It's a sign that a much-needed procedure in South Africa is really working.
The recipient of the world's first successful penis transplant will soon be a father, according to the South African outlet News24. His surgeons were recently informed that his girlfriend is pregnant.
The surgery took place just six months ago, three years after the 21-year-old had lost his own organ after infection caused by a botched ceremonial circumcision. Stellenbosch University urologist, Prof. Andre van der Merwe, who led the historic surgical team, explained at a March news conference that South Africa has a particular need for such a surgery: Members of the Xhosa ethnic group often practice adult circumcision, and poor sanitation leads to some 250 amputations every year.
To get permission to use the penis that has now facilitated a pregnancy, van der Merwe's team had to fashion a new one out of abdominal skin for the deceased donor to be buried with. One day soon, we may not need donors at all: Last year, researchers reported progress in lab-grown penises built with the recipient's own cells to avoid organ rejection.
This is good news for men who lose their penises to cancer and accidents, too.
[Ed note: We recently ran a story about a woman who succeeded in having a Live Birth After Autograft of Ovarian Tissue Cryopreserved During Childhood.]
Original Submission
Related Stories
A Belgian woman has become the first to give birth to a child after having ovarian tissue that was removed and frozen nearly 14 years earlier transplanted back into her body:
The 27-year-old had an ovary removed at age 13, just before she began invasive treatment for sickle cell anaemia. Her remaining ovary failed following the treatment, meaning she would have been unlikely to conceive without the transplant. Experts hope that this procedure could eventually help other young patients. The woman gave birth to a healthy boy in November 2014, and details of the case were published on Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia at the age of five. She emigrated from the Republic of Congo to Belgium where doctors decided her disease was so severe that she needed a bone marrow transplant using her brother's matching tissue. But before they could begin the bone marrow transplant, they needed to give her chemotherapy to disable her immune system and stop it from rejecting the foreign tissue. Chemotherapy can destroy the ovarian function, so they removed her right ovary and froze tissue fragments. At that time, she was showing signs of puberty, but had not yet started her periods. Her remaining ovary failed at 15. Ten years later, she decided she wanted to have a baby, so doctors grafted four of her thawed ovarian fragments onto her remaining ovary and 11 fragments onto other sites in her body. The patient started menstruating spontaneously five months later, and became pregnant naturally at the age of 27.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:37PM
You are getting pregnant by getting a penis transplant?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:59PM
Maybe they got it backwards?
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 3, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:32PM
No, the surgeon is the one who got pregnant. It's a complicated story.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Monday June 15 2015, @12:03AM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @04:24AM
It wasn't a full transplant; it was more of an injection.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @08:10AM
the patient originally said "she" wanted a penis, so the surgeon cut one from some rapist that had been shot dead in the act, but he put it on the wrong way and she got preggers. now the surgeon is going around telling people that he is a proud father
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:37PM
It's possible to impregnate a woman by simple using a needle to extract the sperm from the male. And inject it into the uterus. But it's not very romantic nor pain free.
So the key question is, does this transplanted penis makes it feel good to have penetrative sex or is it just like a numb appendix?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:54PM
So the key question is, does this transplanted penis makes it feel good to have penetrative sex or is it just like a numb appendix?
"just as good" as the original seems to imply it's fully functional.
“It’s a massive breakthrough. We’ve proved that it can be done – we can give someone an organ that is just as good as the one that he had,”
(Score: 1, Touché) by KGIII on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:35PM
To be fair, the one he had is broken, otherwise they would not be replacing it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday June 15 2015, @09:17AM
To be fair, the one he had is broken, otherwise they would not be replacing it.
incorrect. the one he had was fine but a botched circumcision resulted in an infection which ultimately resulted amputation.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday June 15 2015, @12:15PM
If it ain't broke...
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1, Troll) by KGIII on Tuesday June 16 2015, @10:37AM
Was that the one he had or the one he had had?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 4, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:40PM
The World’s First Penis Transplant has Reportedly Resulted in a Pregnancy
Wow. The surgeon got the plumbing totally wrong on that one.
-
Alternative joke: Aren't most pregnancies caused by penis "transplants"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 4, Insightful) by dusty monkey on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:47PM
Maybe its time to stop mutilating the genitals of baby boys.
- when you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil - stop supporting evil -
(Score: 5, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:58PM
I wouldn't exactly call an 18-year old a baby-boy.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:05PM
Maybe its time to stop mutilating the genitals of baby boys.
Maybe its time to stop mutilating the genitals. FTFY
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 15 2015, @01:24AM
My father-in-law lost hist penis to cancer. The doctor said that form of cancer is extremely rare in the United States, where circumcision is widely practiced; it's much more common in South America and places where most men are uncircumcised, as my father-in-law was.
Jews practice ritual circumcision, too, and have for a very long time, so perhaps it comes down to the hygiene practiced in the ritual. The Xhosa could compare notes with the rabbis, modify a bit, and keep their tradition without compromising health.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:26PM
...doesn't actually mean there's any sort of "need" for this surgery there.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:39PM
I see where you are going with this. Now I want to see how far you can go before you offend somebody's delicate senses. (I do not mind, I think I am the only black person here and I am only 1/4 black so I say run with it.)
So, then, we have established that. Now, where, exactly, are you going with this? ;-)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:04PM
I know where I would go with it. Forget about race - anyone who trusts the local shaman/witch doctor to use a knife on his penis is pretty much undeserving of procreating. I would say the same if this were an Asian, a European, or an aborigine from the Americas or Australia. And, the same would apply for the green men who were supposed to live on Mars.
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:16PM
I must be honest and that I am admit mostly trying to get an amusing response or two seeing as I am bored.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 3, Informative) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:41PM
Without the circumcision, he would be considered a child. His peers would openly treat him with contempt and he would be unable to marry or procreate, which defeats the purpose of avoiding the procedure. In ancient times an uncircumcised man having sex was a capital offence for both parties, according to my limited knowledge of the Bantu oral histories.
PS: Getting the witchdoctor* to do it would make some sense. Unfortunately these initiation "schools" tend to put any random schmuck in charge of performing the circumcisions. (Especially the illegal ones, of which there are many.) Many people nowadays get circumcised at a hospital before going. It is probably safer but carries its own risks, since the "schools" sometimes decide they don't accept such things and perform a second circumcision. You can imagine how that can end up.
Personally I'm against genital mutilation in all its forms (unless for good medical reasons) but try telling that to someone who believes that the ancestors insist.
* "Sangomas" object to being called witchdoctors.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:27PM
I'm sure the one performing the operation anesthesizes himself before operating
;-)
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 15 2015, @01:27AM
For what it's worth I would be unwilling to even a Western doctor near my penis with a sharp instrument.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @05:32AM
Generally, having doctors use sharp instruments on you isn't much of an option, unless being dead sounds like a good deal to you.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Tuesday June 16 2015, @02:48AM
Really I wasn't going anywhere with it. I don't care what color a group of idiots is, as long as they are a group
of idiots I think they should have less(no) children.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:28PM
"[Ed note: We recently ran a story about a woman who succeeded in having a Live Birth After Autograft of Ovarian Tissue Cryopreserved During Childhood.]"
Somehow - this story just doesn't seem as interesting as the autografted ovary. Generally speaking, if us guys aren't poking our penises where they aren't wanted, we don't lose them. Women, on the other hand, have a variety of problems that are far more pressing than some idiot having his winkey whacked for ceremonial bullshit.
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:06PM
I know what you mean, but there are many millions of people in the world. male and female, who find themselves, through no fault of their own, born into societies with "traditions" that result in intimate parts of their bodies being removed by butchery at ages where they are physically and mentally unable to object or to resist.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:28PM
Nominated for the Darwin awards...
(Score: 2) by Robotron on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:58PM
This was a dick move on everyone's part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:26PM
I worry what the consequences would be for being an asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @08:15AM
society turns to shit
(Score: 1) by penguinoid on Monday June 15 2015, @04:55PM
No, the dick move was performed by the surgeon who did the transplant.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:10PM
This just seems a bit odd. So a dead person donates his penis with the condition that he shall receive a new fake franken-penis crafted from his belly skin so he can be buried like a "man". Cause he really needs his fake penis in the afterlife or what?
Reattaching your own penis has apparently been a thing for ages now, just ask John and Lorena Bobbitt. That did apparently work so good he got to star in his own pornographic movie(s). So it should not be so strange to just attach another mans either.
In a decade or whatever this lab-grown thing becomes common will that be like the plastic surgery option for insecure men? Getting a giant penis so you don't have to look silly in the shower at the gym when other dudes check you out ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:28PM
I'm on the organ donor list. I had no idea it might include "boner donor", I'll have to edit my parts preferences.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:44PM
Why stop at one penis? one could have two for that instant double penetration. It would make masturbation kind of hard however.
Then I'll guess the dildo industry will "donate" to a senator or congressman in order to stop lab grown penises without any body attached for personal gratification purposes. That also indicate the reverse oppertunity too. Now any organized prostitution will see their business model eroded. In the same way that ice sawing and transportation got eroded by the fridge industry.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Sunday June 14 2015, @06:12PM
Only a problem for the one-armed paper-hangers out there, and I think a second arm would be a higher priority for most men, rather than a second penis.
BTW, refrigeration actually had the opposite effect on transportation than you suggested.
Now if you want to claim that refrigeration eroded ice transportation, then I could agree with you on the subject.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:41PM
There were special people that sawed up the ice blocks at the coast or lakes etc. Transported them to storage facilities and distributed them in dedicated tools of transportation. When refrigeration came it all went away. Guess there were no politicians to donate to at the time.
Of course this new technique allowed the transportation of sensitive food using refrigerated transport vehicles. But that's another story.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:34PM
Why stop at one penis? one could have two for that instant double penetration. It would make masturbation kind of hard however.
Well masturbation and hard are supposed to go together.
However, it's not difficult, it's essential:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1u75hh/ [reddit.com]
My prostate gets inflamed if I dont ejaculate enough. I'm probably the only guy with a legit reason to orgasm at least once every day or two days. My prostate gets stimulation from both cocks and creates a lot of seminal fluid. So when i cum it has to be squeezed every few days to get all the excess out. otherwise it feels bloated and painful.
Turns you into a prude though
Two dudes in my ass at the same time, with each dick in a different girl who were riding me, pussy to pussy, while a guy and girl stood over me and let me eat/lick/suck on them while they fucked.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday June 14 2015, @06:36PM
RTFA, his penis wasn't cut off. It was infected. There was nothing worth re-attaching.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:07PM
RTFA, his penis wasn't cut off. It was infected.
So the infected penis just fell off on its own? I must have missed that paragraph.
(Score: 1) by istartedi on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:35PM
I'm assuming that it had to be amputated to prevent the spread of the infection. If it's a choice between losing an appendage and losing your life, most of us will chose to lose the appendage.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:28PM
A chicken baster can get a female pregnant.
Now a testical transplant
(Score: 1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 15 2015, @12:29AM
"girlfriend".
Given that she is bearing a child out of wedlock, she must be detained in jail for three months so she may embroider a red letter "A" - for "Adulteress" - that she must sew to her dress then display for the rest of her days on this mortal coil.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 15 2015, @02:18AM
maybe by doing so I will enable my penis to places where my penis has not gone before.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 15 2015, @02:21AM
a friend of mine was circumsised when he was twelve years old, with the result that he had a woody for the weeks. He said it was quite painful.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Monday June 15 2015, @04:13PM
A 12-yr old with an endless woody? Yup, it must have been the circumcision...
(Score: 1) by cloud.pt on Monday June 15 2015, @03:46PM
Until a DNA test proves this, I'm skeptic about it.
After all, how can you trust on the faithfulness of a wife whose husband was john-less for whatever long (pun intended :D)...