A baby was born with three penises — a world first caused by a rare medical condition
Doctors discovered a baby was born with three penises three months after his parents brought him home in 2020.
According to a case study published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports, the child was born in Duhok, Iraq and initially presented with no sign of the extra penises.
After three months, his parents noticed additional bits of skin near his scrotum as well as swelling in the area.
Upon further inspection, doctors realized the extra bits of skin were actually penises, one approximately 2 cm in length and another approximately 1 cm.
The report stated this is the world's first recorded case of triphallia, or triple penis.
While triphallia has been unheard of in humans until this case, diphallia – or double penis – has been a known medical condition since the 1600s according to the International Business Times. The study itself stated diphallia occurs in every 5 to 6 million live births.
Cases of additional penises in humans are rare and can present unique medical challenges if the condition is not treated early in life.
According to the report, no case of a child born with an additional penis is the same, which can make developing a uniform approach to treatment difficult.
While some cases report children being born with two fully functioning penises, others are superficial and less complicated to remove.
"Patients with supernumerary penises have unique presentation and no cases are identical," study authors Shakir Saleem Jabali and Ayad Ahmad Mohammed wrote in the report.
Luckily, the baby in the report had both additional penises removed with no problems and has healed well a year after the procedure.
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