To go for twins via IVF?

[Clandistyne]

DH and I have been trying for two years and are now getting IVF privately. He has eight year old twins from a previous relationship already so I’m not eligible for NHS help. The clinic have asked whether I’d like to implant one embryo or two. We would ideally like two children together.

Pros:

• I’d be 37 by the time any babies from this cycle were born, so reduced likelihood of getting pregnant again later and getting the two we’d like
• Only one pregnancy to go through
• Reduced IVF cost
• We’re used to raising twins already

Cons:

• Riskier pregnancy
• Double costs for everything including nursery at the same time

Has anyone opted for twins via IVF? How did it work out? Am I crazy for considering it?

I am concerned you think raising 8 year old twins means you have the experience you need ..... unless you met your husband when his children were newborn? Children the same age are easier than children different ages...babies the same age are not. My mum had 5 children within 7 years and she said she found that easier than looking after my twins babies.
You need to look at this more are you prepared for the risks of a twin pregnancy and birth. I was pregnant with twins with IVF at the age of 35 - I had zero health concerns and was fit and healthy. One of my twins had a low lying placenta and I started bleeding at 28 weeks and I almost gave birth so they were given a steriod injection to improve their lungs. I was in hospital from 28 weeks until 36.4 weeks when they were taken out by an emergency C section due to bleeding. One of the twins spent 48hrs in the special baby unit due to breathing concerns. He went on to have feeding and sleeping issues.
One thing people don't tell you about twin pregnancies is hospitals like to monitor you - so no lovely warm birthing pool to relax in. They also don't fully tell you about the damage carrying so much weight does to your body - my stomach never recovered.
By all means put in two embryos if you think its a better decision for yourself - but be aware that putting two embryos in does not assure you twins. Unfortunately, as many women will tell you - putting two embryos in sadly might not even result in a singleton pregnancy.
Good luck with your IVF - please consider acupuncture as the research suggests it increases success.

Just read previous poster's message...and yes...the sickness! Lasted until 5-6 months with twins and effected my ability to work.

Op you are being incredibly nieve. Babies don't come to order.
You put two embryos back to increase the odds of having one baby from a round.

My first two never resulted in a pregnancy
My second two resulted in one baby.
My remaining three went to research

I wouldn't. I've been doing IVF transfers for the past year, got twins on the last. Three and a half weeks ago my membranes ruptured prematurely and they were born stillborn. It's been the most traumatic thing I've ever had to live with. Going forward, if we do another transfer, it'll be single embryo every time. It's not worth the risks to the mother or the baby
And if an embryo splits then you're looking at multiples.

Also the pregnancy was awful. I was on sick leave from 16 weeks and absolutely miserable before that.

Further to that, the research doesn't actually support that putting back more than one necessarily increases the likelihood of getting a healthy baby.

They are in the process of changing the rule I belive

When I was pregnant with my first my friend was pregnant with her twin 3/4th. Initially I thought how lovely that would be. By the time I had mine I was so glad I was having 1 not 2.

I had 2 embryos put back when I was 23.

I had 1 ds, it doesn’t guarantee you twins.

I wouldn't advise to try for twins. The risks are quite high, I'm in a support group for bereaved parents and you come across a lot of people that have lost twins in pregnancy unfortunately. But implanting two embryos doesn't guarantee twins, so I'd go off the advice of your fertility clinic

Twins is far riskier why would you opt for that, nonsensical.

One other risk that I'm not sure has been mentioned - we had a single embryo transfer and it split into identical twins.

It is twice as likely with an ivf pregnancy that you get identical twins. (2% rather than 1%).

This can happen with a double transfer so you end up with a MUCH riskier triplet pregnancy!

I wouldn't even get into the cost analysis of childcare at this stage. The way I see it 2 transfers doubles your chances, if you could afford to have lots of treatments 1 at a time then go for it otherwise I'd go for the two and pray for 1 baby. All that said 2 transfers ended in a twin pregnancy for me. Having had miscarriages it didn't occur to me I would be bringing home two babies til I was into 2nd trimester. The risk I was told of was triplets- any single pg runs risk of identicals so the risk with 2 embryos is that 1 splits and you are landed with 3 😳. All that said if it were me I'd take the chance, best thing that ever happened to me.

I had IVF privately, and the advice was to put one embryo back. This is considered best practice, as no reputable UK clinic is aiming for twins, and the goal should always be to maximise the changes of one live birth. We were asked if we wanted to consent to putting two back if advised by the consultant. They would have advised this only if the embryos were deemed to be too poor quality to freeze, as in this case, you would maximise your chances of getting one live birth by trying with two that might not otherwise survive freezing and thawing. If you had many good-quality embryos, I suspect the clinic might not recommend a double transfer even if you had signed the consent form for it.

The reason double transfers are less common now is that the cumulative odds of a single live birth are about the same now if you either (a) transfer both at once, or (b) transfer one, and then do a second transfer if unsuccessful. So they default to option (b) because it is less risky for mother and babies. If you have your eggs collected aged 37, and have spare embryos to freeze, they'll still be a 37-year-old's embryos when you transfer them later, so you'll still have a better chance of getting pregnant than a 38, 39 or 40-year-old.

Crossed with bakingdiva!!

@Rtmhwales I'm so sorry hope you are OK. That must be devastating.

As someone who has twins I really, REALLY wouldn’t do it.

Twins, especially newborn twins are horrendously hard work. The first year of their life was the worst/hardest of my life. The lack of sleep, never ever getting a break nearly broke me and my husband. Plus twin pregnancy is really hard and more dangerous for both mother and babies.

Unless your partner/husband did feck all baby care in the early days with his older kids then I can’t believe he would possibly risk twins again himself!

Really best wishes though. Hope your ivf works! But only put one back!

My experience of having 2 embryos put in:
1st ivf - we had two put in, pregnancy confirmed, 7 weeks pregnant suddenly I started bleeding while on holiday, had pains and human product came out. It wasn’t until we returned home I was able to get a scan confirming the other was well. This resulted in dc.

2nd ivf - again 2 put in woke up to gushes of red blood, was able to get a private scan which confirmed one had left but the other had a heart beat but was bleeding. I had to wait another week to find out it had died. This resulted in no dc.

4th ivf (3rd not relevant) had a single put in and then on the scan they split into twins but then later did not make it to the next scan.

It’s really not a given that that twins will work out or indeed anything will.

Twins run in the maternal line not the fathers! The father can pass the possibility of twins to his daughters but cannot release two eggs himself with magic sperm 🤣 Also irrelevant in IVF.

Identical twins are chance. It’s non id twins that run in families

I did this, but over a decade ago when transferring two was more routine. I was only 30 and IVF was due to male factor so there was nothing wrong with me, so to speak.
I was young fit and healthy and carried my twins to full term, they are 13 now. The pregnancy was TOUGH even so. Terrible terrible sickness and I had to finish work at 30 weeks as I was just so massive.

newborn and toddler twins is really hard regardless of your age.

I took unpaid leave after mat leave as I just wasn’t ready to go back. Definitely affected career progression. Then had two lots of nursery fees and worked 3 days a week because of this for ages.

I don’t regret it but if I hadn’t been young and healthy I don’t think I would have taken the risk. I was terrified of losing them and / or having very premature babies. The risks are definitely there and it was pretty stressful.

Now they are teens and the time just goes so fast when you have two the same age, it’s all so intense and crazy and then suddenly primary school’s over and you have teens.

There are some advantages as you say, but do think about it very carefully.

Hugs and heartfelt wishes to those who have had twin losses.

I have 10-month-old twins from IVF - I'm now 37 but was 35/36 when pregnant.

As others have mentioned, your clinic will likely not allow you to transfer two - they have guidelines as to what they can do and if you have a good quality embryo and are under the age of 38, they will insist you have a single transfer most of the time. I only have my two as they were both poor quality/not good enough to freeze and we were at the end of our NHS funded rounds, so it was an instance of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck. Luckily both of mine did, but as previous posters have mentioned, the biggest likelihood is no babies, then one baby, and only then twins. Additionally, by transferring two, you do not double your chances, you only increase your chances of implantation slightly, but you do increase your chances of twins massively.

It's also not easy! I love love love my twins but it is hard work, and while my pregnancy wasn't too bad, it was hard going in the last month. I had to have an emergency section due to polyhydramnios and pre-eclampsia (more common in IVF and twin pregnancies) and my little girl was born with a series of congenital anomalies (also a lot more common in ICSI babies) that required life-saving surgery and about three weeks of NICU time. All of this was fairly traumatic so if you can avoid it, please do!

Yeah I’m also gobsmacked that your partner would want to try for twins again having already had a set

When you point out the only pro’s of having twins as being “only one pregnancy, reducing the costs of IVF,” I can’t help wondering how committed you really are to wanting a baby.

It sounds as if you want the whole business over with as quickly as possible rather than being desperate to be a mum.

The cons of twins far outweigh the pro’s. In fact there aren’t any pro’s IMO.

Cons:

Riskier pregnancy.
High risk of miscarriage.
Risk of stillbirth
Risk of premature birth and as a result children with disabilities.
The cost of two children the same age forever, not just as babies.
The fact that it takes over your life for at least the first year.

I know three couples who had IVF twins. The one was fairly seemless.
One had one stillborn twin born at term and the other one has disabilities they think due to having shared the womb with the deceased baby causing infection.
The others were born at 26 weeks and have developmental delay as a result.

Twins themselves aren’t a blessing. The blessing is if they survive and are healthy.

This. OP needs to lower her expectations.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

Just thought I’d add I had ivf on the nhs at the age of 36. It is against their policy to replace 2 embryos unless you are over 40 I believe due to the risks. I am now pregnant at 40 with the second embryo which was frozen. So you’re not too old for two and I had the full ivf treatment once when I was 36 - in terms of cost the frozen embryo storage and transfer would work out cheaper (if you had extra embryos to freeze). Also having one I can see how twins could be a nightmare lol!