2023-09-29 11:00:00
Fatima Yasser wrote Friday, September 29, 2023 02:00 PM
The British newspaper Daily Mail published a story regarding a woman who became pregnant twice within 18 days, through artificial insemination and natural pregnancy, which left doctors puzzled.
Sandra, 36 years old, and her husband, David Searle, 40 years old, resorted for the third time to artificial insemination treatment in August 2022 without realizing that she was already pregnant. This rare phenomenon is known as “super pregnancy,” and this woman is the tenth case recorded in history, where she gave birth to the young child. Michael and Bobby last April.
Superpregnancy is a rare phenomenon where the uterus receives two fetuses at different times, and then they are eventually born as “twins.”
The couple underwent artificial insemination twice before giving birth to their two children, Georgia, five years old, and Fred, three years old.
But the third time, confused doctors found two fetuses at different stages of development during an ultrasound.
Health difficulties had previously ruled out natural insemination, so the couple decided to undergo artificial insemination, and it was proven that she was pregnant with twins, but one of them preceded the other by 18 days.
The doctors at the clinic asked the couple whether they had sexual intercourse during the operation while they were trying to figure out how a double pregnancy occurred, and the wife assured them that she and her husband had refrained from trying naturally while undergoing treatment, and that this must have happened previously.
The natural pregnancy came as a shock to the couple, as Mr Searle was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2015, which caused his sperm to be frozen before he went into chemotherapy so he might have children in the future.
Around the same time, the wife was told that her egg count was low, and under these circumstances, doctors warned the couple that their chances of conceiving naturally were slim.
Although the newborns are technically twins, they are born at different stages of development because they spent different amounts of time in the womb.
Bobby’s weight was three kilograms, but Michael was one kilogram and was unable to move, and had some minor difficulties in the first week of his life. The wife said that Michael was in good condition following five months.
Doctors described this rare condition as only 10 cases of superpregnancy were recorded in the world, but it is believed that this phenomenon is not reported because of how difficult it is to detect.
Dr Richard Murphy, a fertility expert, discovered the twin pregnancy only following he noticed Ms Searle’s hormone levels were “extremely high” in her first blood test, and the scan showed the fetus was 18 days earlier than where it should have been.
“There are probably some other cases that haven’t been reported, that we don’t know regarding, and it’s always interesting to document these cases because they’re so rare that there will be a few cases in the literature but not many, so it’s interesting for doctors,” Dr. Murphy said. Others want to see that these rare things can happen.
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