Was she a twin?

Warning - this post has some icky medical detail and describes a threatened miscarriage

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I had a threatened miscarriage with DD. I had very mild cramps and bleeding (light but bright red) that went on for quite a while, over a week from memory. I think twins may be genetic on my mothers side (she may have been a twin herself but the other baby didn't form properly) and there are on my daughters dads side (though my understanding is that twins are only genetic from the mother). I was told I'd had a miscarriage because of a mix up with the hormone tests. I had I think three internal ultrasounds and the final one showed a tiny embryo (and to my knowledge, no signs of a miscarriage such as an empty sac though I'm not sure that there would be?), and I was told that she didn't show up prior because it was too early in the pregnancy. Is it possible/probable that my daughter was actually a twin and I miscarried? The bleeding was relatively light (though I wore a period pad) but I did pass a very, very small clot.

edit: I don't know if this means anything, but before I had the threatened miscarriage I was feeling very fluey and nearly vomiting, having hot flushes etc.

edit again: My mother was definately a twin;

"Sometimes, remnants of the inviable fetus are found in the mother, placenta or surviving twin. This is most likely to occur during the second or third trimester. Although usually the fetus will be partially resorbed and retained, the death of one twin at around 15 - 20 weeks may result in a fetus papyraceous, a tiny paper-like, flattened fetal remnant. A tertoma tumor containing bone, hair, teeth or tissue fragments is also an indication of a Vanishing Twin." This is what happened to my mother when she was born except the tertoma was actually attached to her and had to be surgically removed.

So i've been reading about this on the internet and aparently, this can happen without any evidence of twins. The phenomenon is called 'vanishing twin' syndrome and is often accompanied by miscarriage symptoms like bleeding and cramping. What really makes me wonder is the fact that hCG levels rise more slowly as the miscarriage is taking place . . . that's what the supervising obstetrician said was happening to me. My GP, upon recieving results of my initial blood test (to diagnose pregnancy) said "you are definately pregnant", making me think that the hCG levels were high and that my pregnancy was well established. It took a number of trips before anything showed up on the ultrasound though, which makes me think the opposite, that it was very early in my preg that I found out. They do say that twin pregnancies cause higher hormone levels don't they? Ugh, I'm driving myself nuts over this and it's not helping. I'll probably never know whether it was or not.

I dont know if there is anyway of really knowing, except by following your instincts.
When I was pregnant with my twins, the test result was instantaneous...And I had very strong symptoms - massively bad MS etc...and the MC was very heavy, painful and last for about 5 days. At the time it didnt mean anything to me, but they had to give me an internal to be able to see the second sac, despite the fact they were conjoined twins...so who knows?

It is fascinating information though...Perhaps if you could speak to your doctor about it, they may be able to give you more info, especially if you saw the same ob or something?
Good luck anyway, I hope you get your answers!!

I'm sorry for your loss, Alexis :(

Thanks, I've been planning to obtain my medical records via freedom of information so perhaps I should do it for that hospital also (that hospital isn't where I had my antenatal care and gave birth). Good idea!

We had a similar thing (except bleeding) with ds3.. my HCG levels were really really high so they went me for an US. A week later we had it done. It showed one empty sac and one sac with our son in it..

I didn't get any bleeding though. They said they weren't sure what the 2nd sac was.. then our GP said it was most likely a twin that didn't develop beyond cells

Sorry for your loss Alexis

I'm very sorry for your loss, Alexis.

I've often wondered myself if DD may have had a twin that never made it... it's really hard to explain, makes very little sense and there's so little evidence supporting the theory, but I just *know* somewhere within myself that she was meant to have a brother with her?
DH and I conceived as soon as I stopped taking the Pill but we didn't realise until later on because I had a bleed around the time I thought my period might have been due, we just assumed it hadn't happened yet and thought nothing more of it. But sure enough, I was pregnant (it was when I contracted a UTI and went to my GP to get antibiotics and she did a routine pg test and it came up positive that we found out) and it was pretty much a textbook first pregnancy.
It wasn't until after DD was born that I started having strange dreams about her having a twin that just wasn't *there*, if that makes any sense? While I was pregnant I'd dreamed about having a boy (dreaming about, for instance, baby showers where all the gifts were blue) and even after we found out we were expecting a girl I still kept having odd thoughts and dreams were there were boys' things and what not in there... it didn't make any sense to me because I didn't particularly want a boy, you know, I was stoked to be having a little girl and didn't care either way, but then after she was born I kept dreaming that there had been another baby, I would wake up and see another baby sleeping next to DD in the bassinette, etc...
I always wondered if that 'period' I had at the start was in fact me losing Emily's twin? I know it's probably not, especially seeing as there's no history of twins on either side of mine or DH's family, but yeah, I just *feel* like it was, kwim?

Interesting post though, about the vanishing twin thing.. I've read stories about where a fetus has died in the womb and the other twin has 'swallowed' it, kwim? So I definitely know that exists, I just think if I *did* lose a twin it must have been at such an early stage that it was just a little clump of 'nothing', kwim?

I've read a theory somewhere (not sure where, it's just popped into my head while reading this thread!) that left handers are one half of 'mirror twins' where the right handed twin has died very early on. I find it a very interesting thought as I have 2 left handed sisters - most of our extended family are 'righties' but we do have a few sets of twins!

Nee, I have lost a twin twice now, and they were both very different....

My first loss was with my 3rd child. I found out straight away I was pregnant, before AF was even due. I was extremly sick and "felt"( by doctor) about 12 weeks along when I was only 5 wks....

At 8 weeks I had a massive bleed, clotty, and was devastated... but an ultrasound found a perfectly healthy bub.... loss of a twin was what both the doctor and sonographer both said..

With little Angel, I was VERY sick, had high HCG results, high blood pressure, and a "feeling"... that it was twins, but also that something was wrong.. after having a cleft bub, i assumed something along those lines might be wrong....

But my 6 wk ultrasound showed one perfect bub, and a sac in the middle of colapse... I was sooo devastated to actually see my embryo leaving.... I had no bleeding at all, and it was called Vanishing Twin Syndrome.. a follow up ultrasound showed my still-good bub going well, and the other one just gone.....

wow, that was harder to write than I thought....

ETA.. twins run in my mothers family