Vanishing Twin Syndrome

     Finding out you’re pregnant can be one of the longest, craziest emotional rollercoaster’s you can find yourself on. Finding out you’re having twins can make that rollercoaster even scarier or maybe even more exciting. But finding out you had a miscarriage can be absolutely horrible especially when you hear that it just “disappeared“. They call this Vanishing Twin Syndrome.
     My doctor decided she wanted me to go for an ultrasound around nine weeks (one week after my first appointment) to make sure we had the due date right or close to right. We found out that the due date was pretty much spot on and we also found out that I almost had twins but one seemed to just vanish. When I heard the news I didn’t really have much of a reaction, I wasn’t sure what to think. My doctor told me that there was really no way of knowing what happened to the vanishing twin and said I had nothing to worry about. But the thought of almost having twins and losing one seemed to stick in my mind for a long time.
     I wasn’t necessarily devastated about losing one but I definitely wasn’t happy. It was a weird feeling. I was relieved in a way because its scary enough to be eighteen, fresh out of high school and having a baby let alone having twins! But the thought of actually losing what could have been my little girl or boy was hard to think about. At the time, I just knew that I was happy that I didn’t lose both.
     According to the American Pregnancy Association, Vanishing Twin Syndrome was first recognized in 1945. Because the lack of ultrasounds especially early in the pregnancy there wasn’t many recorded vanishing twins. But because women are getting ultrasounds more early in pregnancy it is becoming more common. A conservative estimate states that it occurs in 21-30% of multifetal pregnancies. The cause however is still hard to pin point. Some causes are abnormalities early in the pregnancy, chromosomal abnormalities, and improper cord implantation. But there is never a way of knowing for sure what happened.
(http://www.americanpregnancy.org/)    
 Having a vanishing twin doesn’t affect the mother or the other fetus if it occurs within the first trimester. Usually the sack is reabsorbed into the body. And most commonly the mother doesn’t experience any miscarriage symptoms because the healthy embryo keeps producing hormones which keeps the placental lining in place. If the loss occurs in the second or third trimester however, the risk is largely increased. It is more likely that you will lose the other one if you have a vanishing twin after 20 weeks.
(http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/health_wellness/complications/article/vanishing-twin-syndrome)
     So when I look at it as a whole, I came out pretty lucky. I may have lost a twin but I still have my other. It happened early enough into the pregnancy that I had no idea it was there till it was gone. And if it wasn’t for my doctor wanting an ultrasound early on, I would have never known. She told me that many people walk around not knowing that they had a vanishing twin, or that they could have been part of a vanishing twin. Its still sad to think that in a way I had a miscarriage, but I was lucky enough to not get emotionally attached to my vanishing twin.
-By Nicole Shaffer