An Iranian mother has given birth to a boy without a penis. The baby’s scrotum is intact and surgeons are planning to give him a vagina instead.
Due to his uncommon defect, the boy urinates via his anus.
Though the boy’s condition is unidentified, it is medically called aphallia, a rare condition that occurs in up to one in 30 million births.
Below 100 cases have been documented as far as medical literature is concerned.
Aphallia happens when genitalia does not develop normally in the womb during the first few months of pregnancy.
A similar process causes diphallia, a situation where boys are born with two penises.
According to medics who reported the case in the journal Radiology Case Reports, the boy was born normally in a “good general state”.
His mother, though unnamed, reported no problems during her pregnancy.
Special tests conducted after he was born made it possible for doctors to work out how his unique urinary system worked.
A special dye detected a fistula, an abnormal connection between his bladder and his rectum.
Boys born with no penis are usually crafted one by surgeons in a medical procedure known as phalloplasty. Also, they can be given a urethra, with doctors connecting their urinary system again.
However, in the boy’s case, medics said the recommended treatment is gender reassignment and feminisation surgery to produce a fake vagina.
Also, they recommended oestrogen therapy during puberty to repress changes in his body like development of facial hair and the deepening of the voice to conform to his new gender.
However, the medics at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences did not reveal if the boy was going to get feminisation surgery.
