Covid’s latest victim: TWINS. America is shy of thousands of twins because infertility clinics closed early in the pandemic, leading to a 7% drop in such births, government data shows
- Twin births fell from 120,291 to 112,437 between 2019 and 2020
- The largest declines were in November and December 2020 and January 2021
- That’s about nine months after fertility clinics closed because of Covid-19
- Women undergoing fertility treatment are more likely to have twins and triplets
- The number of twin births in the United States has been falling by about 2 percent each year
America is shy of thousands of twins because fertility clinics closed early in the pandemic, leading to a 7 percent drop in twin births between 2019 and 2020, government figures show.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the number of twin births fell from 120,291 to 112,437 during this period. The 7 percent drop was larger than the 2 percent drop per year from 2014 to 2019.
The largest declines occurred in November and December 2020 and January 2021, when twin birth rates fell 10 percent, 14 percent, and 7 percent year-over-year, respectively, according to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Reports.
Infertility treatments that result in the development of multiple eggs increase the likelihood of women conceiving twins, triplets, or more. The closure of fertility clinics early in the pandemic is likely responsible for this drop, researchers say.
“The timing of the monthly declines in late 2020 and early 2021 coincides with a phase of conception when the coronavirus pandemic began and (experts) were recommending that reproductive health professionals temporarily limit infertility treatment,” the report said.
Mother Lisseth Hernandez feeds one of her newborn twins at Tufts Medical Center in Boston in May 2020. The closure of fertility clinics early in the pandemic likely led to a drop in twin births
The number of births with a baby fell just 3 percent from 2019 to 2020, the 10-page report’s authors, Isabelle Horon and Joyce Martin, said.
Overall, twin births did not increase significantly in 2021 from 2020 levels, although rates began to rise towards the end of the year.
The largest decrease in twin births has been seen in women over 40 years of age, the group most likely to seek infertility treatment. The smallest decrease was seen in women under 30, who are the least likely to seek infertility treatment, the authors said.
The study fails to prove that pandemic lockdowns have led to a drop in twin births.
In fact, the authors point out that Hispanic women had a greater decrease in twin birth rates than non-Hispanic white women, even though Hispanic women were less likely to receive infertility treatments.
At the start of the pandemic, the number of babies born prematurely or with a dangerously low weight was lower than usual, the researchers noted.
Because twins are at higher risk for these outcomes, “the decline in twin births may have contributed in part to the reduction in preterm and low birth weight births…between 2019 and 2020,” they said.
The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has proposed that in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics and other fertility clinics across the country be closed starting in March 2020. Some have been closed for up to 12 weeks, disrupting treatment plans.
An embryologist at work at the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reston, Virginia. Infertility treatments that result in the development of multiple eggs increase the likelihood of women conceiving twins, triplets, or more
A mother with Jer newborn twins. The US is scared of thousands of twins because fertility clinics closed early in the pandemic, government data suggest