Baby born with three penises makes history

A boy born with three penises is the first ever recorded case of human triphallia, a condition in which three phalluses are formed during embryonic development.

The baby boy normally has a visible penis just like the others but has sprouts that are situated under the sack which can be observed by medical professionals only.

The child, first seen by doctors as a 3-month-old, was from Duhok, Iraq. He underwent surgery to remove two of the phalluses, which were small projections at the base of the penis and scrotum. The third phallus was in the usual location. According to a case study published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports in November, the boy was doing well at a follow-up visit a year after surgery.

Extra, or “supernumerary” penises are a rare congenital condition, occurring only once every 5 million to 6 million live births, according to the researchers. The level of development of these extra phalluses differs in different individuals. In the case of the child in Iraq, the two additional penises contained the erectile tissue, called corpus cavernosum, which becomes engorged with blood during arousal, as well as a tissue called corpus spongiosum, which helps support the urethra, the tube through which urine passes. But the extra penises didn’t have urethras. This made surgical removal of the extra organs simple.

Dr. Shakir Saleem Jabali stated in a journal that this is the first ever reported case of ”triphallia” known as having three penises. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case with three penises or triphallia,” he wrote in a study published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.

In the journal, Dr. Jabali also wrote that the findings to be mysterious as the boys parents nor his family have a history of genetic aberrations and the child was not exposed to drugs while in the womb.

The doctor revealed that the other two extra penises didn’t have urethras (nerves that urine passes through) and the boy’s normal penis had urethras which was functioning right with no problems as per nature.

The doctor decided to surgically remove the two extra growths and formed a team of surgeons to perform the operation on the baby boy. Thankfully, the operation went seemingly well and the team successfully removed the two extra growth penises which had no urethras.

The ”triphallia” baby is currently deemed problem-free by the doctors but has follow-up appointments throughout the year at the hospital for observation, says the case report mentioned in the journal.

Doctors and medical professionals have yet to pinpoint the cause of the phallic deformity but ongoing studies have linked it to other congenital aberrations such as being born with two scrotums or anuses, according to a World Health Organization research but have not labeled the findings as official yet.