Brad, George and Julia...

[shouldprobablysaynothing]

Admittedly I have been off on holiday and have had far too much time on my hands but I was reading an article about Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts and how they're meant to be good friends IRL.

Then it struck me that they've all got boy/girl twins.

What are the chances of three friends all having boy/girl twins or just twins in general?

I think it may be due to ivf. That’s just my opinion though.

That's what I was wondering. Obviously none of my business. None of them have ever said it was IVF though?

Even if they had all had IVF, the chances of them all having twins, let alone boy girl twins, is quite small.

Maybe having twins in common is what unites them and makes them good friends.

well according to the article petal they forged a friendship while working together on Ocean's 11...Brad and George didn't have twins then 😂😂 I need to get out more

IVF with embryo selection.

My group of university friends have got 11 kids between us. 6 of which are twins. It is very strange.

Most older celebs who have twins seem to have boy/girl twins which also makes me think it's likely to be IVF. Probably not always due to infertility issues but possibly to expedite things.

I may have this wrong, but my mum always told me she had fertility treatment that resulted in a higher chance of fraternal twins because it had a side effect that made a woman's eggs stick together/several eggs released at once. Fraternal twins are different to identical twins because it's not one egg splitting, it's two eggs.

Even if all 3 had IVF the chances of them all having b/g twins are pretty small. IVF is not some kind of "easy option" for a balanced family, it's physically and mentally gruelling and the chances of success per cycle are generally about 20%.

Aren’t fraternal twins the most common type? Boy-girl pairings specifically.

Yes fertility treatment, particularly ivf where more than one embryo is transferred is more likely to result in fraternal twins.

These celebs don’t get magic conceiving powers through their imported Fiji water. The reason they so frequently manage successful, often first time pregnancies at an advanced maternal age, and have way higher instances of twins than the general population is as a result of fertility treatment (and possibly donor eggs).

I've wondered about this before and concluded it was all IVF. too many celebrities with boy/girl twins, what are the odds?

in addition to those 3:
Mariah Carey - Girl/boy twins
Jennifer lopez- Girl/boy twins

Not to mention all the ones with same sex twins.

Beyoncé, too!

I would guess embryo selection. (Which, to be honest, I would personally go for if money wasn’t an option!)

Yes, twins, by IVF or whatever, always a boy and a girl.

I suppose it gets the pregnancy over all in one, and then you have the 'perfect' family.

Plus didn't posh have her girl over in the US? That was rumoured to be sex selection.

I have boy/girl twins from IVF. No embryo selection allowed and wouldn't have wanted to. But if you have a selection of embryos - four went to blast. Chances are higher for twins. High possibilitiy for one of each. When I was doing it (11 years ago) I was told 1 in 4 ivf pregnancies result in twins. But that number may have changed due to the number of embryos allowed to be put back now.

I also wonder about the celebrity twins, I think there is a lot more 'treatment' than we know.

The twinning rate of IVF has gone down quite a bit due to more sophisticated processes making it less necessary to put in a whole bunch of embryos.

Of course, these couples may have asked for twins. If you've got nannies, I suppose it's more manageable than if you don't!

I was going to say exactly the same.

Its the same with cosmetic surgery etc. Many of the Young Women are using the same clinics, so they are all looking similar.

Even if all 3 had IVF the chances of them all having b/g twins are pretty small

Not that small. If you end up having twins, there is a 50% chance that fraternal twins will be boy/girl.