People used to believe that having twins was an extremely rare, random event. With some families the birth of twins is a predictable genetic pattern, while in others it’s a fortunate surprise. Either way, only a handful of people are born with such a close companion, and BBC news reports that only 1 in every 42 children are born with a twin. However at Millennium there is an oddly large number of twins throughout the school, and the incoming freshman fall especially out of pattern in terms of twins. According to data that our students have collected, we come to the conclusion that there are four sets of twins in the freshman class alone. For comparison, the sophomore class has fewer sets of twins, but it is the only grade that has triplets. Once we noticed this occurrence we decided to write about twins and the science behind them. Later in the article we get into the reality of being one.

So What’s Up with all the Twins?—– The IVF Mystery

Twins, they are the biological mystery of the world. They are unusual and commonly portrayed in the media as a biological mystery. In Millennium, we have seen an increase of twins in the school. In NYC, twins are not a rare occurrence. A twin is created from either when a single fertilized egg is split into two or when two separate eggs are fertilized by two different sperms. So, when IVF was first being studied in the 1960’s scientists realized that by implanting an egg in the uterus within a lab, they could fertilize the egg through assisted contraception. This was a remarkable discovery! With that discovery came the first IVF baby born in 1978. With further improvements and gained knowledge on this procedure, scientists soon realized they could implant multiple eggs at a time in the uterus to increase the chances of pregnancy success rates. This became so common that it became a trend of twin birth rates steadily increasing over the years. In 1980, the percentage of children that were twins born in America was 1.82 and in 2019, the percentage went up to 3.21. The use of IVF is seen as a direct correlation to the exponentially increasing twin birth rate in America. We believe it is because of the average older age of people having children, they are more inclined to use methods like IVF. This gives a greater chance of having twins which many people know when they use this artificial method. But there are still many unanswered questions we have. Why are there so many twins at Millennium? How many are there? How do they feel about being a twin?