Most of us have heard of roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, I rarely hear about soldiers who have their penis cut as a result of these bombs.
Today, the world's first penis transplant gives hope to these young men and their families.
You will think that the biggest hurdle of a new transplant is organ rejection or inadequate emotions and functioning. However, one of the biggest challenges was that he couldn't accept the donor penis as his own.
This type of psychological rejection was the last expected in 2006, when the world's first penis transplant was performed on a man whose penis had been amputated after an accident.
This surgery was completely successful with medical standards. The blood circulation was good, men were able to urinate normally, and even healthy erections and perhaps orgasms were on the horizon. However, the surgeon had to remove the penis just a few weeks later due to the psychological trauma the patient and his wife were experiencing. Neither the man nor his wife could play as much as his former penis, he could adapt to having another man's penis.
These are some of the problems surgeons and patients face in new fields, with the entire limbs and body parts being implanted from donors to those in severe need. A struggle is a way of psychologically integrating new hands, faces, or penis belonging to a dead person.
This is very different from administering the transplanted kidney, liver, or even the heart. These organs are much more important than the hands, face, or penis, but they are not actually visible unless there is ultrasound or Xray. And then, “That's funny! That's my heart!”
In the implanted parts of the body that we have seen and used every day of life, it is very different. The penis isn't the only problem. A man who received a transplanted hand and realized he was scared of it had a similar problem.
So it was unsettling that a South African surgeon had the world's second penis transplant about a year ago. They waited four months after the surgery and announced that they had implanted a donor penis into the body of a young man who lost his penis due to wrong circumcision.
The surgeon wanted to make sure the penis was functioning properly, but more importantly, they wanted to be convinced that they were able to make psychological adjustments that Chinese recipients failed to make.
A young South African man surprised the surgeon with all the numbers. From achieving successful erections, having sexual sex, and then accepting the transplant as your own as “my penis.”
Another hurdle is to hesitate to let the surgeon harvest the penis of their beloved son or husband. The heart, liver and kidneys are fine, but donating a loved one's penis remains a hurdle for families and surgeons who need them.
Fortunately, physical, psychological, donor and family rejection quickly decreases significantly. That's because it's about five years since researchers were able to clone a male penis from their cells.
Scientists have already managed to create bio-engineered vaginas for women, and are successfully cloned rabbit penis. They are currently working on a process that allows human penis to be bioengineered from the cells of males undergoing implantation.
In the meantime, the intersection of technology and psychology remains fascinating. Penis transplants will gradually become available to veterans and other men who have lost their penis. Totally unexpected, this development gives deeper insight into the struggle described nearly 200 years ago when Mary Shelley created “Frankenstein.”
