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He was 78 years old and suffered from what is known as triphallia, a congenital anomaly that affects one in nearly 6 million men. Affected patients have three penises, with all or part of the member triplicated.
The man, originally from England, had chosen to offer his body to science. It was when beginning the autopsy that medical students at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom discovered the anomaly. One penis (24mm wide and 77mm long) was visible and the other two, half the size of the first, were inside the scrotum. The first recorded case in history concerns a three-month-old infant born in Iraq in 2018. At the time, the baby had undergone surgery to remove the extra penises, reports Belgian media RTBF.
According to scientists, the malformation develops in the first trimester of pregnancy. There were, based on several theories, certain anomalies in a development gene, problems with cell migration or even variations in testosterone levels. When examining the body of the 78-year-old man, scientists noted that: “the urethra initially developed in the secondary penis but when this penis failed to develop, the urethra diverted its path and developed in the primary penis instead”. According to them, the third penis was a “remnant of the triplet genital tubercle”.
Triphallia is an extremely rare anomaly, therefore rarely studied. However, doctors continue their analyses of the body in order to better understand it.
