Beyonce and Amal Clooney's twin pregnancy announcements made for great headlines in the past week. Their status as big-named celebrities has sparked public interest regarding older women having twins and experts say the likelihood of conceiving this is actually higher in women age 35 and above.
It's unclear whether Beyonce, 35, and Clooney, 39, went through in vitro fertilization (IVF) for their twin pregnancies. Experts said, however, twin conceptions happen more often in older women even without fertility treatments.
"This is about the way your ovaries work and how their function changes with age, so you may release more than one egg each month," obstetrician David Davies said, according to Fox News. Nancy Segal, who wrote the book "Twin Mythconceptions," said the same thing, according to Health. "Women usually only release one egg every cycle, but as they get older they're more likely to release two," Segal said.
A 2006 study from Netherland's Vrije University Medical Centre looked into twin pregnancies in older women. Researchers learned that conceiving twins is higher in women above 35 because, aside from the having more than one egg during a menstrual cycle, older women also experience higher levels of changes in the hormones, according to Web MD.
The pregnancy is also more likely fraternal and not identical twins. Beyonce hasn't confirmed the gender of her babies, but Clooney's mom-in-law Nina have told the press the family will welcome the birth a girl and a boy, as previously reported on Parent Herald.
As every pregnancy is delicate, there are even bigger risks or complications to having twins, especially in old age. The twin babies can most likely be born premature, hence prenatal monitoring should be more frequent than normal. Beyonce and Clooney, however, are expected to have the best prenatal care, thus they can carry their twin pregnancies safely under the guidance of competent doctors.
