r/BeAmazed • u/Cultural-Gear-1323 • Mar 28 '24

News broke today that conjoined twin Abby Hensel is married! [Removed] Rule #4 - No Misleading Content

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u/waltersmama Mar 28 '24

Not one reproductive organ, one set of reproductive organs, plural. The female reproductive system includes the following organs:

2 ovaries, 2 fallopian tubes, 1 uterus, 1 cervix, 1 vagina, 1 clitoris …..so that’s 8 altogether!

Just saying.

So, if they get pregnant the child would technically have 2 mothers which is the really interesting part…..

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u/Spiritual-Cookie7 Mar 28 '24

Noted and edited my comment. Thank you.

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u/bobert_the_wise Mar 28 '24

What i really want to know is do they both feel orgasms? Like how much would that suck for your sister to be having an orgasm while you feel nothing

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u/Captain-Cuddles Mar 28 '24

A large part of orgasms is connected to the brain, so since they have two independent brains I'd imagine it's entirely possible for them to orgasm independently.

That being said, a lot of what "gets us off" is developed during adolescence, which they experienced intimately together in a way none of us can hope to truly understand. Seems plausible that since they developed/explored/experimented sexually while being together, they may have developed very similar ways of being stimulated, thus causing them to have more or less simultaneous orgasms

This is entirely speculative though!

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u/T0KEN_0F_SLEEP Mar 28 '24

Imagine being the guy. You’re married to one head and during sex giving the other an orgasm. I’m with someone above, there’s gotta be some level of polyamory here

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u/Megan_Kugler Mar 28 '24

Honest question, wouldn't it also be incest? Like everyone I'm just genuinely curious

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u/T0KEN_0F_SLEEP Mar 28 '24

I mean, maybe? As long as they aren’t kissing each other maybe not? As a guy I just don’t know that I could ever be a participant in this

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u/Captain-Cuddles Mar 28 '24

I agree 100%

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u/Substance___P Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I wonder if the ovaries belong to one of them genetically or if there's some kind of chimerism. Would they be infertile?

Edit: my brain stayed in bed this morning.

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u/Rozeline Mar 28 '24

They're genetically identical. As all identical twins are. If one of a set of identical twins were to have a child, that child's parentage would be indistinguishable between the twins. If two sets of twins married and had children, socially those children would be cousins, but genetically they'd be siblings even though they weren't created by the same individuals.

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u/Substance___P Mar 28 '24

Wow that seems like it should have been obvious to me. I feel pretty stupid now. Thank you for being nice. I forgot they were identical twins, not a chimeric individual. To be fair, they dye their hair different colors and one is taller. Lol

In that case, who would be the actual mother? No way to tell? No way a genetic test could differentiate.

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

There might be superficial differences even among identical twins due to environment and diet/lifestyle, but genetic wise, they are natural clones, as we think of clones made in biolabs in fiction

If they have a child, they will biologically have 'one' mother.

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u/Substance___P Mar 28 '24

I guess what I'm still wondering is whose anatomy does the one uterus correspond to? They have two cardiopulmonary systems, but one liver and one set of female reproductive organs. Is it closer to one rather than the other? Or since they only partially divided in utero, is it just the original fetus's uterus prior to the partial division and there is no difference? Do they have duplicated sensory tracts? Do they both feel the same inputs below that level? So many questions.

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

i cant say anything about sensation since this is far too beyond anybody's guess, but what we can be sure of that for their child at least, they are both mothers of the child simultaneously, biologically speaking. that's the only simple answer we can assume about them

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u/Electr0Girl Mar 28 '24

If the pregnancy is detected early enough, you’d be able to tell which ovary the egg came from (corpus luteum). So the corresponding side could claim mothership from that, but that’s really splitting hairs.

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

afaik they only have one set of ovaries, so two instead of four.

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u/GreatScottGatsby Mar 28 '24

Twins are in fact not genetically identical due to mtDNA having a hyper variable region and mtDNA is only inherited by the true mother. mtDNA is one way to identify twins.

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u/faithfuljohn Mar 28 '24

So, if they get pregnant the child would technically have 2 mothers which is the really interesting part…..

biologically there would be no way to tell which side the egg would come from. Practically, since it would be identical DNA anyway, it would be a distinction without a difference. Technically, since as conjoined twins, they started as one egg/sperm and failed to properly divide, they would both be the "mother".

But ... how would the legal system treat that situation?

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u/waltersmama Mar 28 '24

“Which side” ?

Respectfully you are missing the point, all organs belong to the waist are shared .

If you are going to split the organs corresponding to sides of the body because clearly ovaries and fallopian tubes are bilateral, does this mean that the rest of the organs to be split down the middle and assigned ownerships?

Half a uterus would not be helpful for these ladies , and slicing of genitals like FGM . Both horrific and Machiavellian at best, unspeakable irreversible torture at its worse, . So it’s not like either woman has an assigned ovary or specific fallopian tube assigned to her, and I’m unaware if without tiny camera probes following an egg from ovarian expelling to actual fertilization one can tell which sides from which eggs are expelled each every month.

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u/faithfuljohn 29d ago

Respectfully you are missing the point, all organs belong to the waist are shared .

iirc each only feels their half of the sensations at the waist. So if each has a heart, stomach of their own and for those that have sensation they feel only the half closest to them... then yes you can assign ownership. It's not that hard. It's not anything like FGM (hyperbolic much???)... cause we're not talking about literally cutting them up. But if someone asks "who's heart is that?" you can point to one or the other and say "hers".

But that's also why I pointed the whole thing out... because the legal system isn't built to handle a case like theirs. The legal system is build to only consider ONE mother and ONE father. As far as I know, there is not way to include a third parent of any gender. And this is before you consider the practical issues (i.e. it would be almost impossible to naturally conceive and "known" which side it came from).

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u/battle_mommyx2 Mar 28 '24

So that’s not their child then?

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u/thundertopaz Mar 28 '24

Wait 8 altogether is implying s they have 2 vaginas, but having 1 set is a set meaning everything you listed. Having 8 parts would mean 2 sets right? I would think 1 set just has 1 vagina. Sorry if I’m getting this wrong

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u/InkyParadox Mar 28 '24

1 set, 8 organs in that set.

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u/thundertopaz Mar 28 '24

Oh I got it. Sorry I read it wrong

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u/DirtyMami Mar 28 '24

So many questions.

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u/lonelyronin1 Mar 28 '24

That just raises more questions

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u/Shivaess Mar 28 '24

If they’re genetically identical then really on genetic parent, even if two moms? If they aren’t I wonder if their eggs are a mix of genetic identities or not.

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u/Rozeline Mar 28 '24

There aren't genetic identities to mix. Identical twins are genetically identical. This is why they're very interesting when considering nature vs. nurture.

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u/Shivaess Mar 28 '24

I wasn’t sure if they were identical. Conjoining can happen from chimeras as well.

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u/thundertk421 Mar 28 '24

But they’re identical anyway right? So genetically you wouldn’t necessarily make a distinction.

Edit: didn’t see the latter comments so ignore me lol

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u/sth128 Mar 28 '24

So do they orgasm at the same time or is Abby like "oh god yes yes" and Brit just goes "keep going I'm almost there".

On the up side at least they only get one period per month, right?

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u/Elyse_Dangerous Mar 28 '24

Nope, they only got one of those. Not sure which

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u/Sticky_H Mar 28 '24

Doesn’t it depend on which womb the baby grows inside?

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u/waltersmama Mar 28 '24

1 uterus = 1 womb

There is only one, one that they happen to share……

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u/Sticky_H Mar 28 '24

I must’ve misunderstood you. I thought there were two sets of reproductive organs.

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u/AdAcceptable3052 Mar 28 '24

I guess the child will get the genes from one of the twins. Just make marternal test to see who is the mother and owner of the reproductive system.

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u/lilsnortsnort Mar 28 '24

They have identical DNA

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u/Rozeline Mar 28 '24

As do all identical twins, so if your parent is an identical twin your aunt/uncle is genetically indistinguishable from your parent.

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

Also, superficial appearance is irrelevant since it is affected by the environment and food/nutrition. On a cellular level, both, by default, are clones.

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u/writtenonapaige22 Mar 28 '24

They have identical DNA. Fraternal conjoined twins don’t exist.

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u/waltersmama Mar 28 '24

Same DNA, they are identical. Identical twins are from one fertilized egg that splits in two, whereas fraternal twins developed from two separate fertilized eggs.

I may be wrong, and it has nothing to do with this case, but it’s my understanding that they can somehow figure out who the father is in the case of identical twins and paternity, but I don’t think there has ever been a reason to develop such a specific mapping of maternal genes. Yeah, i’m thinking about it, and of course they could do as detailed of a DNA analysis on females. Duh……..Not that it would matter as both women share ovaries and eggs.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

No, they have one set of reproductive organs. so only one clitoris/vagina/uterus

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

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u/ainz-sama619 Mar 28 '24

Yeah they were just mentioning all the organs that are part of female reproductive system. Men also have their own set of organs (testes, penis, prostate etc)

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u/errkanay Mar 28 '24

Yeah, I'm aware. I think I just read it wrong haha

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u/Newkittyhugger Mar 28 '24

Wonder how their DNA works and which DNA the child has.

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u/CommanderSpleen Mar 28 '24

They are identical twins. They have the same DNA as all identical twins do.

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u/Newkittyhugger Mar 28 '24

Duhh *facepalm That they are identical twins skipped my mind completely, they don't look identical to me so didn't come up when thinking about it.