Help Writing a Pregnancy

Okay like the title says, I'm writing a pregnancy into my story and need some help to make sure I get things right. I am doing my own research as well and I'll mostly be using this thread to post questions if I'm not clear on something. So, first two questions:

1. A what point during a pregnancy would a doctor identify twins?

2. A what point would the doctor be able to conclusively state the babies' gneder?

Don't know about #1, but I do know that for 2, a doctor might never find out. Identifying a baby's gender in utero can be kind of dicey, and can be dependent on their positioning, the tech involved, all kinds of things. It's not really a sure field... or at least, not as far as I know.

Okay, thanks for the help.

I think one of the first ways to tell if you have twins is to listen to the baby's heartbeat (as early as 6 weeks by ultrasound). Two heartbeats, two babies.

It's a lot more surefire to tell if they're boys than if they're girls, for obvious reasons

It's not uncommon for babies to be curled up so tightly that it's impossible to tell their gender with ultrasound. Before I was born, everyone assumed I was going to be a boy because I was unusually large for my age. But there was no accurate way of knowing, and so I wasn't 'revealed' to be female until I was born.

Alright, thank you both.

Using Amniocentesis you can get it tested at 14-16 weeks, but it carries a few risks (including misscariage). Chorionic Villus sampling happens at 10-12 but it carries more risks.

They're used for testing for genetic disorders though, and normally you would not get one. Still they are one hundred percent accurate for this sort of thing.

Restarting this thread with a question: Can men still get a woman pregnant at ages 45 and 53?

Are we talking about the man or the woman's age?

If it's the woman's age, then 45-53 is when menopause may have occurred. If it has then she won't get pregnant.

I'm not too sure about it if it's the guy who's 45-53, but he has a lower chance of getting the woman pregnant if he's around that age as compared to say, 30 and below.

The guy.

The probability is lower but neither the man nor the woman can be ruled out just because of their age. Men continue to produce viable sperm until death, just less of it as they get older; women are fertile until they are completely through menopause and that can occur at any almost age she may be post-menopausal at forty-five or not until she's sixty. Also menopause is a process that can take years to complete — and before the advent of chemical contraceptives, pregnancy during menopause wasn't that uncommon: google "change-of-life baby"

Thanks

It should also be noted that while gender may be difficult to determine, a boy will usually be mistaken for a girl. It's rather difficult for a doctor to mistakenly see a penis, so once that is spotted, it's definitely going to be a boy.