Just before her 48th birthday, Jane Kochan decided it was time to do something about her droopy eyes and the deepening lines around her mouth. After months of indecision, the financial manager booked an appointment with a New York plastic surgeon she'd read about in her favorite fashion magazine.
There was only one thing left to do: persuade her twin sister, Joan, to go under the knife too. "I never even considered doing it alone," says Jane.
Joan, who lives a few floors below her sister in the same Clearwater, Fla., apartment building, quickly agreed. "It's a competition thing," says Joan, whose voice sounds nearly identical to her sister's. "I didn't want her coming back looking better than me."
Even before their back-to-back face-lifts, performed according to their birth order (Joan went first), it was difficult for most people to tell the Kochan twins apart. Now they look as similar as ever. "Sometimes," Joan says, "I will just look at her and think, 'Wow, I look really great.' "
Although cosmetic surgery among twins might strike some people as unusual, it doesn't seem odd to most identical twins or people who know them. Many twins share an extremely close relationship throughout their lives, and researchers say their close physical resemblance is a significant part of the bond they feel for each other.
Years ago, twins had few options as they grew older and began looking different -- an inevitable change, considering that scientists estimate that only a third of the effects of aging are related to genetic factors. Psychologists who study twins say it is common for them to feel a disquieting sense of loss as they watch their physical appearances gradually become less and less alike.
Still, twins who get cosmetic surgery face a unique set of monozygotic dilemmas. What if one twin wants surgery and the other doesn't? Twins also have to settle on which procedures they want, which can pose difficulties if one wants a smaller nose or a less noticeable face-lift.
Not surprisingly, the siblings' different financial situations can affect their decision. Earlier this year, a reader wrote to Dear Abby asking for advice because her twin sister could no longer afford the face-lifts they both had been planning. Abby's response: If twinship is important, the sister who could afford surgery should forgo it because it could make her feel guilty about abandoning her twin. (The column generated a flurry of responses on Internet sites for twins, with some suggesting the sisters pool their resources and get only the procedures they could afford.)
