Our twins are . . . . . . . IDENTICAL!
Shocked? Well, maybe not, but I was a little surprised. I’m still waiting for the official test results, but they are late so I called the company doing the zygosity testing to see what was going on. The gal I spoke with said that the report was simply waiting for an official sign off and approval to send it to me and I should have it later today. After she told me this she asked “Are you just wanting to know the results – whether they are identical or fraternal?” to which I answered “Yes!”
She said that she was looking at the results on the screen and out of the 16 markers that they test every single one of them lined up. If they match up perfectly there is no question but that they are identical! So she was able to give me the results before they were sent to me since they were so obvious.
Most of our friends and family have always thought that they are identical, but they look so different to me that I really thought that they were fraternal. Zygosity is something that most people are very confused about (even if they don’t think they are), even doctors! I had a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in the NICU review my placental pathology report which says that the babies were di-amniotic, di-chorionic and had separate placentas. Based on this information she had no doubt in her mind (and told me so ) that they were fraternal – she thought there was no other possibility.
As I read up on it more though I found out that the earlier an egg splits the more separate twins are in utero. So – my boys must have split early enough to mimic di-zygotic twins as well! I always found it interesting on the Twins Magazine message board (where I got a lot of support during pregnancy) that EVERYONE seemed to know if their twins were fraternal or identical except for me! Without any testing either. Obviously Boy/Girl twins are fraternal, but beyond that – without an amniocentesis or zygosity testing I don’t see how people are so very sure of themselves.
FYI: I have used a lot of twinny terms in this post and you’ll notice that many of the words are linked and will lead you to a site that defines the term I have used. If you are interested in reading up on more twinformation online visit About.com – Glossary of twin terms, Twin Pregnancy and Twin Parenting.