19-year-old woman gives birth to twins with different biological fathers

In one of a million cases, a 19 years old Brazilian woman gave birth to twins who have different biological fathers. It is an extremely rare case that also stunned doctors across the world. Besides being quite rare, this conception story is real and astonishingly strange.

The new mom belongs to Minerios in Goias delivered twins after having sex with two different men on the same day. She took a paternity test to confirm the father of the babies. But, it leads to quite rare events in that both babies have different biological fathers. She performed a DNA test to confirm the father of the twins. But as reports disclosed, one of the kids showed positive results in the DNA tests.

After compiling the memories, she said, “I remembered that I also had sex with another person too. I just called him to take the DNA test. The test result was positive, indicating this rare occurrence of twins.” Though, it is an extremely rare case happening in millions. But, it is possible. This phenomenon is known as heteropaternal superfecundation. In this phenomenon, a second ova produced during the menstrual cycle gets fertilized by the sperm of another person and transferred through different sexual contact. After egg fertilization, the twin babies share the genetics of the mother.

The woman’s general physician Dr. Tulio Franco reported this case, considering it normal. The babies are now almost 16 months old, and completely healthy. The mother also reports that one of the two men is legally registered at the registry office for taking care of both babies.

What is heteropaternal superfecundation?

Superfecundation is a normal procedure in which fertilization of two or more ovum from the same menstrual cycle occurs by the sperm transferred through separate sexual intercourse. This phenomenon leads to twin babies having different biological fathers. Heteropaternal superfecundation refers to the atypical twinning of the babies, sharing the mother’s genetics but with different fathers.

What is the common concept behind heteropaternal superfecundation?

Sperms have the capacity to reside inside the female’s body for about five days. After ovulation, the eggs remain for about 12 to 48 hours before disintegration. This superfecundation process usually occurs within hours or maybe days. Once the woman conceives and the pregnancy period starts, women stop ovulating. It means that no ova will be produced once fertilization has occurred. It increases the incidence of complete pregnancy.

In another case, it can also happen. A woman can release two eggs in a few days. So these eggs can fertilize with different sperm material, leading to heteropaternal superfecundation.

Heteropaternal superfecundation is most common among dogs and cats. In contrast, it is quite rare among human beings. One study performed on human beings suggested a frequency of about 2.4%.

Incidence of heteropaternal superfecundation

This phenomenon was first introduced by Archer in 1810. According to the media reports, there are only 20 such cases reported yet.

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