Do you want to get pregnant with twins? There are plenty of women who would love to have two babies at once and thanks to modern medicine, having twins is no longer just a matter of chance. None of these methods offer any guarantees and they carry some significant risks. Beside that, twin pregnancies have the potential for a range of complications including, as you will know if you are a regular reader of this site, premature birth. Parenting twins also comes with a specific set of challenges.

If none of that deters you, and you are curious about how to get pregnant with twins, here’s a list of things that increases your chances.

1. If you are an older mom, you are more likely to have twins. The chance of having twins goes up with your age because older women release multiple eggs while they are ovulating much more frequently than their younger counterparts.

2. Did you know that people who are twins themselves or at least have a history of twins in their family give birth to twins themselves more often as well? Unless this is true for you, that does not help you much, however.

3. Women who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more have higher odds of conceiving twins, as do those who are taller than average.

4. You must have heard of those famous “Clomid twins”. Clomid is a fertility medication that has helped many thousands of women who were not ovulating naturally have children. Clomid sometimes prompts a woman’s ovaries to deliver a larger number of eggs, making twins or higher multiples a possibility. Around ten percent of all Clomid patients ends up with twins. Before you are tempted to run to a doctor and ask for Clomid to conceive twins, you should know that this medications comes with a large number of side effects. It is also not very probable that you’ll find a doctor willing to prescribe you this drug just because you happen to want two babies at once.

5. Invitro fertilization (IVF) might just offer the best chance of having twins. When multiple embryos are returned to the uterus following IVF, twins can definitely be expected. Not every embryo implants into the lining of the uterus – and it is exactly because transferring several embryos increases the chances of at least one surviving that this is common practice in IVF. Still, twins are pretty prevalent among IVF patients.

Olivia blogs about everything related to women’s health – from fertility and birth control to pregnancy and babies. Her free ovulation calendar might not increase your chances of twins, but it definitely boosts your odds of getting pregnant at all!