April 01, 2011

Family history of twins or fertility treatment?

As I explained in Twin Reaction Quotes people have been overwhelmingly positive when we tell them that we are having twins. Now that we know the twins are girls I get a few more "good lucks" and "serves you rights," but nothing that is insensitive. That said there is one question that What to Expect When You're Expecting indicated we would probably get a lot of:
Do twins run in your family or did you use a fertility drug?
In the beginning we were asked this question a few times, but as our happy news has spread the question has become more frequent. The question itself isn't annoying, but it is being asked too often.

To answer the question, Jamie and I did not undergo fertility treatments and twins do not run in our family. However, had we undergone fertility treatments I can see where this question could become uncomfortable to answer. The twins could be identical, which is not affected by a genetic predisposition or fraternal which typically does run in families.

To head the question off I've worked telling people that we did not use fertility treatments into my pregnancy announcement. Something to the effect of
Jamie is pregnant, with twins. Twins don't run in our family and we didn't use any fertility drugs, so it's a real surprise.
We understand all too well that people are curious about multiples. Since twins make up only 1.9% of the world's population people are bound to have questions. When someone announces to you that they are having multiples ask as many questions as you like, but I would recommend thinking twice before asking about their conception.

2 comments:

  1. I still get this question and my twins are 8 now. Annoying but understandable. What irritated me the most when they were little, still-in-car-seats-at-the-store-little, was the people who would ask if they were twins. Our the ones who didn't part attention to the color of their clothing and asked what their genders were. Two boys? Two girls? Nope, one of each. Are they identical? *sigh* People are so dumb sometimes and clearly didn't pay attention in high school biology.

    ReplyDelete