Many couples try to conceive in hopes of having twins. Their reasons range from ensuring their child has close siblings during childhood to wanting a large family. Although multiple births account for about 3 percent of pregnancies in the United States each year, experts say there are steps women can take to increase their chances of having twins. Diet, ethnicity, genetics and lifestyle all play a role in whether a woman is more likely to give birth to twins. Scroll down to Step 1 if you want to learn how to increase your chances of having twins.
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Part 1 of 3: Understanding Your Current Chance Level
Step 1. Understand that the average person's chance of having twins is about 3%
Not so big. But you may not be the average person. If you have any of the characteristics below, your chances increase. If you have many or all of the characteristics below, your chances are greatly increased. On the other hand, if you are a young, underweight woman of Asian descent with no family history of twins, the chances of having twins are very low.
- Having twins "in the family", especially from the mother's side. If you have had twins, your chances increase at least 4x.
- People of African descent are most likely to have twins, followed by Europeans. Hispanics and Asians are least likely to have twins.
- Tall and well nourished or even overweight.
- Been pregnant before. Women with 4 or more pregnancies increase their chances of having twins drastically. It seems that the body is more likely to conceive twins after knowing that you "get through it." Many families have a dozen or more children, indicating the number of twins is increasing with the number of pregnancies.
Step 2. Know that older women are less likely to get pregnant, but if they do, they are more likely to have twins
The older you are, the more likely you are to have twins. If you are around 40, your chances increase substantially, by about 7%. At 45, if you can get pregnant, the chances are about 17%.
Older women are more likely to undergo an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program, read below. IVF also increases your chances of having twins
Part 2 of 3: Easy Steps to Increase Your Chances
Step 1. Take your vitamins
People who are malnourished are less likely to have twins.
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All vitamins are good, but folic acid supplements have been shown to increase your odds. You can buy these supplements at any pharmacy.
Raise Your Chances of Having Twins Step 3Bullet1 - Folic acid is now also recommended for all pregnant women; the product can prevent birth defects. That said, you don't want to take more than 1000mg per day.
Step 2. Don't be malnourished, and eat certain foods
Generally, people who are underweight are less likely to have twins.
- In general, being well nourished or being overweight can increase your chances of having twins.
- Having good nutrition means gaining weight in a healthy way. Talk to your doctor about plans to gain weight.
Step 3. Eat dairy products and sweet potatoes
These are foods that may be linked to an increased chance of having twins.
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Research conducted by leading fertility experts found that women who consumed dairy products while they were trying to conceive were up to 5 times more likely to have twins than those who avoided these types of foods.
- Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF), which is produced in beef liver, is believed to be the chemical trigger for this phenomenon.
- Another phenomenon states that drinking cow's milk injected with the hormone rBGH can influence women to have twins more often.
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Tribes in Africa whose diets are rich in sweet potatoes (cassava) have a twin birth rate 4 times higher than the global average. The nutrients in vegetables are believed to stimulate the ovaries to produce more than one egg during ovulation.
Many doctors are skeptical that sweet potatoes have an influence on the birth of twins. On the other hand, there is no harm in eating sweet potatoes, and they are delicious
Step 4. Stop the previous birth control pill
Try stopping birth control pills before trying to get pregnant. When women first stop taking birth control pills, their bodies work hard to reset the hormones. In the first month or two after stopping the pill, the ovaries, which increase in intensity, sometimes release two eggs.
It's also unproven, but again it doesn't hurt. Some studies suggest that this is true
Part 3 of 3: Getting Twins with Doctor's Help
Step 1. Let the doctor help you increase your chances of having twins
Some doctors will help anyone with twins, like Doctor Octomom. Other doctors will only help if there is a "medical interest."
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There are several medical reasons for a doctor to help you have twins.
- If you are older, your doctor may recommend having twins to lower the chances of birth defects rather than having two children separately.
- There is another reason why a woman is medically unable to conceive more than once, which is referred to as Secondary Infertility. Age range and fertility are other reasons why people need to have twins.
Step 2. If you go through an in-vitro fertilization program, you can spend quite a bit of money
Implanting multiple eggs is more cost effective as each IVF egg has a chance of implanting, so it is better to try multiple eggs at once.
Step 3. Talk to your doctor about an oral medication called Clomid
This medication is generally used to treat women who are not ovulating, but if taken by women who do not have these problems, Clomid can increase the chances of having twins by more than 33%, depending on the woman.
Clomid works by encouraging the ovaries to release more eggs in one cycle. Clomid can result in triplets or more, so watch out
Step 4. Undergo IVF (Intro Vitro Fertilization)
IVF used to be called "test tube babies".
- The IVF procedure results in a high rate of twins. Generally doctors will try to implant multiple embryos in the hope that one will develop, but if one develops, two are more likely. In general, the odds of having twins with IVF are between 20%-40%.
- IVF can be expensive. There are many clinics that perform IVF procedures, so get a comparison and start looking for information.
- IVF is now quite routine. This procedure is neither cheap nor fast, but it is not uncommon these days.
Tips
- Twins commonly occur naturally in 1 in 89 pregnancies in the United States. Only 0.4 percent of those births were identical twins.
- Multiple pregnancies carry a greater chance of problems, including premature birth, underweight babies and possible birth defects.
Warning
- In-vitro fertilization procedures are expensive, and are not always successful.
- Do not take prescription medications unless given to you by your doctor.
- Talk to your doctor about your plans to try to have twins. Everyone is different, and some of the information above may not apply to your particular case.
- In particular, talk to your doctor about weight gain or loss and diet issues.
