If your dad is a twin, are you more likely to conceive twins yourself?

[theyoungvisiter]

My dad is a fraternal twin, and I've had mixed info about whether this makes me more likely to conceive twins or not.

Everywhere I've read says it's inherited through the mother's side, but some places say exclusively through the female line, others say all relatives on the mother's side.

Anyone know the answer?

Fraternal twins is 2 eggs and that is the hereditary kind, isn't it? And I don't see why the tendency to that can't be passed down by a man.

You need Tamum though (she is a geneticist when she's not plastering)

my dad is a twin, and I was told by midwives that made it more likely that I would have twins, they said it skipped a generation, ie I was not a twin but my children could be.

however, I had 3 single children, so it didnt make any difference to me!

my dad is an identical twin, and i was told that was not passed down through the mother and I didn't have twins.....well not yet

Non identical twins can pass down the female generations.

I am not sure if your father will "carry" the genes on to you. I don't see why he shouldn't - he just won't "express" them.

I am a part time geneticist (not as hard core as Tamum) and a mother of DTDs with lots of twins in various places in the family - mine are ID though which is not hereditery.

ID twins will never pass.

ID twins (with a v v v v small number of exceptions - i.e a handful worldwide) are random events of nature and are not related to genetics in any way.

Hmmm... interesting. Well I'll try and keep this bumped for Tamum or any others in the know.

I like the "skipped a generation" midwife - I would have thought it was fairly certain your dad wouldn't give birth to twins!

Skipping a generation is certainly bullshit IMO. It would have skipped him cos he is a bloke not because he is from the wrong generation IYSWIM.

my DH is an ID twin and we have ID twins, there are 5 sets of twins in DHs family, all are boys our ID twins are girls.

I guess you could be one of the handful of families then OJ

5 sets of twins! [faints]

Well I did wonder about ID twins, OJ.

I can see that a tendency to release 2 eggs at once is likely to be hereditary, but a tendency to have fertilised eggs that split could be hereditary too?

also [puts on science hat] anyone know whether the eggs are usually released from the same ovary or one from each? Or can it be either?

Just wondering whether ovulation pain is any guide to possible twinnage occuring.

well after having an ectopic i lost one tube but went on to have ID twins

no-one yet knows what causes a single fertilised egg to split. It is conceivably possible that it has something to do with the sperm and so may be a potentially male inherited trait. But it is generally accepted that id twins are random events.

Non id twins are the result of two eggs being released - and that tendency can run in families - so females of a family group with that tendency may have more twins than would be expected randomly.

I guess since many families now only have 1 or two children the twin tendency gets missed (particularly if they have kids young - because the tendency to double ovulate increases towards menopause I think).

Anyway - the accepted truth about twins at present is that your father being a twin has no impact on whether you are likely to have twins.

DD has a very strong family history and we were told she is likely to have them. Her father is a twin, and both his parents were twins. Plus I've got twins (her half brothers) so in theory she should inherit the tendancy from both her father and me, and end up with quads!!

There are all sorts of traits with twins really, depending on:
your age (35 is supposed to be the prime age),
your height and weight (tall and slightly overweight women more likely - a lot of the twin mums I've met have been tall),
your race - black women are mostly likely, asian women least likely.

At the end of the day it is just pot luck.

chopsters comments made me think it would be fun if we could see if any of the "supposed tos" actually hold true for us.

here

oo interesting! Thanks for all the responses, I shall watch the "supposed to" thread with interest.

I can't answer for myself (no twins!) but my granny didn't fit any of the patterns except for being maybe slightly overweight. She was 33 (I think) when she gave birth to my dad and his brother. But I won't post that on the other thread as it seems a bit cheating to post on behalf of relatives!

Hmmm.

My dad is a fraternal twin. He and my mum had b/g twins who died at birth. I have b/g twins AND b/b id twins. My dad's brothers daughter has id twins and my dads sisters son has id twins.

Follow that? LOL

wow - your family certainly now how to do twins (and mainly on the mail side too !).

You ought to offer yourselves up as a research project

I am a twin and I fell pregnant with twins but had a MC, so I wouldn't belive all that skip a generation stuff!