| Monozygotic Twins | Dizygotic Twins |
| Form when a single fertilized egg splits into two. | Form when two eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm. |
| Also called identical. | Also called fraternal. |
| Only one-third of all twins are identical. | Two-thirds of twins are fraternal. |
| Don't "run in families" except by coincidence. No hereditary influence for identical twinning has been identified. | Can be hereditary on the mother's side. The tendency to hyperovulate (release more than one egg in a cycle) is a genetic trait that can be passed from mother to daughter. |
| May have one shared placenta, two separate placentas, or two placentas fused into one. See examples. | May have two separate placentas or two placentas fused into one. See examples. |
| Share 100% of their genetic markers. | Share about 50% of their genetic markers, same as singleton siblings. |
| Are always same sex. | May be same sex or male/female. |
| Have the same blood type. | May have the same blood type or different. |
| Not caused by fertility treatments, birth control pills or maternal age. No one knows what causes identical twinning. | Can be attributed to fertility treatments, advanced maternal age, birth control pills or other factors that influence twinning. |
| May be contained in one sac in utero. | Develop separate sacs in utero. |
| Can result in conjoined twins or mirror image twins. | Not conjoined. |
| May be at risk for Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) | Rarely at risk for TTTS. |
Here is a chart to share some knowledge about the differences between identical and fraternal twins. It's really pretty cool that Jason is an identical twin and his father is a fraternal twin, but neither of those things has any bearing on us having twins.
Our twins are in two placentas, so statistically they have a greater chance of being fraternal, but they could be identical. If they are fraternal it means I released two eggs, (which has nothing to do with Jason or his genes) and if they are identical then that means the ovum split into two by a miracle. If that happened very early then there is a very small percentage chance that we have identical twins. Obviously, if we found out we were having a boy and a girl that would clear up that question.
So, just to kind of clear up any questions that you might have about twins take a look at the chart.