Published on 12, July, 2020
Have you heard of it?
Up until recently, I had never heard of superfecundation, and therefore had no knowledge about it.
It is rare, and something I now consider rather fascinating.
Put simply, superfecundation is when a woman is pregnant with twins, but not by the same biological father. Yes, you read that right.
To explain, if a woman has sexual intercourse with more than one man, it is possible for two eggs (ova) from the same cycle to be fertilised by the sperm from two men.
The twins are referred to as fraternal twins. Pre-natal DNA testing during pregnancy or paternity testing (after twins are born) is how fraternal twins are identified.
Currently, there is a UK drama series with an ongoing superfecundation storyline, which is how I first heard of it. More recently though, I found myself watching a Brazilian drama series on Netflix, which went into it in a bit more detail.
To be pregnant and in doubt about who the biological father is, is bad enough. I can only imagine what an absolute nightmare it would be to be pregnant with fraternal twins, especially if the biological fathers had both been informed. In addition, I wouldn't envy anyone trying to explain superfecundation to fraternal twins. In my opinion, it would be hard to wrap one's head around.
This is common enough when the woman is freely engaging in sex with and when who ever she likes.
Ovulation lasts a few days a month so it's not hard to imagine a couple of willing ovum hanging around in the uterus, in the market for some sperm, introspective of the contributor. All the little seprm have to do is show up and get in the door, et voila = Zygote!
It gets even weirder, apparently the cervix has holding cells for sperm so it can delay them getting into the womb and can hang on to them for a few days, it's possible its testing them for viability, it's still being researched.
48 hours.