Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 December 13

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December 13

twins and paternity tests

Not seeking advice, this is about internet drama that I have nothing to do with. Basically someone has claimed that it was formerly impossible or extraordinarily difficult to do a paternity test on a pregnant woman carrying twins, as opposed to a with more typical one-fetus pregnancy of the type Jerry Springer used to test all the time. Also, supposedly, recent medical advances have made testing doable even with twins, which tripped up one of the participants of the drama. Our article DNA paternity testing doesn't mention anything about difficulty related to twins.

Is there something to it? What is the story? Should the article be expanded? Thanks. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:9A17 (talk) 02:15, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

What? You said in the content you removed that you "don't want to say who it is", so that's a sign enough that it has nothing to do with anything we should be editing a wiki article about. Remsense留 03:30, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Why would there be a problem doing a paternity test on twins? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:50, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Remsense, the idea is to put something in the DNA testing article about difficulty testing twins, assuming that difficulty is true and has good scientific sourcing. Nothing about the specific situation where I saw the topic come up. Bugs, your question is the same as mine. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:9A17 (talk) 04:37, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

In the case of heteropaternal superfecundation, seems like there would be a 50% chance of false-negative. DMacks (talk) 04:43, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

That would seem to apply to invasive prenatal paternity testing. With non-invasive testing, both fathers would likely test positive.  --Lambiam 07:53, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

According to the American Pregnancy Association [1], non-invasive paternity test cannot be peformed on twins. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 10:04, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Good point. So either way, there's a problem. Albeit for a fairly rare type of pregnancy. DMacks (talk) 10:25, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

• Qu N.; Xie Y.; Li H.; Liang H.; Lin S.; Huang E.; Gao J.; Chen F.; Shi Y.; Ou X (2018). "Noninvasive prenatal paternity testing using targeted massively parallel sequencing". Transfusion. ...the feasibility of NIPPT in twin pregnancies remains uncertain, mainly due to the more complex DNA profile of maternal plasma in these cases from three individuals (i.e., the mother and two fetuses), especially for DZ twins
• Khalil A; Archer R; Hutchinson V; Mousa HA; Johnstone ED; Cameron MJ; Cohen KE; Ioannou C; Kelly B; Reed K; Hulme R; Papageorghiou AT (July 2021). "Noninvasive prenatal screening in twin pregnancies with cell-free DNA using the IONA test: a prospective multicenter study". Am J Obstet Gynecol.
• Bai Z; Zhao H; Lin S; Huang L; He Z; Wang H; Ou X (December 27, 2020). "Evaluation of a Microhaplotype-Based Noninvasive Prenatal Test in Twin Gestations: Determination of Paternity, Zygosity, and Fetal Fraction". Genes.

Reference Desk? fiveby(zero) 15:56, 13 December 2023 (UTC)