TalkFeatured Q&A: Do Twins Run In Families?
I’ve got twins on my mother’s side and twins on my father’s side, too. On my mother’s side, they seem to appear every other generation, so the joke among my cousins is “which one of us will have the twins?”
Whether twins really do run in families or whether this is an old wives’ tale is a question many people ask. Senior genetic counselor Lisa Kessler, just answered that over at MedHelp’s genetic forum, where she is the moderator.
She explains that having identical twins is not typically something that runs in families, but having fraternal twins does — and it happens more frequently after the second pregnancy. Interestingly, this only applies to a history of twins on the woman’s side of the family. A history of twins on the father’s side doesn’t increase the chance of having twins.
So now we know. And now it’s up to my cousins to pass on the family tradition of twins!
Tags: fraternal, identical, inheritance pattern, twins
March 25th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Isn’t the answer to fraternal twins running only on the mother’s side because of the propensity of these women to release two eggs instead of one?