Welcome to today's post on how to conceive twins. Today I'm going to be giving you people eight methods on how to conceive twins, so please sit back and read till the end because who knows you might see the method that you actually want to try.
I'm going to start by explaining some basic things that will help you understand some of the methods I will be talking about in this post, and I will start by explaining the two types of twins that we have.
Types of Twins
- 1. Identical twins
- 2. Non-identical (Fraternal twins?
First is identical twins, this means that a woman during her ovulation releases just one egg that will be fertilized by just one sperm cell. This fertilisation will result in a zygote. The zygote formed now divides into two to form two babies that will be sharing one placenta and all of the time these two babies are of the same gender and they resemble each other.
It is interesting to note that these identical twins are actually very rare and out of every 1,000 births, we have only three to four identical twins. That is how rare they are.
Then the second one is the fraternal twins or non-identical twins. Fraternal twins are usually as a result of the woman releasing two eggs during ovulation which will be fertilised by two sperm cells. This will result in two different zygotes that would have two different placentas and these babies may be of the same sex or different sex, and they may or may not resemble each other.
Factors that Increases your Chances of Conceiving Twin Pregnancy
Before I start talking about the methods, I'm going to start with factors that naturally increase your chances of conceiving twins.
1. Family history of twins.
If a couple has a family history of twins, it increases their chances of having twins especially when the family history is from the woman. Now if the woman has a family history or she herself is a twin, the couple stands a high chance of actually having twins but if it is from the man's side, then it's not very significant. However, if this man later gives birth to a female child, this female child will have a high chance of actually conceiving twins.
2. Advanced Maternal Age
Another factor is women greater than 35 years old have higher chances of conceiving twins than their counterparts. This is because, when a woman is greater than 35 years old, when she's getting close to 40, during ovulation, she starts to release more than one egg.
When she releases more than one egg, different sperm cells, at least more than one sperm cell will go and fertilize these different eggs that she has released and this usually most times leads to fraternal twins. It's quite interesting because this gives women greater than 35 years old four times the chance of actually conceiving twins compared to women younger than 35 years old.
3. Height of the Woman
Some studies have shown that the taller a woman is, the higher her chances of conceiving twins. They gave a definitive height, five feet five inches. So if a woman is taller than five feet five, then she stands a higher chance of having twins compared to women that are not as tall as five feet five inches.
Disclaimer
Before I start mentioning these methods, I'm going to put a disclaimer that, none of these methods are 100% successful. So as I'm mentioning the methods, I'm going to be talking about their success rates. Also, whatever medications are going to be mentioned, the brands are not sponsoring these post and these medications are also just prescription only medications, meaning that they are not readily available at pharmacies unless you have doctors prescription. You need your doctor's prescription, you need your doctor's supervision, you need close monitoring, especially because of the side effects that are associated with these medications.
How to Conceive Twins Using Medications
We are now going to move to the first method, which is the use of clomiphene citrate. Clomiphene citrate is a medication that is used to stimulate the ovaries to release more than one egg. When two eggs are released using this medication during ovulation, two sperm cells will come and then fertilize these two eggs that are released and will result to fraternal twins. So this is how clomiphene citrate actually increases your chances of having twins.
However, clomiphene citrate is popularly known to give fraternal twins, but there was a study done in 2006 that said that out of all the women that used clomid to get twins, more women had identical twins than fraternal twins.
Clomiphene actually increases your chances of having twins by 10%. This translates to out of every 1000 births by clomid, about 100 will be twins.
2. Letrazole
The second method is the use of letrozole. It's actually similar to clomiphene citrate because it helps a woman to induce ovulation. It helps her to release multiple eggs, which will be fertilized by multiple sperm and result to twins.
The statistics is also the same as clomiphene citrate, that is, it increases your chances by 10% of having twins, which also translates to 100 twins out of every 1000 births by letrozole.
3. Gonadotropins
Another method is the use of gonadotropins. Gonadotropins are injectable fertility medications that are used to stimulate ovulation. When you use these injectable medications, you're not just releasing about two or three eggs, it's going to stimulate the ovaries to actually release multiple eggs.
It can be as much as greater than five. So this actually increases your chances of having twins by 25 to 30%. So because of the amount of eggs that can be released as a result of these injectable medications, you're also at a high risk of having triplets, quadruplets, and so on.
How to Get Twin Pregnancy By Eating Diet
This next method I'm going to be discussing about is a food called yam. Nigeria actually has the highest number of twins in the world, and several studies have shown that it is as a result of yams, especially in the Yoruba land. Yoruba people actually have the highest number of twins in Nigeria, and they are mostly fraternal.
This is as a result of a belief that yams contain a natural hormone called phytoestrogen that actually causes multiple release of eggs from the ovaries. This is actually why it results in fraternal twins. However, there's no conclusion in the aforementioned research. But since it's a yam, it's a food, it's a natural, it's a root vegetable, and it won't hurt you, so you can try it.
Additional information, in sub-Saharan Africa shows that, out of every 1,000 births, 23 are twins. In the U.S, out of every 1,000 births, 10 to 12 are twins. Asia has the lowest number, out of every 1,000 births in Asia, five are twins.
How Triplets, Quadruplets and Higher Order Twins are Formed
You might be wondering, how are triplets, quadruplets, etc., formed? Let mr explain. For identical triplets and the rest, one egg is being fertilised by one sperm cell, the resulting zygote then splits into two. One of those zygotes now splits again and again and again, depending on how many babies will eventually form.
But for unidentical triplets, quadruplets, and the rest, it is the woman releasing more than one egg during ovulation, and then different sperm cells, multiple sperm cells would go and fertilize the multiple eggs that were released, and that is how triplets, quadruplets, sextuplets, all of them are formed.
Early Signs of Twin Pregnancy
When you eventually get pregnant for twins, there are a few signs for you to actually know how you're carrying more than one baby.
1. Excessive vomiting.
Now this is actually not specific for more than one baby pregnancy, but it's in most women that are carrying more than one pregnancy, they tend to have excessive vomiting, which is also known as hyperemesis gravidarum or excessive morning sickness.
Normally in pregnancy, you have nausea, you have vomiting, you know what is minimal, but when it becomes very excessive, most times it's because you're carrying more than one baby.
2. Large tummy than expected
Another way to know is if your tummy is bigger than your gestational age. Now, what do I mean by this? Ideally, when you're 12 weeks pregnant, that is when your belly just begins to show, that is the tummy, the baby starts to crease out of your pelvis. Then by the time you've gotten to 20 - 22 weeks, it has gotten to your belly button, that's your umbilicus, and so on and so forth.
In case where you are 12 weeks and your tummy is already big up to your belly button, then you might be thinking more than one baby. However, it is important to note that there are some other reasons, some other causes of a bigger abdomen and a smaller gestational age, but this is one of the signs of carrying more than one baby.
What you can do to confirm that you're carrying twins is by an ultrasound scan. Ultrasound scan is the only way to actually confirm that you're carrying more than one baby.
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