A 36-year-old Tanzanian man broke his penis in three places while having sex with his partner. A rare case has been reported. International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.
The man, whose name has not been released, was hospitalized with complaints of pain and swelling in his penis. He complained of pain and bleeding from the urethra (the tube through which urine and semen were removed from the body) for five hours. According to the patient, he heard a loud clicking sound after his penis “bumped” into his partner’s groin. MRI and ultrasound showed that the man had broken three different parts of the penis.
Doctors operated on him to correct an extremely rare urological emergency, and he made a full recovery. When re-examined six months later, the man reported that his erectile function had fully recovered.
There is no bone in the penis, and the fracture is a rupture of the cavernous bodies, which are special structures that run along the penis and harden the penis during an erection. After a penile fracture, men often experience a lifetime of erectile dysfunction and pain during sex.