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

“Truth is stranger than fiction”. This age old adage has been proven true recently in Brazil. A young woman who gave birth to twins about a year ago has discovered that both her children have different biological fathers!

The 19-year old woman from Mineiros, in Goias, Brazil took a paternity test to confirm the babies’ father when they were about eight months old.

However, when the results of the DNA test came in, only one baby’s DNA matched with the person she had thought was the father. Though initially surprised with the result, she recollected that she had had sexual intercourse with another person on the same day as the first man around the same time the twins were conceived.

After remembering this piece of information, she asked the other person for a DNA sample as well.

His DNA matched with that of the other baby. That’s when she realised that her twins have different biological fathers!

This is a very rare phenomenon known as ‘heteroparental superfecundation’. It is a very rare occurrence with only 20 known cases in the entire world.

According to the woman’s doctor, Tulio Jorge Franco, said that this condition was possible when two eggs released by the same mother are fertilised by two different men. The babies share the mother’s genetic material, but grow in different placentas. He also added that he had never imagined that he would see such a rare medical phenomenon in his lifetime.

The mother said that the twins were very similar. She also added that at present, only one of the fathers was responsible for taking care of the 16-month old twins.