Desperate to get pregnant – “twin” for a starter

I am an ardent follower of your column, I recently got married and very I’m desperate for a pregnancy soonest. I have some questions to ask on prospecting for pregnancy among others. 1. What do I do to have twins as my first pregnancy? 2. Do I need to use any drug etc? 3. Do you have any advice to give to me on the issue for sex of a baby?

I will appreciate it if you reply soonest. Thanks Funmi, Funmi, My usual approach to questions like yours is that there is undue apprehension here. I got this feeling from your mail that you are probably making a mole out of a mountain with respect to your present desperation about wanting to get pregnant (and wanting a twin for a first (!)); at the same time posing the question on how to determine the sex of your baby in advance at the time of conception.

For one, most doctors will trend on the side of view that all is well with you, fertility-wise, except you are yet to conceive after 12 months of regular, unprotected and frequent sexual intercourse. When this is the case, your doctor might refer you for fertility workup, which will involve some basic blood tests, sperm analysis for our husband, ultrasound scan and a special X-ray of your womb and the connecting tubes for the egg and sperm.

It is the results from these investigations that will determine the type of intervention that will be required; whether it is medication to use or any other special interventions will depend on outcome of the aforementioned investigations.

This takes me to your desire to have twins as your first pregnancy. The truth of the matter is that having twin pregnancy is ordinarily a chance thing, depending largely on if you produced two eggs who were separately fertilized in the same reproductive cycle (leading to non-identical twins) or if a fertilized egg divides into two separate embryo immediately after fertilization (as in identical twins).

I know as fact that taking some medications, commonly prescribed for subfertility patients, assist with multiple matured eggs formation at ovulation which thus increases the chance for multiple pregnancy; this “side effect” is however far from the main medical intention for the development of these medications. After all it is a known fact that multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets etc) carried much more medical risk than the commoner single pregnancy.

From the aforementioned, my candid advice for a prospective first term pregnancy seeker like you is to take things as they come; whether twins or single, female or male. After the first, we can then take the discussion further on sex determination on the moral ground of family sex-balancing.

Best wishes.