An anonymous married couple sought medical help after they had trouble conceiving, and made the earth shattering discovery.

 

In order to take part in a course of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), couples are required to undergo tests looking at their genetics.

 

The Mississippi Herald reports that the doctor said the lab assistant who did this realised the pair, who met in college, must be related.

 

The doctor said:

 

"My first reaction was that they must have been less-closely related; perhaps they were first cousins, which does happen sometimes. However, looking closer at the samples I noticed there were way too many similarities."

 

The doctor then realised they had the same birthdates. When he told the couple about his concerns, they joked and said a lot of people had mentioned how similar they look. But they said it as just a coincidence and they weren't related.

 

Then they were showed the DNA results that proved otherwise.

 

The doctor said:

 

"From what we were able to piece together, the biological parents of the couple had died in a car crash when the couple were infants, and they had no close family willing to adopt them. They'd been taken into state care, and were adopted out to separate families.

 

Due to a filing error, neither foster family had ever been told that their adopted child had a twin."

 

The couple are said to be considering the future of their relationship.