(no subject)

[joshua-e.livejournal.com]

I was asked

"Can you get pregnant while already being pregnant
at any time during the pregnancy?"


I didn't know for sure

and i'm sure THE LADIES

will know all

Comments

No

[spiritchaser1.livejournal.com]

Once a woman become pregnant the cervix closes to keep the new pregnancy in, and her body stops ovulating.

So, unlike cats, no, from all I have read and heard, a woman can not get pregnant once she is already pregnant.

:)

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

According to my mother, who is in medicine (but admittedly a lab person not a doctor), this CAN happen but it's super rare. She knew someone who had a "twin" sister who was conceived roughly one month after his sister. She said it can only happen in the very beginning of the pregnancy (whatever that means) and it is very very rare. Please take this with a grain of salt, just passing along what I was told.

[childishdreams.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that it is possible. Of course, it was never in any of my pregnancy books! Cause, you know, I assumed you can only get pregnant once during those 9 months! If it is possible it is probably extremely rare.

Yes but

[mistdragon.livejournal.com]

It very very rarely happens. Sometimes a woman can ovulate while pregnant. I heard a story somewhere that a woman carried two babies at the same time, one was delivered five months prior to the other at full term, and they had different fathers. I forget the clinical name for it.

Re: Yes but

[sourgirli.livejournal.com]

wow that sounds really confusing. and... i hope thats rare! yikes.

Re: Yes but

[hurricane-amy.livejournal.com]

as rare as it is, i will be the only case to happen too :)

i just know my odds...

Re: Yes but

[childishdreams.livejournal.com]

I usually think the same thing. Such as I have an IUD but I'm sure I'd be that .01% that actually gets pregnant from it.

[ninaf.livejournal.com]

A woman can ovulate at different times so in theory one egg could be fertilized and another egg ready for fertilization. It is possible.

[misfit.livejournal.com]

Very rarely, but it can occur. One of my friends was conceived two weeks after his sister was conceived, and for years everyone thought that they were fraternal twins. Turns out they're just a brother and sister that shared the womb at the same time.

[brandyshea.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't they still technically be fraternal twins? Identical twins come from one egg and fraternal come from two. I know they were conceived two weeks apart, but I would still consider them twins.

[misfit.livejournal.com]

I thought that to be fraternal twins, the eggs had to be released simultaneously, but I could definitely be wrong!

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

How can they tell he was conceived two weeks later and not at the same time? That's some pretty damned hefty genetic testing.

[misfit.livejournal.com]

They participated in a lot of genetic studies at some big-name medical centers. If they hadn't, they never would've known! :)

[septembergrrl.livejournal.com]

But if they had the same mother and father, how would the scientists know the difference? I don't get that...

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Maybe they didn't have the same father.

[bicardigurl.livejournal.com]

gestational age, the measurements of the babies in utero.
Are ways to tell the babies age.

[harpseal.livejournal.com]

completely off topic, but i LOVE your icon!!!

I currently have 6 doxies 2 adults and 4 puppies that are 5 weeks old. ooohhhh....so cute!

yeah sorry, but i love doxies!

[jebovi.livejournal.com]

I had always thought my father was a twin until recently when he told us that his sister was born on time and he was born a month premature. His mom got pregnant a month in. The doctors didn't even know he was in there. (could you imagine... "you're almost done, just one more push" pop "wait nevermind there's another one in there")

[bicardigurl.livejournal.com]

I have heard of cases where one tiwn is born say at 38 weeks, and then the other twin isn't born until 41 weeks.

It's a fluke, but happens.

[jebovi.livejournal.com]

well they were born on the same day. Like 10 minutes apart

[mary-contrary.livejournal.com]

Yes.

It's VERY rare, but it does happen occasionally. Heh, I remember seeing some talk show years and years ago where a woman had twins, and when she gave birth one was full-term and white and the other was slightly premature and half-Asian.

[ex-eatmybox612.livejournal.com]

Well according to my psychology teacher, you can.

If you ovulate while pregnant and have sex, you can become pregnant again but the baby that you are aleady carrying can become premature and there might be problems with the birth. The babies will grow in different sacs.

Another thing she told me that was weird was that this one lady had twins, and the only way her husband knew that she cheated was because one baby was white and the other one was black. Weird stuff.

[kalijean]

Judging by rumors and news stories about twins with two different fathers, I'd gather that in the very early stages after conception, it's possible that another egg could be fertilized.

I think that would only happen if the female had released two eggs that cycle.

[kamalea.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Seems extremely unlikely, but there are always the exceptions (both of the well-researched and the Jerry Springer varieties).

During a month when you get pregnant ... there's a mucous plug in the cervix for a while, to let the uterine lining develop without sperm intrusion changing things around ... estrogen takes precedence, during which an egg(s) is getting ready for release and the uterine lining is developing ... then the mucous plug dissolves, the cervix puts out bunches of mucous to change the pH in the vagina so it won't kill of sperm ... then there's a burst of luteinizing hormone and the egg is released (ovulation) ... the egg(s) is caught by the fallopian tube, where it meets the lucky winner(s) of the sperm race and is fertilized ... it then moves on into the uterus where it implants into the uterine lining, and the placenta and sac start to develop as the embryo forms ... during that time, another mucous plug is blocking up the cervix again. So. At this point, you could have had two eggs released (fraternal twins), or the fertilized egg split before developing into an embryo (identical twins). After the egg is released, the corpus luteum makes progesterone (which lets the uterus keep hold of the egg until it's happily cooking away) for a while, then the placenta takes over. During a non-pregnant cycle, the egg doesn't get fertilized, and thus dissolves in the midst of things, and when the corpus luteum stops the progesterone there's no placenta to take over, so you get your period to shed the old lining out. Pregnancy tests work off concentration levels of "pregnancy hormone" in the urine, which don't build up strongly enough to show up until at least 2 weeks after ovulation, typically.

That's the way the whole deal is supposed to work, right? So in order to become pregnant while you're pregnant, several things have to be completely fucked up. For one, your body has to ovulate twice, separately within one month. Rare, but possible. For two, that egg has to be fertilized. That takes getting sperm from the non-supportive-Ph-post-ovulation-vagina through the post-ovulation cervical mucous plug, through the occupied uterus and into the fallopian tube to meet the second egg. Again, extra rare, but technically possible. For three, that fertilized egg then has to find a good spot in the uterus, attach, make its own placenta and sac, and survive the 15% miscarriage rate for the first 3 months. Extra, extra rare, but possible in the realm of human possibility.

I'm skeptical because of both the extremely low probability of THREE low-probability phenomena happening at once in one month when sex was timed just-so, and because of the lack of proof. Really, how do you prove something like that? Babies are "aged" during the ultrasound by body part measurements, which aren't perfectly accurate. Due dates are calculated via day of last menstrual period, which is often far off from when the mother actually ovulated. It's an imprecise science, as I understand it.

Sorry for the book; just wanted to provide more than "it happened to a friend's relative" comments (no slam meant to those of you who wrote them).

[jaclyn.livejournal.com]

excellent comment.