80% of singleton never know they had a twin - Vanishing Twin Syndrome

Vanishing Twin Syndrome occurs when one of set of twin fetuses apparently disappears from the womb during pregnancy, usually resulting in a NORMAL singleton pregnancy.
One of the fetuses in a twin pregnancy spontaneously aborts, usually during the first trimester; the fetal tissue is absorbed by the other twin, the placenta, or the mother, thus giving the appearance that the twin "vanished ".

How often does it happen?

Scientists have confirmed that the number of twin conceptions greatly outnumbers the number of actual twin births. Some estimates offer that 1 in 8 people started life as a twin, while in reality only 1 in 70 actually are a twin.
Elizabeth Noble claims that 80% of twin pregnancies result in the loss of one or both babies. Other studies predict that Vanishing Twin Syndrome occurs in 21 - 30% of all multiple pregnancies in the United States. It is estimated that Vanishing Twin Syndrome will play a role in 50% of assisted ovulation pregnancies.

There is a great deal of speculation about the psychological and emotional impact of Vanishing Twin Syndrome. Some survivors report feelings of longing, guilt, grief or problems with relationships or sexuality.


This syndrome may be the source of many otherwise inexplicable depressions, homosexuality, weird sensations, feelings of being abandoned, feeling something missing in life...

What do you think?

I had a twin that vanished. My Grandmother was a twin. No other twins have been born in our family that I'm aware of. As a child, I felt like there was supposed to be a twin or sibling with me. It wore off and I never think about it anymore. Twins kind of creep me out, actually.

reply to post by RainbeauBleu


I thoroughly researched survivor twins symptoms in 2006...
Survivor twins have a tendence to befriend twins couples, or to be fascinated by twins in general.

my oldest daughter is a twin, the other twin spontaneously aborted at 12 weeks. she does have problems with depression and her social relationships are rather rocky but other than that she is rather normal and semi well afjusted.
there are many twins in my family, i have sisters that are identical twins and there are both fraternal and identical twins in both of my parents immediate family. i think i can count 5 sets of twins in 3 generations. however i come from a very large family so that may skew the probabilities.

That's crazy to think about. Even crazier that personality could be effected by it so early in conception. I myself, don't really have the rosiest of dispositions.

reply to post by satron


Even the people who claim to be " in contact " with God and such spiritual people may just be survivor twins.
Maybe this is the source of religion or many of the behavioral problems of people in this crazy society.

I know some people exist who have 2 or more lost twins. Just imagine that.

Originally posted by Zagari
There is a great deal of speculation about the psychological and emotional impact of Vanishing Twin Syndrome. Some survivors report feelings of longing, guilt, grief or problems with relationships or sexuality.


This syndrome may be the source of many otherwise inexplicable depressions, homosexuality, weird sensations, feelings of being abandoned, feeling something missing in life...

What do you think?

Was the survivor told of the lost twin or did they just "know" it?

So basically, it's saying that something that happens before a foetus has the ability of memory can influence its life long after it is born?

Interesting thing to think about. I wonder what the mechanism behind this would be?

reply to post by Griffo


I read stories of hypnotism and therapies to return to the past where survivor twins discover they have memories ( sensations only, not visual ) of their position in the womb and early period of womb-in life.

reply to post by Pauligirl


1 of 8 in the world's population never know in their lifetime that they had a twin, unless they are aware of the existance of this syndrome.
They do feel something missing, and their infancy behavior is to watch in case they show symptoms of melancholy and abandonment without reason.

I don't know if I am a survivor twin, it only happened once that my family had twins, my grandma had twins brothers that died very young.

I always had a particular fascination with twins and being twins, and I always wanted another brother and/or sister and I do feel something missing somehow but I cannot even explain it.

This is a questionnaire to find out if you may be one of the survivors:

www.altheahayton.com...


There is a question about signs on my body:

I have two dermoid cystic on both my hands.
They ask if you have organs of the other sex, if you are left handed or you can write with both hands, like me, or you are dislexic ( not me ) you are almost surely a twin.

reply to post by Zagari


I used to be interested, but after meeting some really super freaky twins, I'm not so sure. They did an act. I don't recall their names right now. They were so bizarre that I can't forget them....developed a phobia..after age 38 for me. My grandmother was born with her twin inside her. She almost died. She had it removed at puberty and went on to bear 3 children.

reply to post by RainbeauBleu


On my hands there are two protuberances, small ones, they don't even hurt me...In that questionnaire they say those kind of cystic stuff on the skin may be remains of missing twin...

One other strong thing I feel is with almost every friendship, I am afraid they are going to die sometimes and I wouldn't be useful to help.

I never knew personally any twin couple , though I befriended on the internet a group of quintuplets.

I think I will never know the truth. I had hard times when I discovered this fact. 1 of 8 people is a lot. At least 4 from my high school class may be survivors, if this is true.

My mother never spoke to me about problems in her pregnancy.

On wikipedia is written that they examined 300 pregnancies, 21 twins, one triplet and one quadruplet. Only THREE pairs of twins survived to term, the triplet one became a twin pregnancy and the quadruplet one EVEN became a singleton pregnancy before second semester!!!

Originally posted by RainbeauBleu
Twins kind of creep me out, actually.

Yes...we twins can be VERY VERY creepy. *evil laugh*

Care to elaborate on that? I'm curious.

I feel very uneasy discussing this subject, since I will never know the truth. My mother may not even imagine she carried twins. Before I discovered this thing, I never thought about it as a possible theory.
Most of survivor twins ended up crazy...

I don't think I will reply anymore in this thread...Sorry guys. It is difficult to me to even think that I MAY be a survivor twin. It is just weird for me.

My daughter was a twin as well. I had a very hard time coming to grips with this experience. I found out early on due to having a radiologist in the family who would do frequent Ultrasounds on me. When I was told that one had stopped progressing, it was a total mind trip for me to realize I had one living and one non living child in me, then to be told that the other baby would be absorbed possibly leading to chimerism.

I saw a special on vanishing twins. Some researches think that left handed people may be the surviving twin, that the other, now non-existent twin, was the right handed twin.

On a similar subject, I worked with a girl that was born fetus in fetu. That is something very interesting.

reply to post by Zagari


My daughter doesn't feel any of that. She knows she was a surviving twin and realizes she was the stronger of the too. It's all about perception. As a mother I took it super hard but My daughter thinks it's kind of cool, go figure.

If most surviver twins go crazy than that would mean 1 in 8 people would be crazy, I don't think so, and my daughter, as stubborn and frustrating as she may be some times, is definitely not crazy.

reply to post by Zagari


Do you have a link to your post? Source please.

reply to post by kimish


Interesting that you say that, because my daughter is left handed. One of my boys is also left handed but I know he was not a twin due having super early ultrasounds with him as well.