franchise) informed us that multiple embryo transfer was not an option offered by their clinic (not that we would have chosen it, but point is it wasn’t presented as a choice).

klipt 3y ago

Maybe it's a stress response. "One of my cells just disappeared! Better duplicate myself just in case"