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Something I didn't know....
Jun. 23rd, 2003 11:13 amAs part of a news story, they mention that conjoined twins are three times more likely to be girls than boys. Wonder why that is......
Edit: Found this bit on Vanishing Twins that I thought was interesting. It makes me wonder if procreation has a tendancy towards twins, but the body doesn't support it?
Since the use of ultrasound has become routine, doctors have noticed a phenomenon that has been dubbed 'Vanishing Twin Syndrome'. A woman may conceive twins and they may be visible on an early ultrasound. But sometimes at a follow up ultrasound within the first trimester, one of the sacs will have disappeared. The mother may not have even been aware that one of the twins was lost. Sometimes the sac and fetus is reabsorbed into the mother, or the surviving twin. Sometimes it is lost as a miscarriage, but only one twin is lost. This is why a lot of doctors will caution women diagnosed with twins that the twins may not make it past the first trimester. Vanishing twin syndrome seems to stop after the first trimester.
Researchers have speculated that 50 - 80% of twin conceptions end in the birth of a single child due to one fetus vanishing. Another statistic I heard was that 1 in 8 pregnancies begin as twins, but I've also heard 1 in 12. Some women may not have even been aware they ever conceived twins, as some are lost within days of conception. A researcher theorized that half the people on earth may be walking around thinking they're a singleton, when they were actually conceived a twin.
In one study, 325 twin pregnancies were identified very early by ultrasound and followed through the entire pregnancy. They reported that 61 (18.8%) ended as twin births, 125 (38.5%) ended as singleton births, and 139 (42.8%) ended as a complete loss. So if you have one hundred women conceive twins (whether they know it or not), only 18-19 will actually have twins.
Edit: Found this bit on Vanishing Twins that I thought was interesting. It makes me wonder if procreation has a tendancy towards twins, but the body doesn't support it?
Since the use of ultrasound has become routine, doctors have noticed a phenomenon that has been dubbed 'Vanishing Twin Syndrome'. A woman may conceive twins and they may be visible on an early ultrasound. But sometimes at a follow up ultrasound within the first trimester, one of the sacs will have disappeared. The mother may not have even been aware that one of the twins was lost. Sometimes the sac and fetus is reabsorbed into the mother, or the surviving twin. Sometimes it is lost as a miscarriage, but only one twin is lost. This is why a lot of doctors will caution women diagnosed with twins that the twins may not make it past the first trimester. Vanishing twin syndrome seems to stop after the first trimester.
Researchers have speculated that 50 - 80% of twin conceptions end in the birth of a single child due to one fetus vanishing. Another statistic I heard was that 1 in 8 pregnancies begin as twins, but I've also heard 1 in 12. Some women may not have even been aware they ever conceived twins, as some are lost within days of conception. A researcher theorized that half the people on earth may be walking around thinking they're a singleton, when they were actually conceived a twin.
In one study, 325 twin pregnancies were identified very early by ultrasound and followed through the entire pregnancy. They reported that 61 (18.8%) ended as twin births, 125 (38.5%) ended as singleton births, and 139 (42.8%) ended as a complete loss. So if you have one hundred women conceive twins (whether they know it or not), only 18-19 will actually have twins.
