More Parents Want Twins Through IVF

A study presented at the 22nd annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague, has found that many parents are comfortable with the thought of having twins via in vitro fertilization.

However the Iowa researchers found that they were often not aware of the risks of the process. "Along with many infertility specialists, we have been alarmed by the large numbers of twin pregnancies resulting from infertility treatment, and especially IVF," said lead researcher Dr. Ginny Ryan, of the University of Iowa. "But we also noted that patients seemed much less concerned by twin pregnancies than we are and, indeed, many desire this outcome."

In an earlier study, the researchers had found that the desire to have twins was associated with younger age of the parents, longer duration of fertility and lack of knowledge regarding the risk of having twins. In this study, 110 couples answered two questionnaires. The first one was their wish and the second one was answered after they were told of the risk of bearing twins.

In the second questionnaire, the number of couples who wanted twins decreased to 14 percent from 29 percent in the first one.