A curious surprise in Mineiros, Brazil: According to a media report, a woman gave birth to twins there last year – and the children come from two different fathers, as it later turned out.

According to TV broadcaster Globo, the 19-year-old mother had her two girls tested for paternity eight months after giving birth - and the test matched one man each! According to the information, the young woman had sex with the two men on the same day.

The process seems strange, but it can be explained medically and has already been discussed in specialist journals. "Such a pregnancy occurs when two eggs from the same woman are fertilized by different men. In this case, the genetic makeup of the parents is different and the mother's eggs are also different. The babies develop together in the same pregnancy, but each with their own placenta." , a doctor explained to the Brazilian broadcaster. The fertilization of the egg cells must take place within a few hours. Only around 20 cases of such overfertilization are known worldwide (however, the number of unreported cases is likely to be higher) - and they regularly make headlines.

In 2015, the media reported that a maintenance dispute in the USA also revealed that a woman had twins from two different men, and a year later such a case occurred in Vietnam. There it was initially wrongly assumed that one of the children could have been transposed in the hospital.

"I was surprised by the results. I didn't know that something like this could happen. They are very similar," commented the young woman from Brazil on the surprising result of the paternity tests. According to Globo, one of the men is now taking care of both boys.

Sources: Globo, "Welt", RTL, "Süddeutsche Zeitung"