Can Tests Confirm Who The Father Of The Child In A Pregnant Woman Is ?

Posted on Sun, 13 Nov 2011

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 Answered on

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : My fiance was date raped on Oct 3 2011, I wasn't aware of this when I had unprotected sex with her on the 23rd almost 3 weeks later. But one week after that she had a very small amount of blood come from her which I believe is implantation bleeding, and a week after that she began to have symptoms of being pregnant, so I sent her to the doctor and it was confirmed, she is pregnant, now my question is what are the chances of me being the father compared to the evil guy who raped her 3 weeks prior to me having sex with her. Also her last period started September 28th and ended Oct 1st.

Answered by Dr. Meenakshi Titoria Sahu (-2 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query.

By calender method, 3rd oct was safe period for your fiance, so the chances of her becoming pregnant at that time are very rare (provided her cycles are of regular pattern occuring after 28-30 days). By this method, most probably paternity belongs to you.

If you desire 100% confirmation, paternity test is the answer.

In good set-up with genetic lab, fetal (baby) DNA is extracted from pregnant woman blood and examined for genetic make-up. It is the latest technology and not available everywhere.

Hope, this answers your query. I will be available to answer your follow queries if any.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Jyoti Patil

Follow up: Dr. Meenakshi Titoria Sahu (2 hours later)

Ok, so my next question is about implantation bleeding, I've looked around online to understand pregnancy symptoms and it spoke of implantation bleeding occurring 6 - 12 days after conception. Exactly 7 days after we had sex is when she began to ave this small bleeding that lasted for only 1 day and she began to have other pregnancy symptoms about a week after that. Could it be possible for the bleeding to have occurred from a conception date of the day she was raped or from myself? Would this help me to eliminate the other person as the father?

Answered by Dr. Meenakshi Titoria Sahu (10 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for writing back.

Implantation bleeding is not reliable to calculate the age of pregnancy and thus paternity. This is not going to eliminate the other person as the father.

Regards,

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T