A Woman Gave Birth To Twins From Different Dads & Docs Are Stunned By The Super Rare Case
It can actually happen!
Twin babies.
A young woman in Brazil has reportedly given birth to twins who were fathered by two different men, in a super-rare case that has only happened a handful of times in recorded history.
The extremely rare case happened in the town of Mineiros in southwest Goiás, according to the country's G1 Globo news outlet.
The 19-year-old mother told the paper that she had sex with two men on the same day, and that she ended up getting pregnant by both of them.
"I didn't know this could happen," she told G1 Globo. The woman also asked not to be identified.
According to the report, the woman thought one of the men was the father so she had him and both of her boys take a DNA test.
The results came back and showed that the guy fathered one of her boys, but not the other.
"I remembered that I had had sex with another man and called him to take the test, which was positive," she said.
Both children were born healthy and are now about 16 months old.
This kind of occurrence is super rare, but there is a scientific word for it: heteropaternal superfecundation. Essentially, it can happen when a female body releases two eggs instead of one during a menstrual cycle, and the eggs get fertilized by sperm cells from two different people.
In this case, the woman had sex with two men on the same day, and each of her eggs was fertilized by a different sperm cell. This could have happened even if the intercourse was spaced by a few days, as sperm can live as long as five days in the vagina.
This case of heteropaternal superfecundation would be just the 20th recorded case of this ever happening worldwide, which means more people with uteruses have won the lottery than have had this happen in their lives.
The medical doctor involved in the pregnancy, Tulio Franco, recently reported the case to the medical community.
"It's extremely rare. It happens one in a million," he told G1 Globo. "I never imagined that I would see a case like this in my life."
The mom added that both boys have the same father listed on their birth certificate, and that he "takes care of both of them."'
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.