The first successful penis transplant in the US – again, in the US, as I believe it’s been done elsewhere – has been proclaimed a success. Story here.
64-year-old Thomas Manning had to have his own penis amputated four years ago due to cancer. His new penis was attached in a 15-hour operation performed by scores of doctors and nurses. So if you ever are feeling sorry for yourself, spare a thought for this man and be grateful for what you have.
I want to hear the story about why 1,300 servicemen, mostly under 30, are coming home from the Middle East in need of a penis transplant. Apparently not an issue among the civilian population that was urgent enough to need to be addressed. (1300 was the number cited in the interview on CBS news.)
I believe the current number is 51,000 US wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. 1,300 would be 2.5% of all wounded servicemen (and women) involving the penis,which were serious enough that a transplant is required. That’s one out of forty.
I add (and women) to emphasis that it is 2.5% of all war wounds, including casualties who don’t even posses that particular organ. So well over 2.5 among those who are susceptible to the pesentation
With a very high number of civilian cases involving late-life cancer, what accounts for so many penis failures among young military personnel?
According to the surgeon, “While sexual function is a goal, reproduction is not, because of a concern surrounding the ethical issues of who the potential father may be.”
Say what? Doesn’t the patient still have his own testicles? Nowhere in the article does it say they were also transplanted.
On a serious note, I just can’t see this having a good ending. Penises can be reconstructed from existing tissue (although it’s not quite what he was born with) and this way, you don’t have to deal with antirejection drugs, which are dangerous in their own right.
Some people who have had hand transplants have stopped taking the meds because their QOL was lower with the hand, due to the meds making them chronically ill. A woman who had a uterus transplant (now, THAT is a disaster waiting to happen!) rejected hers the day after the “successful” surgery was announced.
I will personally consider this procedure a success if he dies many years from now from unrelated issues, with his organ intact.
Based on another article I read on this case, his testicles were also removed when his penis was. They didn’t want to transplant new testicles along with the new penis to avoid ethical issues.
This needs to be made into a major motion picture, just for the headline.
“Coming Soon - The Tom Manning Story”.
On a less serious note, would the new equipment “work”, in the sense of being able to reach orgasm? I used to train with an engineer who made some kind of penis pump - AFAICT legitimate ones. It was some device or other that they implanted in the scrotum, and one kind of turned a switch and things would inflate. I don’t know if that enabled full function, in the sense of orgasm, but he talked once about developing a device that was similar to a device called a probang that would be incorporated into the device.
A probang is a device with which my father the veterinarian was familiar. It is used in collecting semen from bulls for use in artificial insemination. It is electric in nature, and sends a charge (I think) thru the prostate, which is apparently enough to send the bull into his Happy Place pretty much at once. My friend the penis pump engineer talked about adding this functionality to his penis pump. Don’t know if that is actually available as an option nowadays, or if it is done in humans at all.
I imagine such a combination would be kind of large and invasive.