Twins Seen/Missed On Early Ultrasounds?

[midori1999]

I have been pregnant with twins twice. The second set were fraternal, but we are not sure on the first as lost them early. My consultant has told me it is pretty rare to get pregnant with twins twice and he feels I am at high risk of becoming pregnant with twins again.

I had a scan yesterday. It turns out I am a week earlier than I though, so 5 weeks. (I did suspect this might be the case, so not worried) The sonographer did an internal scan, zoomed in a the gesational sac, measured it, pointed out the yolk and then had a quick look about. She said I was five weeks and she'd book me back in for 10 days or so time. I asked her if there was definitely one baby only in there then, and she said 'you can't tell at this stage'.

When we left, I asked my husband how many gestational sacs he thought he could see on the scan and he said 'three'. That is what I had thought too. Only, if we had seen three, the sonographer must have seen it, so why wouldn't she mention it? I can't think what else it could have been, although I know to the untrained eye scans aren't easy to interpet. I just fail to see why, if the sonographer thought there was only one baby, why didn't she say 'I think there's only one/I can only see one today, but you can't really tell at this stage?

I just feel like I am pregnant with twins again, but maybe that is wishful thinking. I would be disappointed if I was only pregnant with one baby, although that would certainly be for the best really, and less worrying. I have all the symptoms I had in my other twin pregnancies and my ovulation pains were horrendous, so much so that I almost went to A&E as I thought I must have an infection. It was like awful period pains, particularly to one side and paracetamol didn't help at all.

Has anyone with twins had an early scan? What gestation did they see them? Did they miss them on very early scans?

I am a bit he says to conceive twins twice is rare. I had a scan at 6 weeks and saw two.

Fraternal twins twice is rare? What bollocks is he talking!!!

My friend has fraternal twins and she was told that they are genetic and if she has any more pregnancies she is 70-80% likely to conceive twins again. She researched it extensively and they are genetic. Her dad was a non identical twin.

It is because the woman is more likely to release 2 eggs a month instead of one and this is passed down.

Its identical twins that are random.

I did think it wasn't uncommon for ladies to get pregnant with twins twice, but I suppose I just believed him when he said it as I assumed he knew what he was talking about. They do have a 'twins specialist' at that hospital, so maybe he doesn't deal with many twin pregnancies anyway. He won't be my consultant this time anyway, I am under a joint haemotology/high risk obstetrician clinic.

I know fraternal twins are supposed to be hereditary. I have had three singleton pregnancies though and there are no twins in my family. My Mum had four children, all singleton pregnancies, her Mum five children, all singletons. My Aunts also all have 3 or more children, again, all singletons.

I know the 'risk' goes up the older you get and the more pregnancies you have had, so maybe that's a factor for me?! I suppose I'll just have to wait and see at the next scan.