Taylor Muhl had a strange obsession with twins when she was a kid. She always wanted to have a twin sibling for some reason. According to People, she would frequently ask her mother whether or not she was a twin.
She would even dress exactly as her friends did.
The California model and singer would eventually find out that there was an unconscious reason that she was obsessed with having a twin. That’s because she found out that she was her own twin.
Yes, being your own twin is a thing. Muhl has a type of chimerism called tetragametic chimerism.
It can happen with fraternal twins where there are two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.
The two zygotes merge together to form one human being with two different cell lines. Muhl absorbed her twin in the womb.
Muhl has two sets of DNA, two sets of blood cells, and two immune systems.
You can physically see evidence of her twin on her body.
She has a line in the center of her torso. One side is darker which is her twin’s genetic makeup and the paler side is her own.
“I am my own twin because I have two genetic makeups within one body. It’s basically having totally two different humans under the same hood of the car, so to speak,” Muhl told Barcroft TV. “When I grew up no-one said anything about my second color skin pigmentation because no-one really knew.”
Muhl had been battling autoimmune issues for years and was seeking treatment when a doctor diagnosed her with chimerism.
She says her first reaction was total shock.
“Then my second reaction was sadness because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I could’ve gone through life with a twin, with a sibling that hopefully, I could’ve been close to.’ There was some sadness,” she told People.
Her mother never had an ultrasound during her pregnancy so her parents didn’t know either.
Her mother was sad by the news and sort of felt as if she was “losing a child.”
“I actually felt relief. I felt freedom because for the first time in my life I knew why my stomach looks the way it does. This is why I’ve had so many health challenges,” Muhl, 33, said. “I felt like for the first time I could really breathe. Prior to that, every doctor said my stomach must have just been a birthmark … Finally, this is making some sense.”
As a result of her condition, Muhl’s body is constantly trying to fight off her twin’s cells, which the body recognizes as foreign.
This leaves her with medical issues.
“This has probably been the most freeing year that I have ever lived in my entire life,” Muhl said. “What was so hard for me was pretending that I wasn’t sick and it’s something that I did for the last seven-plus years. It really does start wearing on you. Now I don’t have to worry about any of it. It’s all out there.”
At one time, Muhl hid her condition for fear of losing opportunities in the movie industry but now talks about and even shows off her condition.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
