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Vanishing Twin Syndrome
A Mysterious Occurrence in Multiple Pregnancies
By Teri Brown
"It seems to be common in our population of women undergoing fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization," says Dr. Fink. "This population goes through intensive hormone testing and frequent early ultrasounds, so it may be that vanishing twins are simply diagnosed with greater frequency in this group of women. More early ultrasounds equal more diagnoses. Women who conceive naturally usually don't have very early sonograms where the process is seen evolving. So it probably does happen more commonly than we know."
Women should understand that even if they are diagnosed early with twins at 6 to 8 weeks gestation, there is an increased risk of losing at least one fetus. That risk is as follows:
Prior to 12 weeks the risk of loss of at least one fetus is:
In a twin gestation – 36 percent
In a triplet gestation – 53 percent
In a quadruplet pregnancy – 65 percent
"As I mentioned, identifying the vanishing twin syndrome is common in women having IVF and other fertility treatments," says Dr. Fink. "This may be because they are all scanned by ultrasound very early. Another common time we 'pick it up' is in women who have bleeding. When women in the first trimester have bleeding, we usually perform an ultrasound. If things look normal and we see a fetal heartbeat, we feel very reassured. Sometimes we can't find a reason why she had the bleeding. Maybe it was from a vanishing twin? It is a mystery we'll never know."
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