For more than 2,000 years, humans (or Christians) have believed that there's only one virgin birth case in the world, the one that involves Mary, the mother of Jesus. However, a new study suggests that the woman of Nazareth is not the only on earth who gave birth a virgin.

In what could be one of the most intriguing science studies in the new generation, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has found out that one in every 200 Americans have revealed that they conceived even if they haven't had any intercourse. The study, which was first published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), was started 14 years ago. Around 7,870 women participated in the eye-popping research and 45 of them, or 5 percent, shared that they gave birth although they have not had a vaginal intercourse. From these figures, there were cases of miscarriages and pregnancy losses.

The study was conducted in an indirect manner, according to UNC-Chapel Hill lead researcher Amy Herring who is also a professor of biostatistics in the same university. She said participants "weren't asked a question 'have you had a virgin pregnancy?', it was put together from a series of questions about pregnancy history and vaginal intercourse history." Among the things that were asked are the participants' age and commitment to a religion and their knowledge about sex education.

"Even though we thought that the questions were quite clear, there's still the possibility that some women misunderstood or misinterpreted them, such as simply giving the wrong year, or for whatever reason that they did not want to admit that they had had intercourse," Herring said.

"Even though we used technology to try to enhance the candor of respondents, we still see responses that are unrealistic."

In the end, Herring said that the study only raised "intriguing questions about sexual education and awareness as well as difficulties of accurate information about human's sex life.