PREGANT BY TWO MEN

[RED]

can a woman get pregant by two different men at the same time?

[Ian King]

No!

[New Forester]

I presume you don't mean exactly at the same moment... Might be a bit tricky, that. Only one man can father a single child. However, if the woman was to have "fraternal" twins (or triplets or more), each could be fathered by a different man, if she slept with both during the fertile period. Fraternal twins is where two (or more) eggs are released at ovulation instead of the usual one. If one is fertilised by a sperm from one man, and the other by a sperm from another, the children would be half-siblings. Such twins are of course no more alike than normal siblings of different ages. This could not happen with identical (monozygotic) twins. These come from one egg, fertilised by one sperm, which starts growing as one embryo. After a few cell divisions, for some reason the embryo breaks into two (or more) and each grows as a whole child. Of course it's all much easier in those animals which normally have multiple births. Most of these ovulate many eggs at a time, and so the chances of different parentage in the litter are much higher. A neighbour of ours had a young cat which had two kittens. One looked exactly like our black-and-white short-haired cat (who had not quite yet been "done"). The other kitten was a fluffy Persian cross, which surely could not have been his. A few animals (such as armadillos) routinely have monozygotic babies, having identical octuplets etc. Don't know why.

[New Forester]

PS -- I hope this was a theoretical question...

[Closer]

"(who had not quite yet been "done")" Are you suggesting it had been partly done ???? Ouch !

[New Forester]

Just what I said: he had not quite yet been done. He was really still only a kitten himself, and we hadn't quite yet got around to it. The poor chap died recently at the good age of about 14 -- by which time the memory of his wild oats must have been fading a bit...

[bernardo]

Yes, it is possible, as long as the "at the same time" bit refers to "being pregnant" rather than "becoming pregnant". There have been various recorded cases of twins being fathered by different men. There have also been very rare cases of women having two simultaneous pregnancies of different durations - i.e. one baby being conceived a few months after the first one. In such cases, the second baby can continue to grow in the womb for weeks after the first one has been born.

[worder]

yes, it actually has happened. i remember seeing it on TV about 20 years ago.the woman was blond and had twins, one also blond, the other one black.