So I watched the ‘Joined for life’ show on discovery last night. The show follows them from their 11th to 12th birthdays - they’re amazing in their mobility and co-ordination.
Bearing in mind that I have no medical background beyond my high school Advanced Biology class I got to wondering - what are the possible medical issues they face as they head into puberty? What are the potential effects of two brains working with one set of reproductive organs?
By way of pure uneducated guesswork, I think they won’t have much more trouble than any other pubescent female, just based on the fact that they’re obviously extraordinarily co-ordinated on some unconscious level already. But, I was hoping some medical dopers might have some info / opinions based in fact.
I foresee interesting teenage times ahead–Justin or Lance? Body wash or body scrub? “That perfume smells like bug spray…” “No, it doessssss-ennnnnn’t…”
And, OMG, the prom dress… The mind boggles.
I would strongly encourage Mrs. Hensel to start prayin’ now, 'cause she’s gonna need all the help she can get in a few years.
Seriously, though, when it comes to being sexually active, I suppose they’ll just take turns with the vagina. “One for me, and one for you…”
God knows how they’ll work out the “marriage and babymaking” thing, but I do know it’ll be interesting to watch.
Knowing how the media in general operates, we can sadly assume that in roughly 8 years there will be a follow-up “documentary” on these girls. I watched a bit of it last night. Their parents sound like good folks, and I hope the follow-up doesn’t wind up being produced by Jerry Springer.
It’s great to see that other kids have learned to deal with the girls as girls and not as freaks or monsters, that they face the reality of their situation with some humor, and are pretty cool with it so far.
Since this is the rare case of two personalities, i.e. two people-with one shared reproductive system, I would personally hope that they marry the same man. Marrying two men would make for a legal nightmare. Who is the mother of the children? The ethics are brutal and I’d wager are not clearly defined by any law. ( Attorneys, here’s your chance to eviscerate Toons ).
Well (to continue hijacking my own thread :)) would the law and/or the powers that be recognize this as a special case in which one man could legally marry two women? Regardless, as much as they really pushed their individuality on the show, I can’t imagine the girls would want this.
Not to mention, I can’t think of many men I’ve met who would want to be involved in such a relationship. Not that I’m saying none would, but I think the chances of each girl meeting a man they wanted to marry who wanted to marry her are remote
Well, as far as physical things, the diagram in the link shows that although they have an extra heart, lung, stomach, gallbladder, and kidney, they only have one vagina, one uterus, and one set of ovaries, so I would expect puberty to be fairly normal.
I’m thinkin’ dating is probably not going to be much of an issue. They’ll probably go on group dates, the way kids do these days, but I’m just trying to figure out how you would separate the two in an intimate setting. With Cheng and Eng, at least they each had their own “parts” if you will. This is a completely different situation.
That said, I thought the girls and their parents were fantastic. They started to look less bizarre as the show progressed.
I think they’re the same little girls I saw on a show about co-jined twins. What I remember most was how incredibly adorable they were-long wavy strawberry blond hair, big blue eyes, freckles. Really sweet little things.
Do they have just one rectum and one urethra between them? So when their bladder is full do they both feel the urge to pee? When it’s time to move their bowels do they both feel the urge to poop?
It doesn’t mention defecation, but I would expect they experience separate urges to go. During the show, the girls had some spine surgery - I thought it was interesting that they had different tolerances for pain. It’s amazing how different they are for sharing the same body.
Right, but what about the two brains working with one set of organs? Given how control of nearly every other function is split down the middle I assume they’ll both ovulate once a month - Will they each have their own menstrual cycle? And, I was wondering the same thing as Diceman, though I didn’t want to put it in terms of Total Recall
No woman I have ever met wanted to get married because the groom was ‘sick enough’ to marry her. I’ll wager you’re off both their lists of prospective husbands
I wonder what can be added to the nature/nurture debate by this case; they are identical twins (so genetics shouldn’t be a factor) and they are exposed to pretty much identical environmental factors, yet they are evolving differing tastes etc…
I guess my first anatomical query is going to remain unanswered. Darn
If they share the same bladder, then how could they possibly experience seperate urges to pee? Do they have different standards for “full” or something?
I saw an animation of their bodies on a show several years ago. It only showed two nipple, so if the computer model was right, it’s not a total recall situation.
I guess that just goes to show you the effect that the brain has on such tolerances (rather than the organs themselves). Plus, it’s all complicated by the fact that they sort of each have “half” of all those organs (evidenced by the effect tickling one half of their body demonstrates), and they have their own kidneys (or, one has one and the other has two). Perhaps the “fullness” nerves pick up sensations from different parts of the bladder, or that one twin has more of them than another…
One would hope that a person would not have to be “sick” at all, in order to “give that a shot”. They’re human beings, and mentally as normal as anyone else. One would imagine that a person could fall in love with them for all the same reasons that people fall in love with anyone else, and that once they had fallen in love, the results would be approximately the same as when anyone else falls in love.
Yes, there are some unprecedented legal and social issues involved in this particular case, but I imagine that by the time the situation arises, those will have been resolved to the satisfaction of all involved parties.
Meanwhile, I don’t imagine that the prom dress would be a big problem, since they have their clothes tailored anyway, but the mind does boggle at the dances which might be performed between the girls and their respective (and presumably separate) dates.
I got to wondering - what are the possible medical issues they face as they head into puberty? What are the potential effects of two brains working with one set of reproductive organs?
Heh.
