friend with new twins

[mimififi]

Hi there, i was wandering if any onecould help me understand my friend's twins?

She has had IVF treatment and has gone on to have twin girls (born a few weeks ago). The babies look nothing like one another and I am not sure as to whether they shared a placenta or not, however, her mother has told me that they are non-identical, identical twins; i.e that they have identical DNA but just look nothing like each other.

I've not ever heard of this kind of twinning before, I was under the impression that multiple births resulting from IVF would most likely only be non-identical, and that children with the same DNA would look at least very similar to each other.

Has anyone else heard of this or had any experience of this, i'm just ver curious, as i fin it very interesting!

many thanks
mimififi
XXX

[mjd]

How does your friend's mother knoe that the DNA of the two girls is identical? It's not normal, surely, to perform a DNA check on newly born children.

[mjd]

Sorry, knoe should have been know

[Pirate1]

I'm afraid your friend is mistaken. People who share the same DNA are always identical and clearly non identical twins do NOT have the same DNA. Generally twins born from IVF result from the fact that two or more emryos are implanted to ensure that at least one takes. If these non identical twins do in fact have the same DNA some scientific institute must be alerted as it must be a first!!!!!!

[mimififi]

Well, i have to say, this has always been my understanding also, I was just very curious to find out if it is possible for medically identical twin to not actually be visually identical! My friend has told me that they are identical even though they don't look alike.

I don't know how she would know their DNA is identical, I wasn't aware that dna testing was standard NHS procedure either. I always thought that they just sent the placentas off for analysis, but I find their informaion very strange.

You have helped me think that maybe they have got the wrong end of the stick.

thanks for your help and replies.

mimi
X

[wildwood]

Identical twins do not necesarrily have to share the same placenta. If zygote splitting has ocurred soon after concieving each may have their own placenta.

Non-identical (fraternal) twins sometimes appear to share the one placenta but it is merely a case of where both developing cell clusters have inplanted too close to each other in the womb and the placentas have grown into/across each other.

Identical twins only means that one fertilised ova has split
in two (or more) feasable cell clusters. If this happens soon after fertilisation there can be a visible difference between the children. prenatal sickness and/or disease can further favour one embryo more than the other and further advance visual differences. But the DNA will always be identical, and I've never heard of identical twins that look so dissimilar that it can not be seen that they are twins.

[WoWo]

Knowing nothing about your friends case.... could it be that these are from donor eggs or donor sperm and that she thinks that because both came from the same donor they therefore have the "same" DNA?

So the same in the sense of having the same biological parents but not exactly the same DNA.

[mimififi]

Hi there, all, thank you for your responses, I am still not sure what is going on, I don't feel able to bring it up without it seeming like i'm questioning her!!!

I think she had IVF because she is a carrier for huntington's disease and so they were fertilised by themselves just screened for huntingtons. But I'm still not sure how she knows they have the same DNA unless it was a test done prior to implantation or after birth? Also, I am still most puzzled by the fact that they say they are identical twins when they look nothing like each other. I just have never heard of non-identical identical twins. I know that some identical twins are impossible to tell apart, and others more easy to, but you can still say they are extremely alike. Her twins aren't at all.

weird and getting weirder.

Also as my husband says to me: "Who cares?" I guess he's right, I've just got very curious and it would be fair to say, I know have a bee in my bonnet I suppose!!!!!!!!!

LOL.