Are they identical??

I'm confused...

I was lead to believe that we were having fraternal twins. My nuchal scan said I have a dichorionic, diamniotic twin pregnancy, but then reading something at another site this morning I found this:

Dichorionic and diamniotic. These types of identical twins develop 2 separate placentas and 2 separate amniotic sacs (similar to fraternal or non-identical twins). They generally occur if the fertilised egg splits before 3 days after conception.

So does that mean they are identical? I thought it was a 70% chance of fraternal, 30% chance of identical?

congratulations on twins

You might not find out until your 18wk scan - and find out the sexes - large % of dichorionic and diamniotic are fraternal -even if same sex but I read what you said too in my twin book

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Dichorionic and diamniotic. These types of identical twins develop 2 separate placentas and 2 separate amniotic sacs (similar to fraternal or non-identical twins). They generally occur if the fertilised egg splits before 3 days after conception.

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A lady I met had twin daughters and even at birth DR's were not sure -she told me she ended up DNA testing - mind you they look identical and they were !

Yep the only way to be sure is DNA testing The twins registry will help out there. Mine didnt look identical all the time, but definately are! Yvette had her girls tested, and they are too!

That is the only 100% way of telling ( unless they are different sex)

I know mine are not identical as embryos were transferred at 6days and two but you are right to be 100% sure - DNA testing

I guess at the end of the day it doesn't matter if they are ID or not, but it would be cool to know for sure either way.

I guess if it's B/G it's pretty obvious that they're not!

Maybe at the morphology scan they will have more of an idea?

hi
i havent got twin myself but they fasinate me
especially identical ones
this might sound dumb or nasty
but i think i would get a small tatoo or something
different on each one if i ended up with identicl twins
i think i may have been watching too much neighbours
but what would happen if something like that were to happen?

LOL I don't watch Neighbours but I'm assuming you are thinking the twins could be confused??!?! You don't have to worry, mums of identicals will all tell you that they can tell them apart from very shortly after birth :)

*LOL* My Mum was so scared of mixing my twin brothers up that she left their hospital ID tags on for 2weeks until the MCHN came out for a visit and said "You dont need these anymore" and cut them off!!! *LMAO*

People ask me if mine are identical but since they are a boy and a girl they can't be (can they?)

Nope, Clare, they can't!

yes i was just wondering if they had an accident or commited a crime can they be told apart wouldnt they carry the same dna?
how would other people be able to prove it was one and not the other

Identical twins have doifferent fingerprints, so they can always be told apart that way.

I didn't think they could but when a nurse asked me I thought I would check. lol

trish,
don't mean to throw a spanner in the works, but a woman at our twin club conceived her ID twins through IVF. She had two embies put back and ended up with twins. She thought there would be frat, but it turns out that they are ID. Only one emby must have stuck and it split. Apparantely there is a slightly higher risk of the embies splitting through IVF. They don't know why, but the stats say that it is more prevailant.

hmm - the human body is an amazing thing
p.s. my two are frat - one has a penis and one doesn't -lolol

Wow, Odette ... that's really something! Yes, one would assume that two embryos had stuck. I hadn't heard that the IVF procedure itself results in a higher incidence of twins .. only in the case of those conceived via ICSI where the sperm is injected directly into the egg.

In normal IVF, the eggs and sperm are left in a dish to their own devices (to all intents and purposes, no different to the normal process of conception except it is taking place outside the body). I hadn't heard that there was any increase in the chance of twins just through this procedure alone.

Clare, I can't believe people ask if yours are identical. Perhaps they don't think before they ask!!

I have Identicals and yep, have mixed them, up as bubs, I left one with an ankle tag, and one with a wrist til I got familiar, but still had a few mix ups ( fed the same one twice!!!) I havent mixed em up once they got a bit older, and NO way I could do it now, they sound dif, act dif, and are themselves KWIM??? I still have trouble with baby photos knowing who is who ( sometimes I make it up LOL) In grade 1 they had their hair cut dif, as were sick of being known as the twins, and wanted people to remember their names, one has shoulder lenght hair, the other long hair, but people still say, "now wich one has the short hair ??":mad:

I have two placentas/sacs and because they got put back at 6 days - highly unlikely to be identical as one egg will only split into two placentas /two sacs under three days. I didn't have ICSI either. After 3 days they have usually one sac/placenta.
Two other IVF twin mums I know an another board have ID twins from one embryo - one was from ICSI one wasn't ...both had 2-3 day transfers though.
Guess I will find out soon enough ... though as brothers they could look very alike anyway.

Being someone who is not that cluey on the whole twin thing. I would think not many people would actually realise if they are boy/girl then they can't be identical. It makes sence, but I didn't realise it.
I seen a lady in Big W at Richmond today with triplets, all girls & all looked exactly the same!, Was so cute. they would have been about 12 -18 months I think.

mine aren't identical.:Dbut i was hopeing that they are identicals when i was waiting Sophie and Maddy..i don't know why:lol:

My twins were IVF ICSI and are not identical, during the pregnancy I was sure of this as the embryos had impanted on opposite sides of my uterus and I thought that if one had split then it would implant near the other - would't it.

anyway FYI I read somewhere when I was pregnant that IVF embies have more chance of splitting since they touched more, so I don't think this necessarily means regular or ICSI.

On a funny note, a few ladies in my multiple birth group say they are often asked that question by strangers "are they identical" - boy/girl twins which can't be. I think strangers just don't know what else to say.

there is such a thing asdentical boy girl twins!!!!! obviously very rare but i saw it in a tv show rtecently

Sorry, having a boy and a girl definitely means they are not identical. Simple fact they ahave different sex gene discounts them being identcal straight away. Some TV shows can be misleading.

Debbie

A friend of mine had mono-amniotic twins (share the same sac and placenta) so they were definitely identical. They are now about 10 months (7 months corrected age) and they cannot tell them apart. They paint their nails so that can make sure they dont get them mixed up.
(This is also what some zoos do to tell some of their animals like kangaroos apart!)

Girlsundae,I have fraternal twin girls and they were also dichorionic diamniotic twins.We found out at 19 weeks they were both girls and was told the same thing.70% chance fraternal and 30% chance of ID twins.We gathered they were fraternal as twins are in my family.
When they were born they were definately different.Alike as any 2 siblings can be but different.My OB confirmed they were fraternal when they were born.

we're in the same boat (dichorionic diamniotic) and have been given the same stats. We had our 19wk scan last week and asked not to be told the sexes. Suppose we'll find out when they're born if they're identical or not (i'm kind of hoping they are!!)

Some info I found on different sex identical twins:

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But what about identical twins who are remarkably different? They can, for instance, differ appreciably in size, intellect, and behavior. In such cases, does nurture dominate nature? No! Identical twins may diverge even in the womb, where one may receive more oxygen and nutrients than the other. One also may be assailed in by viruses, bacteria, or drugs, while the other escapes. Even more drastic is the possi bility that one twin may pick up an extra chromosome soon after the original egg has split. Also, mutations may doom one twin to Down's syndrome or some other genetic affliction, while the other is unscathed. Identical twins may even be of different sex! Of course, such twins are genetically different, but they are still monozygotic (from the same egg). Blood tests will show them to be identical.

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and

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monozygotic/identical twins are nearly always the same sex either boy/boy or girl/girl. Until very recently, in fact, experts thought monozygotic/identical twins had to be same-sex. But now we know that there are certain rare instances* when monozygotic/identical twins can actually be different-sex individuals; when this has occurred and been documented, the twins are genetically identical in every way other than a slight chromosomal difference.
*The rare instance in which a set of boy/girl monozygotic/identical twins occurs is the result of Turner's Syndrome, in which both individuals are actually XY boys, but one child loses the Y chromosome, yielding a baby who is XO. One twin appears externally to be a girl, but grows up infertile, short, and usually with a couple of other recognizable physical characteristics. Miscarriages occur frequently in such pregnancies, which is why these sets of twins are rare.

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krysalyss, they are known as "polar body" twins or "half-identical twins". Where the egg splits before fertilization and then the two halves are fertilised by separate sperm. Very rare and not true identical twins as the sex genes are different even though the other genes are the same.

Debbie