It’s quite amazing as for the first time in medical history, a baby boy has been born with three penises, a team of doctors have said.
The baby born with 3 penises, a condition called triphallia, was reported to have been born three months ago in Duhok, Iraq.
According to the doctors, the parents of the baby born with 3 penises discovered “two skin projections” at the base of his scrotum after which they took him to the hospital. The doctors were baffled when they discovered that they were penises.
Doctors in the north of the country, near Mosul, believe they are the first to ever publish a study detailing a case of human triphallia – in which someone has three penises.
Only one was functional so the other two — attached to the shaft of his actual penis and bottom of his scrotum — were surgically removed.
The unidentified boy, a native Kurd from Duhok, was three months oldq when the tale was first published last year.
Doctors said one in every five to six million boys is born with more than one penis, with around 100 cases of diphallia – two penises – recorded worldwide.
But the Iraqi boy is the first to have triphallia, according to the case report published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.
One case in India went viral in 2015 but experts could not verify the tale because it was never detailed in a medical journal.
One measured 2cm while the other was 1cm – only one of the penises had a head.
Only the child’s main penis was functioning, so the doctors carried out surgery to remove the other two penises.
The team, led by Dr Shakir Saleem Jabali, wrote in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports:
“Triphallia (three penises) is unreported condition in human until now.
“Patients with supernumerary penises have unique presentation and no cases are identical.
“Treatment is difficult because it poses medical, ethical, and cosmetic aspects. A combined multidisciplinary team is required for the management and long term follow up is required.
“Excision or reconstruction of the duplicate penis is required depending on the corporal development and anatomy of the urethra.”
Diphallia, a condition where a child is born with two penises, affects one in six million boys. It was first reported in 1609 by Swiss doctor Johannes Jacob Wecker when he analysed a cadaver.
Since then, only around 1,000 cases have been reported. The condition is not a danger in itself, but can lead to health complications. People with diphallia often experience other congenital defects, including digestive and urinary tract problems.
Diphallia is an extraordinarily rare defect where a boy is born with two penises, with the first recorded case dating back to the 1600s.
Triphallia — which hadn’t ever been recorded in medical literature until now — is the term for having three penises.
The condition is associated with other abnormalities, including being born with two scrotums or anuses.
An estimated one in every six million boys in America is born with the condition, according to researchers.
There is also a higher risk of spina bifida, a developmental congenital condition which causes some vertebrate protecting the spinal cord not fully form and remain open.
In most cases the penises are the same size and sit side by side.
In some men, the smaller penis will sit above the larger.
A man with two penises can urinate or ejaculate from one or both, according to reports.
The boy’s parents initially took him into hospital because of swelling in his scrotum, but when he arrived doctors noticed the boy had two extra penises.
One measured 2cm and was located at the root of his main penis, while the other was 1cm long and positioned below his scrotum.
They looked into whether the child had been exposed to drugs during pregnancy or if he had a family history of genetic abnormalities but neither were the case and the cause of the condition was a mystery.
Urologists found neither of the extra penises had a urethra, the tube that urine passes through, and decided surgery was the best option.
No problems were found on a follow-up visit a year after the operation, according to Dr Shakir Saleem Jabali, the author of the report.
Scientists are still baffled over the cause of supernumerary penises – the technical name for the extra members – the first case of which was reported in the 1600s.
Dr Jabali argued each case had a ‘unique presentation’.
Writing in the journal, he said: ‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case with three penises or triphallia.
‘No similar case is present in literature in human beings.’
The condition is associated with other abnormalities, including being born with two scrotums or anuses.
There have been reports of boys being able to urinate and ejaculate out of both penises.
But in this case the boy’s extra penises were non-functional and so surgery was less complicated.
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