UK Man Found to Have 3 Penises in Ultra-Rare Condition, a 1st in Adults

London: Doctors in the United Kingdom were shocked after they found that a man in his late 70s whose body was donated for research had three penises. According to the scientists, this was of a kind case and the man likely went his entire life without knowing about such a rare anatomy since his external genitalia looked completely normal.

The discovery about the condition has been published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

The three penises are an extremely rare condition and is called triphallia. This is only the second case of triphallia to have been reported in humans and the first in adults.

The first case of triphallia was recorded in 2020 in a three-month-old child in Iraq who had two-centimetre-long glans attached to the root of the main penis beneath the perineum.

"Two small supernumerary penises stacked in a sagittal orientation postero inferiorly to the primary penis. Each penile shaft displayed its own corpora cavernosa and glans penis," researchers said in a paper submitted to the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

"The primary penis and largest and most superficial of the supernumerary penises shared a single urethra, which coursed through the secondary penis prior to its passage through the primary penis. A urethra-like structure was absent from the smallest supernumerary penis," they added.

Scientists say presence of a hidden, additional penis, for instance, can create issues for males when it comes to inserting a catheter, imaging the urethra, or performing surgery in the area.

At the moment, as per reports, polyphallia is thought to occur in one in every 5 to 6 million live births. However, the internal cases can potentially remain hidden for the entire length of a person's life, resulting in unexplainable symptoms related to urination, erections, or male fertility.