Twins could one day be in your future. There are two kinds of twins, monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (fraternal). Monozygotic twins arise because in the early developmental stages the zygote just so happens to split and create two separate embryos. Dizygotic twins arise because two eggs were fertilized by two separate sperm within the same pregnancy. Many factors come into play when trying to determine if your future family could have twins. The main one, of course, would be if your family has twins within them meaning if your cousins are, if you yourself are a twin, even if your sibling has twins because that causes you to have 2.5x more of a chance to have twins. Just to be clear this only has to do with mom because her DNA affects your eggs. Other factors such as weight, age, height, and diet can also affect the likelihood of having twins. Mothers over the age of 35 are four times more likely to have twins than someone half their age. Women who are taller or heavier have a better chance at having twins in their family rather than someone who was underweight or shorter. Researchers believe this may have to do with a protein that affects those two factors. Also yes! Diet can play a role in conceiving twins. Dairy products within a woman's diet may cause twins because of the growth hormones in dairy that will induce ovulation.
Great Post! It's good to know that not only your genes decide whether you could have twins or not. I did not know that weight, age, height and diet could affect the chance of twins!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting, I never knew that diet could affect your likelihood for having twins. Twins are very interesting to study. Two of my close friends are twins and you would not even know they are related, they are extremely opposite. One thing I have always wondered, due to the fact that one of my friends has a list of medical disorders and his twin is in perfect health, is how this is possible and what the genetics behind it are.
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