Twins on LE diet

[mandyp85]

Hi ladies. I'm sure I remember reading on here some time ago that the LE diet seems to produce quite a few twin pregnancies, and while I know there is no way of knowing for certain I was wondering what some people might think would contribute to that? I know Clomid is good for twinning but I didn't have that. I know genetics are also a big factor but thinking that the LE diet reduces fertility it seems strange to me to find myself pregnant with twins lol. Or has having twins got nothing really to do with fertility? I never thought about this until I fell pregnant with twins myself

[mandyp85]

Also I believe coming off birth control can have slight twinning effect? I'm just so fascinated by it all.

[atomic sagebrush]

We don't know that it is LE Diet doing it or some other aspect of swaying or (and in my mind, much more likely) we are coming into this as a group more "set" for twins than the overall population.

But yes, we have had a lot of twins among our pink swayers.

Data indicates that when women are older, have had more children, have PCOS, who are breastfeeding while TTC all have more twins. These things are quite common among our pink swayers. I suspect it's these things and not the LE Diet. It makes it look like swaying is doing something, when it isn't.

[atomic sagebrush]

Also I believe coming off birth control can have slight twinning effect? I'm just so fascinated by it all.

Yes, it can. But having had 5 kids is another thing that makes you more likely to ahve twins.

[mandyp85]

Its all very interesting isn't it, I do have some genetics that have added to having twins, as well as coming off the pill and having had 5 children. So would you say in general that women who have twins are more fertile? Or is it nothing really to do with fertility but rather all the other stuff like genetics etc?

[kittendreams]

Congrats on your twins Mandy!
Just some input from my own family and twins- we have quite a few fraternal b/g twins throughout our family tree on my mums side including one of my sisters and I can say none of them ate Le but they all had more than 3 children by the time they had twins, all were over 35 all were high bmi ( two were what would be called obese but really just big boned/ tall people I think) and were bf or fell soon after weaning. At least two that I know of had pcos and two were minipill failures. So there are some anecdotal observations fwiw.
I personally think it's a whole bunch of things that cause twinning but from my own family experience being a low bmi and le was not a factor.

[kittendreams]

And yes all were very fertile- all had children into their forties.

[atomic sagebrush]

Its all very interesting isn't it, I do have some genetics that have added to having twins, as well as coming off the pill and having had 5 children. So would you say in general that women who have twins are more fertile? Or is it nothing really to do with fertility but rather all the other stuff like genetics etc?

There are a lot of ways to think about "fertility". Fertility can mean shooting out a lot of eggs and obviously, a woman who conceives twins has hyperovulated at least once. It can mean the ability of your body to stay pregnant with two babies - a surprising number of twin pregnancies are lost very early on and so just by virtue of carrying twins you're more fertile in that way. But fertility can also mean the ability of sperm to meet egg, and that likely doesn't have anything to do with twinning really (except in the most basic way, a few more sperm making it through to find both eggs). So you can find plenty of couples who really struggle with fertility and end up pregnant with twins because while the woman does hyperovulate sometimes and her body can carry both babies, sperm just doesn't meet egg very well for them.

Long story short - so if anyone is thinking that having twins means they're more fertile and this means they are more likely to have boys, that's not how it works.

[mandyp85]

Thank you for that explanation atomic, as I was wondering that myself, about being more likely to have boys if you are having twins. I have read somewhere though that boy boy twins are the least common (not sure if thats true or not), but presumably that would be down to what you outline on here about mortality rates in baby boys and nature selecting the embryos which are most likely to survive, and as twin pregnancies are high risk that would make sense.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, they are the least common and while the assumption has always been that it's due to mortality rates, having looked over the data they base that claim on, I'm not so sure they really know that to be the case. It is likely just speculation, and additionally since who can even tell about genders of babies lost early in pregnancy, I'm not sure they know anything about the actual numbers.