Conjoined Twins Abby and Brittany’s Exciting News!

Abby and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twins who have mystified the world for the past 30 years. Defying all the odds to purely survive to this day, they have been kind enough to share their journey with the world. Now, they have released an announcement that left the world stunned.

The twins have been kind enough to share their journey with the rest of the world. Even though they faced their challenges, their lives continued to captivate audiences not just in the United States but all over the world!

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel entered this world on March 7 of 1990. Born in Carver County, MN, doctors discovered that they were not only conjoined twins, but incredibly rare, even for conjoined twins. Abby and Brittany Hensel are dicephalic parapagus twins.

Conjoined twins have an incredibly low survival rate. Conjoined twins are only seen about once out of every 189,000 births. Even among that population, only about one in nine of all conjoined twins are dicephalic parapagus, such as Abby and Brittany Hensel.

While Abby and Brittany Hensel are already unique on the outside, their inner workings are just as extraordinary. For instance, the upper body has a separate pair of organs for each twin despite their appearance. This means that their bodies have two stomachs, two hearts, and four lungs.

Despite Abby and Brittany being in the spotlight from a very young age not may people know that when the girls were born they initially had a third arm.

When Abby and Brittany Hensel feel ill, they truly deal with extraordinary situations. For example, Abby can only feel discomfort on the left side of her body while Brittany only has sensation on her right.

In addition to the numerous other challenges that Abby and Brittany have to face, they also have two separate body temperatures. Given that body temperature is regulated by the brain, which the girls have two of, this makes sense. It also seems as though they have a line drawn down the middle.

In addition, both twins each have control over one half of the body! This means that each twin controls only one arm and one leg. How hard must it be for them to learn how to walk? Most of us use rhythm between both of our legs to get ourselves from place to place!

Of course, many people were curious about how Abby and Brittany learned how to drive a car. They both had to sit for the exam separately. In fact, each twin has her own driver’s license even though they have to drive a car together!

It took a while for Abby and Brittany to master the teamwork of driving. For example, one twin is in control of the gas while the other twin is in charge of the brakes. One twin also has control over the turn signal.

It can also be a challenge for them to get dressed in the morning. Over the years, the twins have had to learn to compromise. Sometimes, one twin does not agree with the other when it comes to the look of the day.

When it comes to getting dressed, Abby tends to favor bright, colorful looks. On the other hand, Brittany enjoys a more muted vibe. This also has to do with their personalities! It makes sense that because Abby likes brighter colors, she is also the more outspoken of the pair!

It should make sense that because Abby is more outgoing, she is more likely to socialize with others. Perhaps that is where her bright clothes come from. Even though Abby is more social, Brittany claims to be the one who likes to explore the world more often.

Both Abby and Brittany understand that how they choose to date and if they choose to become mothers is a topic of curisioty for most. With that being said they prefer to keep these areas of their lives private as the girls are very different people.

There are other ways that Abby and Brittany Hensel are different as well! For example, Brittany has a fear of heights! This is not something that Abby shares. In addition, Brittany tends to like art classes more. In contrast, Abby tends to like hard sciences, such as biology.

Overall, it is the differences between Abby and Brittany Hensel that keep their lives interesting. Despite this, they have been able to lead somewhat normal lives. They have figured out how to study on their own.

Even if they do not talk about their significant others, Abby and Brittany Hensel have been able to form plenty of strong friendships that they take great joy in sharing! For example, the two enjoy traveling the world.

Fortunately, Abby and Brittany Hensel are great at making friends. When they travel from place to place, they often see others taking pictures of them as soon as they get off the plane.

Sometimes, Abby and Brittany Hensel’s friends are willing to discuss what life is like as well. For example, a pal of theirs, named Erin, simply explained that she wants to make sure the twins are safe. Because they attract a lot of attention, not all of the attention is good.

Of course, Abby and Brittany are different from anyone else. Therefore, they do everything they can to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, they do receive a lot of unwanted attention. According to their friends, they have become incredibly resilient people.

If you were to ask any mother what she wanted for her child, she would likely say that she wants her child to be happy and successful. That is exactly what the twins’ mother wants as well. She simply wants them to be happy, healthy, and successful.

Despite the girls’ physical limitations, the twins’ parents have always been their biggest supporters and believers. The girls parents never stopped believing that Brittany and Abby would survive and grow up to be a very successful pair.

As a way to use their platform in a positive way, the twins make regular appearances on TV to share their stories. For example, the twins went on The Oprah Winfrey Show at just six years of age. Then, the twins landed on the cover of Life Magazine as well.

When the girls were around 12 years of age, they decided to make a documentary of their life. The documentary was titled Joined for Life, and the documentary was a major hit! It turns out lots of people wanted to know what the girls’ lives were like as conjoined twins!

Even though the twins did have to think carefully about how they were going to use the platform, they wanted to show the world what it was like to live as conjoined twins.

It is always interesting when people meet the twins for the first time! They expect to hear something unusual! In reality, the twins take great pleasure in letting people know that they do the same things as anyone else. They try to show that their lives are not that different from anyone else.

The show covered a variety of topics as the twins grew up. The twins left home for the first time and attended Bethel University. After that, they both had to go out and get jobs. This is something that they did together as they would have to work together at all times.

Fortunately, the twins were both interested in the same topics. They both wanted a future in education. Even though they did think about specializing in different areas of teaching, they realized that they would have to study the same topic side by side.

Following their graduation from Bethel University, they Europe the twins decided to travel to Europe and visit their friends in England and Italy. The sisters showed off their adventurous side touring all the local spots on a moped.

Of course, the entire series was leading up to a big reveal at the end. The show wrapped up in 2012. At the end, Abby and Brittany Hensel revealed the big news together. They ended up getting a job!

After finishing their education, the twins got a job specializing in elementary school math! Together, they are going to teach separate math classes. They specialize in teaching math at the fourth and fifth-grade levels. Furthermore, the position they have taken is part-time.

Every kid has dreams and plays pretend when they are little. The twins’ mother reflected on their path to their current professions. When they were younger, the twins used to pretend that they wanted to be a pilot and a dentist.

Now, Abby and Brittany are excited to start their new journeys together, as they are going to impact the lives of children everywhere. Of course, their boss did have to call HR to discuss the hiring situation with them!

Following their college graduation and the conclusion of their TLC series, Abby and Brittany Hensel decided to take a step back from the public eye.

It is safe to assume the girls decided to take a step out of the lime-light because Abby and Brittany just want to live ordinary lives. This is completely understandable based off the fact spent much of their adolescent years in the public eye with heavy media coverage.

Due to Abby and Brittany’s shared vital organs (such as an enlarged liver, a bladder, a diaphragm, both reproductive and digestive systems, and intestines) as well as they fact that each twin controls one arm and one leg, separating them would be extremely difficult and dangerous.

Despite being conjoined and facing everyday challenges, that most people don’t even think about, both Abby and Brittany refuse to give up on the joys and experiences that most everyone has the privilege of experiencing, marriage being one of them. 

According to the twin’s TikTok account (@abbyandbrittanyhensel), they shared some special snippets from the wedding day. During the ceremony, the twins were seen wearing a wedding dress with lace details alongside the groom who opted for a gray suit.

That’s not to say separation is out of the question for everyone. In 2020, two conjoined twins entered the world. In 2021, the two twins, named Addison and Lilianna Altobelli were surgically separated. They were 10 months old at the time of the separation.

Parents Maggie and Dom Altobelli learned that they were having conjoined twins at a 20-week ultrasound appointment. According to Maggie, they were trying to figure out the gender of one of the babies, but it became more complicated as the minutes passed by.

The girls were born at Children’s Hospital on November 18, 2020 in the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit. From there they were transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit to prepare for their impending surgery.

Nearly an entire year since the girls entered the world, they were separated from each other successfully on October 13th, 2021. The operation took a total of 10 hours to complete.

After the surgery, Maggie and Dom flew back to their home in Chicago, Illinois. Each parent traveled with a twin, respectively. Once the twins returned home, they spent another two weeks at the Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Though Lilianna and Addison have been surgically removed from each other, it doesn’t change the fact that they were sharing blood streams and bodies since the time they were inside their mother’s womb.

While the circumstances thrust upon their family were great, Maggie and Dom were able to overcome it. Maggie said, “This is our journey. It’s a very special one in many ways.”

Conjoined twins happen once in every 50,000 to 200,000 births according to a peer-reviewed study in the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Once upon a time, conjoined twins were treated horribly, as though they were nothing more than objects to be stared at. Chang and Eng Bunker were Siamese-American conjoined twin brothers. Their fame propelled the expression “Siamese twins” to become synonymous with conjoined twins.

The Hilton sisters were English-born sisters that were another pair of conjoined twins. Their story was very tragic starting from the moment they were born and were faced with a large uphill battle from then on.

Daisy and Violet Hilton were born in February of 1908 in Brighton. The girls were born connected at the hip and buttocks. They shared a circulatory system, and their pelvis was fused, however they did not share any major organs.

Their mother, Kate Skinner, was an unwed barmaid who believed that the birth of her daughter’s was a punishment from God for her sins. She did not want to have to deal with everything that came with her “punishment.”

Mary Hilton, Kate’s employer, saw the immediate commercial value in the girls and bought them from Kate. Mary immediately put the girls on exhibition in the local pubs.

Mary Hilton was incredibly awful to the twins. She was both physically and emotionally abusive towards the girls. They were both forced to call her “Aunt Lou” and call her husband “sir.”

Mary died, and her daughter Edith took over. Edith essentially held the girl’s captive. They were threatened with being institutionalized if they tried to escape. The girls were subjected to beatings and to practice their routines.

Though they mostly were not allowed to engage with the public, they did manage to strike up a friendship with famed magician Harry Houdini. Houdini urged the women to get themselves emancipated.

The twins decided to perform on vaudeville as the “Hilton Sisters’ Revue.” Daisy dyed her hair blonde to differentiate herself from her sister and the two began to wear different clothes. They wanted people to be able to tell who was who.

During this time of freedom, Violet entered into a relationship with a musician named Maurice Lambert. The pair wanted to get married but were not able to maintain a marriage license.

Violet did end up marrying, but not to Maurice Lambert. Violet ended up marrying a man named James Moore in 1936. Many people believed that this was simply a publicity stunt as they charged 25 cents for fans to attend the ceremony.

The women attempted to perform in show business and did for a while before public interest completely dwindled. Their last public appearance was in 1961 at a drive-in in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Born on August 9, 2003 in Lemgo, Germany to parents Peter and Nelly Block, Lea and Tabea were born conjoined twins. The girls were physically connected by an incomplete splitting of a single fertilized egg that gave them life 10 months earlier. 

Tatiana and Anastasia Dogaru were born on January 13, 2004, in Rome to parents Claudia and Alin Dogaru. The girls were delivered connected at the head. In August of 2007, the family traveled to America and doctors at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio announced that they would not perform a separation of the girls. 

Born February 26, 2004, to Melissa and Kevin Buckles at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Jade and Erin Buckles were born conjoined from their chest to their navel, shared their liver and Erin’s heart was inside Jade’s chest and beat in sync with it.

Born on November 29, 2005, in Fargo, North Dakota, to parents Amy and Jesse Carlsen Abbigail and Isabelle were born joined at the abdomen and chest. On May 12, 2006, a team of 30 people, including 18 surgeons from various specialties at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, successfully performed an operation to separate the girls.

Born October 25, 2008, in Oklahoma City to parents Stevie Stewart and Kylie Wells Preslee Faith and Kylee Hope were born attached at the chest. This was reportedly the first set of Native American conjoined twins.