Parent Are Happy Welcome Twins Who Are Actually Half SistersSandra Stodola’s two daughters are twins… but they’re also half-sisters, with two different biological mothers. This unique family happened because Sandra managed to become pregnant using both a ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ ᴇɢɢ and her own. That means her daughters were born on the same day and shared the womb, but are ɢᴇɴᴇᴛɪᴄᴀʟʟʏ half-sisters.Sandra, 34, welcomed her children in February after trying to conceive for nearly four years.
She and her husband Jack, who’s the biological father of both the couple’s daughters, welcomed Eleanor Ann and Evelyn Louise after spending $26,000 (£21,000) on five rounds of IVF. Sandra, a physician’s assistant from Rochester, New York, said: ‘We tried with my ᴇɢɢs for four rounds of IVF but I was told my ᴇɢɢs were very poor quality. We need to used a ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ ᴇɢɢ . We were very lucky to get three full rounds of IVF covered by insurance, but they failed, that was enough , we didn’t want to tried one more time.’
She said: ‘I wanted to stop every time, mentally it was so hard. It was a big loss. I always said I couldn’t go through the ᴘᴀɪɴ of a failed round again, but I knew that never having a baby was worse and soon enough I would want to try again.’Sandra and Jack spent around $20,000 on a fourth round using Sandra’s ᴇɢɢs paired with ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ ᴇɢɢs – but again the couple were left heartbroken.
After four failed rounds, the couple decided to try one last time with a frozen embryo transfer at additional cost of $6,000, using the last of Sandra’s frozen embryos. That last-ditch effort worked – nine days later, the happy ending, Sandra discovered she was finally pregnant… but that wasn’t the only surprise.
‘We found out at six weeks it was twins and knowing we had used one of my ᴇɢɢs and one ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ ᴇɢɢ, we knew then they would be unique,they are fraternal twins and half-sisters. All the doctors and nurses who did IVF for us were all surprised.’ Sandra said
Just from looking at her, she know which daughter is her biology daughter, and which one is half sister.
