Medical students in the UK have made a remarkable discovery while assessing a body donated for research – a man with three penises. This extremely rare case of triphallia, a genetic anomaly causing a male to have three distinct penile shafts, was reported in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.
Diphallia, where a male is born with two penile shafts, is estimated to occur in around one in six million male babies. Only about 100 cases have been recorded in the past 400 years since it was medically recognised. Triphallia is even rarer, with this being only the second reported case, with the first being a baby born in Iraq in 2020.
The discovery was made during the cadaveric dissection of a 78-year-old man at the University of Birmingham Medical School. This adult case of triphallia is the first to be carefully studied through postmortem dissection, shedding light on the prevalence of such conditions.
The researchers found that the man’s external genitalia appeared normal, but upon closer inspection, they discovered two smaller penises within his scrotal sac, with one connected to the same urethra as the main penis. The third penis, the smallest one in his scrotal sac, lacked a urethra.
Genetic abnormalities affecting the expression of androgen receptors may have played a role in the formation of these abnormal penis shafts during the man’s early development. Such anomalies may pose a significant risk of infection or sexual and fertility dysfunction, according to scientists.
Understanding these rare cases is crucial for diagnosing and treating patients presenting with urological symptoms, as well as for procedures like catheter insertion, urological imaging, and surgery. The researchers suggest that the prevalence of polyphallia may be greater than expected, highlighting the importance of further research in this area.