A week ago my step sister shared the wonderful news that she will be making me an aunt again in April.
Yesterday she told me that she had been to the OB and she had a "disapearing twin". I had never heard of this, but I can guess what it means. She would like to know if this twin was identical or not. She asked the OB, but he told her not to worry about it she had one healthy fetus. Any information you can give me to pass on would be great. She was so excited to be having twins and I know she is mourning. I would like to be able to tell her something about what has happened.
It is called Vanishing Twin Syndrome (VTS) if you want to be able to read up on it. There is lots of information available about this, as it is very common. Doctors and researchers are now thinking that this occurs in up to 1/8 pregnancies, however it's difficult to know the frequency because not every patient has an early ultrsound and most do not experience any symptoms of losing a baby. In almost all cases, the mother's body reabsorbs the twin and the pregnancy continues as a healthy singleton.
It is not possible to know whether the twins were ID or fraternal. This happens with both types of twinning, and the only way to know or have a good idea would be if the twins were monochorionic (sharing a placenta). If they each had their own sac and placenta, they could have been either ID or fraternal.
I am a mother of fraternal twins, and I host a twin support board online. We unfortunately see many cases of VTS. Something very important for her to remember is that even though she is still pregnant with one baby, she DID lose another. It is perfectly normal and acceptable to grieve for the baby who died. It doesn't make the other twin less special or important, but it is important to acknowledge that her other baby was a BABY, that she loved him/her, and wanted him/her.
Also, I assume that the posters who talked about chimerism knew this, but it is very different from VTS, and quite unusual. There have been relatively few cases of chimerism.
I hope that helps! My condolences to her.
from what little i know of chimeras, the thought is, that they may be more common than once thought....
Yes, this is true. I should clarify that my stance of chimerism being unusual would be in comparison to VTS, which researchers think happens very frequently (as I mentioned in my previous post, thinking that up to 1/8 pregnancies start as twins but obviously far fewer of those resulting in the live birth of twins).
i have heard of this happening too. there is a condition which another poster touched on and it is called Fetus Paprius exceuse the spelling. where the unabsorbed fetus becomes mummified and is incorperated into the placenta or is just free floating. the surviving twin should be ok as it has not been effected by anything as yet. Good luck and many blessings to the mum to be.....
morte, LPN, LVN
7,015 Posts
from what little i know of chimeras, the thought is, that they may be more common than once thought....