A baby was born with 3 penises - a world first caused by a rare medical condition
A baby was born with three penises, according to International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.
His parents noticed the differences in his genitalia three months after he was delivered.
According to the report, this is the world's first reported case of triphallia - or three penises.
Doctors discovered a baby was born with three penises three months after his parents brought him home in 2020.
According to a case study published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports, the child was born in Duhok, Iraq, and initially presented with no sign of the extra penises.
After three months, his parents noticed additional bits of skin near his scrotum as well as swelling in the area.
On further inspection, doctors realized the extra bits of skin were actually penises, one about 2 cm in length and another about 1 cm.
The baby in the report had both additional penises removed with no problems and has healed well a year after the procedure.
The report said it was the world's first recorded case of triphallia, or triple penis.
While triphallia has been unheard of in humans until this case, diphallia - or double penis - has been a known medical condition since the 1600s according to the International Business Times. The study itself said diphallia occurs in every 5 million to 6 million live births.
Cases of additional penises in humans are rare and can present unique medical challenges if the condition is not treated early in life.
According to the report, no case of a child born with an additional penis is the same, which can make developing a uniform approach to treatment difficult.
While some cases report children being born with two fully functioning penises, others are superficial and less complicated to remove.
"Patients with supernumerary penises have unique presentation and no cases are identical," study authors Shakir Saleem Jabali and Ayad Ahmad Mohammed wrote in the report.
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