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Are My Twins Fraternal or Identical? |
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by Izzy  (March 15th) (rank 7th) |
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If your twins are still infants and happens to be of the same sex, it isn't so easy to tell if they are fraternal or identical twins. So how can you tell? How can you find out? Let me begin by defining terms.
Fraternal Twins
- two
eggs fertilized by two different sperms (dizygotic twins)
- could be the same or different sex
- the babies each have their own placenta
- the babies each have their own sac
- different in genetics (much like other siblings)
- may or may not look alike in physical appearance
Identical Twins
- one egg fertlized by one sperm (monozygotic twins)
- always the same sex
- the babies share only one placenta (monochorionic)
- the babies can either each have their own amniotic sac (diamniotic) or share one sac (monoamniotic)
- the have identical genes
- may look similar in physical appearance (though as many moms of identical twins will tell you, there is a difference!)
If you are lucky enough to have a doctor tell you with certainty that you're having identical twins, good for you. During my pregnancy, I saw 3 different perinatologist (from the same office) in addition to my OB/GYN and none of them wanted to commit to saying that I was having identical twins. They all said I was, but there was not a 100 percent way to tell unless I get a DNA testing after birth.
DNA testing is the only way to be more than 99% sure whether your twins are identical or fraternal. Fortunately, it is easy to do. I went online and found a company who tests for zygosity (proactivegenetics) for a fee ($160 USD). When my twins were 4 weeks old my husband ordered a kit online and we received it within 5 days. In the kit was 2 sets of vials each with one of my twins' names. There were a lot of cotton swabs included, and in the vials was a little bit of clear liquid. According to the instruction I swabbed the inside of one twin's cheek and then did it again 12 or 24 hours later (I can't recall exactly) and then placed the swabs in the vial with that child's name. We mailed the swabs back in the enveloped included. It was easy! Less then 2 weeks later, we recieved the results via mail and email. My twins are identical!
Some moms of twins do not really care to find out if their twins are identical or not, but some do. Some parents want to know for medical reasons (may be important to know in the future in case of illnesses) and some just want to know for their own knowledge. For my husband and I, we wanted to know for both reasons.
In my post op appointment with my OB/GYN, I mentioned that I had my twins tested. He told me that not so long ago, hospitals tested for Zygosity for much more than what we paid for.
Here are other companies who test for twin zygosity:
http://www.dnacenter.com/dna-testing/twin-zygosity.html
http://www.dnatesting.com/
http://www.proadn.com/en/dna_4
http://www.proactivegenetics.com/index.dna
Copyright © 2008, username: Izzy @ www.minti.com. All rights in all media reserved. The content of this article may be forwarded in full without special permission provided it is used for nonprofit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given.
