MEN IN BED: PENIS AMPUTATION
The Bobbitt syndrome. John Bobbitt has become a household name. Before his wife mutilated him, he was an unknown bankrupt. Afterwards, the former US marine was fielding invitations to chat shows, being paid $2500 a radio appearance, considering film and book offers and receiving a constant stream of letters from women offering to rehabilitate him sexually. Today he’s a media and would-be movie star. You would think he was the first man ever to have his penis amputated and then surgically reattached. He is not. It has happened dozens of times.
In Sydney alone, at least six penis reattachments have been done. In Japan and Thailand the phenomenon is well recorded, and it was recently published that eighteen of the operations have been performed in Bangkok. There is even a report of an incompletely severed penis which was restored in Germany as long ago as 1929.
Not all of these amputations were performed by disgruntled partners. Many have been the result of self-mutilation and some were the result of accidents. Mothers ‘hearing voices’ have also been known to mutilate their sons.
But microsurgeons don’t like to talk about any of this. They fear that publicising the events that necessitate the reattachment will lead to copycat behaviour. Already, several cases have been reported in the wake of the Bobbitt publicity. In one case, a Turkish woman severed the penis of her lover, claiming he regularly forced her to have ‘divergent’ sex. In another, an American woman declared that years of abuse drove her to cut off her husband’s testicles and part of his penis as he lay in a drunken sleep. Years before Bobbitt, a Queensland woman removed her husband’s penis and then put the severed piece in a garbage disposal unit and turned it on. The man managed to rescue it and then get himself to a hospital, where it was sewn back on. Today he says that although he can get an erection he still has problems because of scarring and damaged nerve-endings which cause numbness.
Reattaching a penis is difficult and time-consuming, but microsurgeons say it is not as complex as rejoining a severed hand, which has a more intricate internal structure. Apart from the surgeon’s skill, the ultimate success of the reattachment depends on the way the penis is cut off and on the condition of the amputated section. Major arteries, veins and nerves need to be rejoined and replanted, and the urethra tube through which urine passes must be reconnected. Urinary function is more easily restored than erectile function because the penis is essentially a sponge of little blood vessels which inflate like a balloon when filled with blood during erection. The penis contains three inner tubes which have to be very tightly stitched together so they are blood-tight. Besides the urethra, arteries, veins and nerves being reconnected, the inner capsule, the outer capsule and the skin have to be joined. It can take five to eight hours, depending on the injury.
Bobbitt is confident that he will eventually lead a normal sex life. He has good reason for optimism. Many men in Bobbin’s position have regained competent erectile power.
A Sydney man who had an experience similar to Bobbitt’s in 1985 tried out his repaired penis in Kings Cross and told journalists it passed the test and that he enjoyed the experience very much. Once the nerves regenerate, some erotic sensation does return, but this takes time.
Penis amputation is reported more in Japan and Thailand than anywhere else and is usually the result of self-mutilation. In Japan, this mutilation has been known to precede harakiri, a national form of honourable suicide.
Apart from the physical and psychological horror of penis amputation there’s a real danger that the man may bleed to death. When Bobbitt arrived at hospital, the urologist who assisted the operation said there was a large amount of blood where the penis should have been. Bobbitt’s wife had thrown the penis into a bush, from which it was later recovered. If it had not been found, his doctors say their only option would have been to sew up the stump.
The blood and nerve supply from the arm were also used, and a piece of the man’s twelfth rib was put inside the penis to give it some rigidity. This rib is cartilage, not bone, and resulted in the penis being semi-erect. The new penis was connected to the powerful artery that feeds the legs, so that when the man became aroused, blood would rush in from this artery and complete the erection. Because his testicles were intact, the man was able to ejaculate. Fortunately, men who have their amputated penises reattached retain their virility and fertility because their testicles and reproductive systems are unharmed If all goes well, Bobbitt should be able to father children without needing to resort to artificial insemination.
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Tags: Women’s Health