Three-zygote triplets

[kk fusion]

This question is based on those crappy movies where three men argue about who knocked up some chick. In the end the woman turns out to give birth to three children, each of which resembles one of the men.

I guess in times of fertility treatment, this is actually possible. But are there any documented cases (not necessarily by different fathers)?

[Baldwin]

I doubt it, though it's worth looking.

But first -- what movie are you referring to? I've never seen that.

[Baldwin]

Okay, thirty seconds Googling indicates that it does happen. (Not three fathers, but three zygotes.) So three fathers is definitely possible.

[Baldwin]

Okay, here's a story about a legal case involving triplets with two fathers. So that would be two babies that are monozygotic (identical) twins, and a third baby from a second original zygote, and sperm from the second man.

The three-father scenario requires the coincidence of two separate rare occurrences: 1) a woman have three ova in her Fallopian tube at once; 2) sex with three men within a short period. (Okay, the second one isn't that unlikely.)

[kk fusion]

But first -- what movie are you referring to? I've never seen that.

Here's a German one, but I'm sure there are more.

Okay, thirty seconds Googling indicates that it does happen. (Not three fathers, but three zygotes.)

Link?

[sublight]

Googling "trizygotic triplets" brought up several hits, including this very brief page at About.com with a photo of a set of non-identical triplets (or at least that's what the caption claims).

The emedicine page on multiple births simply states matter-of-factly that, "Triplets can be monozygotic, dizygotic, or trizygotic. Trizygotic triplets occur when 3 sperm fertilize 3 ova."