A 15-year-old London-based teenager had to undergo surgery to remove a USB cable he had inserted into the penis.
Discover our latest podcast
He explained to doctors that the experiment was to ‘measure the length of his penis’. He soon realized what a mistake he had made after the two ends of the knotted cable were left hanging from his penis.
After several failed attempts to retrieve the cable, he ended up urinating blood.
The Surgery
He was then rushed to A&E where surgeons had to cut lengthwise into the area between the genitals and the ans to extract the knotted cable from his penis.
Luckily for this curious young man, there were no complications in his recovery and he was discharged from the hospital the next day.
Subsequent scans two weeks after the surgery showed he had no lasting complications, but would have to avail himself to regular monitoring in the future.
Dr Amr Raheem a consultant andrologist, from private health clinic International Andrology London, told MailOnline, although the surgery was successful, the boy is not out of the woods yet:
Although the surgery was successful and without immediate complications, he may later develop narrowing of the urethra which can give him problems when passing urine or predispose him to recurrent urinary tract infection
Not Uncommon
Doctors say they have seen instances where people inserted different objects into the opening at the tip of the penis such as needles, pins, pistachio shells, etc.
They do this for reasons ranging from sexual curiosity, sexual pleasure and as a result of mental disorder.
The term for when the insertion is done for sexual pleasure is known as sounding. Dr. Raheem said this is a worry trend that needs to be controlled.
I believe it is becoming more common as everything is thanks to social media and in general the easier ways that misinformation can be spread. We certainly have seen an increase in these practices amongst patients that present with symptoms in our clinics.