Are twins hereditary?

Jessica • Im 29 years old and this is baby number 3 for me! My daughter is 6 and my son is 4. Having a scheduled c section on December 28th unless he comes sooner!
My boyfriend's father is a twin and my aunt conceived triplets naturally.. I wasn't sure if twins were only hereditary on the mothers side if at all? My first Dr appt is in 2 weeks so I'll find out but was just curious :)
446 views • 1 upvote • 12 comments

COMMENT (12)

Sa

Posted at
if you have fraternal twins in your maternal line at all, there is a higher chance of you having fraternal twins, or hyper-ovulation. if your father was a fraternal twin, he could pass the gene of hyper-ovulation onto his daughter. But there isn't an answer to identical twins from what I read, that it was just at random.

Sa

Sa • Jul 16, 2015
I researched it to because of twins and triplets in my family. I was so scared of having twins first (sounds bad but I felt overwhelmed).

Jo

Jodi • Jul 16, 2015
this is exactly what I've been told too... It also debunks the "skips a generation" myth because men can't hyperovulatte but can pass that trait onto their daughters. Also if you are a twin the only reason why they say it's more probably is because you definately have hyperovulation passed from at least your mother if not both. I'm a twin and there are many in my family so I researched the hell out of it.

La

Posted at
It is through the mother that it can be hereditary. 

La

Laurel • Jul 16, 2015
It also happens randomly the older you are Bc you can release more than one egg at a time.

Ha

Posted at
It's passed from your father

Am

Posted at
if you google and read scholarly articles, ones written by professionals who do real research, they say identical twins are completely random no matter what. even if there are several sets of identical twins in a family, it's just coincidence. I'm not sure about fraternal because that has to do with the mother producing more than one egg during ovulation, and that may be hereditary, but I haven't read much on that.

Am

Amber • Jul 17, 2015
it does also happen randomly that a woman can produce two eggs during ovulation esp if you're older... but like I said, I haven't read much on fraternal twins, only identical.

Ka

Kait • Jul 17, 2015
Fraternal twins are hereditary, there is a "twin gene" if you want to call it that :)

Mi

Posted at
Fraternal twins are more often conceived if you have fraternal twins that run in your family. This is because two eggs could drop instead of just one to become fertilized, this is hereditary.  However with identical twins, your fertilized egg will split, created two identical people, this will just happen naturally and has nothing to do with family traits :) hope this helps!

Ka

Posted at
There is a genetic link for fraternal twins, and I think it can be passed by mom or dad (or both?). But identical twins are just a fluke. 

Am

Posted at
I think it is from the fathers side