British man donates body, researchers discover he had 3 penises

It would have been the most unusual situation for a British man, who donated his body to the University of Birmingham Medical School for research, has he known that he had three penises.

He died at the age of 78 years.

The entire life he lived he was unaware of the fact, reports News 18. The bizarre case came to light after the researchers conducted a dissection.

“Two small supernumerary penises stacked in a sagittal orientation postero inferiority to the primary penis. Each penile shaft displayed its own corpora cavernosa and glans penis. The primary penis and largest and most superficial of the supernumerary penises shared a single urethra, which coursed through the secondary penis prior to its passage through the primary penis. A urethra-like structure was absent from the smallest supernumerary penis,” researchers said in a paper submitted to the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

“The urethra originally developed in the secondary penis, however, when this penis failed to develop, the urethra diverted its course and developed in the primary penis instead. The tertiary penis is a remnant of the triplicated genital tubercle.”

Being born with multiple penises, a condition known as polyphallia, is extremely rare, affecting approximately 1 in 5 to 6 million individuals. While research has documented instances of polyphallia from 1606 to 2023, triphalia – which essentially means ‘triple penis’ – has been reported only once before.

The paper also noted that the man “may have lived with functional deficits due to the abnormal anatomy of the region, which may include urinary tract infections, erectile dysfunction, or fertility issues, as later described”.