Do Twins Run in the Family?

The very short answer to this question is: No. Let me back up a bit and tell you part of my story that you may find interesting.

Growing up, like kids sometimes do, I had a hard time figuring out where I fit the best in school and various social circles. My family moved states fairly often and I really struggled with the transitions. By the time I was in high school, I was making some pretty bad decisions. Needless to say I ended up pregnant.

Before I told my parents (and before I even knew I was pregnant), I was taken to Planned Parenthood by the man that got me pregnant. I had never heard of this place, but he seemed fairly familiar with it and told me they could give me a “pill” that would make sure that I didn’t get pregnant. I had NO idea what the “morning after pill” was and that it was pretty much like and overdose of birth control pills that is supposed to abort a fertilized egg and make it so it will not implant. VERY long story short, it didn’t work and I ended up giving birth to identical twin girls, praise God!

When I went on to have more children and told a few of the midwives and practitioners about this history, I discovered that, that very same pill could be the reason why I gave birth to twins, especially with no family history of twins anywhere. These practitioners told me they had known of numerous women who took the Morning After Pill, and ended up giving birth to identical twins. It made me wonder if all those extra hormones somehow split the fertilized egg.

This time, I had been going through many massive life changes in a short period of time and my body had become a bit out of balance. The cancer protocol that I had been on, for many years (because it recommends that even once healed, to continue for 3-5 yrs), I had just weaned off, and ended up getting Mononucleosis. I then started getting horrible acne which is something I never even dealt with as a teen! I then had a daughter get married, a grandchild born, I graduated my oldest son from high school (as a homeschooler), planned another wedding, got remarried, remodeled my home, packed up and moved to another state (after living somewhere for 11 years) all within less than 6 months. It’s no wonder my hormones were a mess!

I was mostly trying to fix my skin problem (after seemingly trying everything on the market). I intuitively knew that the root problem was deeper though. I tested out for different homeopathy tinctures and one of the ones I was put on was Golden Maca root. My sweet friends that tested me warned me that it could make me extremely fertile. Looks like they were right!

My first set of twins as a teenager had separate sacs and placentas, so I thought they wouldn’t be identical. All my family members swore they must have been so I had a test done and they were right. This last set of twins, now 22 years later, also have separate sacs and placentas, so it will be interesting to see whether they are alike.

I guess the moral of the story is that, truly, I don’t know. It seems like the conditions you get pregnant under or what treatment you decide to receive during conception has the potential to dramatically effect whether or not you have twins. I get asked at least twice a week whether or not twins run in the family. I know this might be a round about way to answer that question but I guess the truth is that I’m not sure.

All I know is that what was meant for harm, was redeemed for good in my life. I have learned SO MUCH and while I never thought I’d be pregnant with twins at 40, I am super thankful for it, varicose veins and all, haha.