A man who donated his body to science following his death left researchers in shock after they discovered that he had a rare health condition.
Following his death, the 78-year-old British man was dissected by medical students who couldn’t believe what they found in the pelvis.
A report was made in the Journal of Medical Case Reports back in October 2024, documenting a “serendipitous discovery” once they made their way below the belt.
After cutting into the cadaver, they made their way down to the skin of the scrotal sac and discovered that inside, adjacent to a regular external penis, were two smaller penile structures.
But yet, only the primary penis was externally visible, though all three penises had a commonality.
They all included a bulbous structure called a glans, as well as a chamber of spongy tissue that would fill with blood to cause an erection, known as the corpus cavernosum.
What did doctors discover?
They measured the three penises, with the external one standing at around 3 inches (7.7 centimeters) long and 0.9 inches (2.4 cm) wide.
His second penis measured shorter, at 1.49 inches (3.8 cm) long and was 0.51 inches (1.3 cm) wide, while the third penis was similar, at 1.45 inches (3.7 cm) long with a width of 0.47 inches (1.2 cm).
Doctors discovered that there was just one urethra, which is the tube that transports urine from the bladder.
However, a “meandering course” was found through the secondary penis and into the primary penis, which then terminates in the external penis’ urethral orifice.
Authors suggested that the urethra originated in the secondary penis, but changed course and redirected into the primary penis when the secondary one didn’t fully develop.
No branches were found in the tunnel, with no urethral tubes in the third and smallest penis.
The report noted that a structure known as the genital tubercle usually arises and eventually develops into external genitalia, forming a clitoris or a penis – but this didn’t happen with this man.
During his fetal development, “there may have been triplication of the genital tubercle,” resulting in three penises, the medical report details.
It should be noted that the more common occurrence of this anomaly is called diphallia, referring to two penises.
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Final findings
Neither the students nor the instructors at the medical school knew the man’s identity, nor did they know about his medical history or have access to his records.
Due to this, they didn’t know if the man knew about his condition, though they doubted that his triphallia went unnoticed.
If the man needed a urinary catheter insertion, it would have been very challenging because of “the tortuous nature of the urethra,” which went through his second penis.
The medical experts noted that there was scarring in the man’s groin as a result of an inguinal hernia, where abdominal tissue goes through an opening in the abdominal wall.
Pressure or friction from the two extra penises could have weakened the man’s lower abdominal wall and contributed to the hernia, which may have led doctors to discover the additional penile structures.
The development of more than one penis only appears in approximately one in five to six million live births, according to a 2010 review of case reports.
But these are mostly diphallia, with the man’s case becoming the first discovery of a triple penis in a cadaver, and only the second known case in scientific literature.
While this can affect sexual dysfunction, fertility problems, and urinary tract infections, the authors suggested that the man may have known about it and chosen to avoid removing it “due to the apparent lack of symptoms,” and its “benign nature.”
