- Brazilian boy from Sao Paulo was born with two penises due to a rare birth defect
- Medics were originally planning on removing the smaller of the two sex organs
- But plans were halted after his mother said he only urinated from the smaller
His members were conjoined at the base because of his one-in-5million birth defect.
Doctors at the Federal University of Sao Paulo were originally planning on removing the two-year-old's right penis — which was smaller.
However, surgeons decided to lop off the other one after the boy's mother revealed he could only urinate from his right.
Brazilian medics were originally planning on amputating the smaller of the two penises, however scans revealed the larger genitalia did not allow the passage of urine
Examinations showed his left penis didn't function correctly because its urethra was too narrow for urine to pass through.
The boy, who wasn't identified, wasn't even left with a stump because surgeons were able to completely detach his extra penis.
Detailing the case in the Journal of Pediatric Urology, surgeons did not explain why the boy's issue was only fixed when he was two.
The authors also didn't say how much bigger his left penis was.
Marcela Leal da Cruz and colleagues said the defect — known as diphallia — has only ever been spotted 100 times in history, with the first known case in 1609.
Experts estimate the condition affects about one out of every five to six million baby boys.
How diphallia occurs is unclear with no known single risk factor — but it's thought to happen by chance when genitalia develops in the womb.
Patients can either have complete diphallia, when both penises are well developed, such as in the Brazilian boy's case, or partial diphallia, when one penis is smaller or deformed.
Earlier this month MailOnline reported a case of an Uzbekistani boy born with two completely functional penises.
The unidentified boy, from the country's capital, Tashkent, lived with the condition for seven years without physical discomfort.
Unlike the Brazilian boy, the Uzbekistani child was able to pass urine out of both of his penises, which were conjoined at the shaft.
The case comes after a world first last year where Iraqi medics reported a boy being born with three penises, a defect known as triphalia.
Born with more than one penis: The one-in-6million condition
Diphallia is an extraordinarily rare defect where a boy is born with two penises, with the first recorded case dating back to the 1600s.Triphallia — which hadn't ever been recorded in medical literature until now — is the term for having three penises.
The condition is associated with other abnormalities, including being born with two scrotums or anuses.
An estimated one in every six million boys is born with the condition, according to researchers.
There is also a higher risk of spina bifida, a developmental congenital condition which causes some vertebrate protecting the spinal cord not fully form and remain open.
In most cases the penises are the same size and sit side by side.
In some men, the smaller penis will sit above the larger.
A man with two penises can urinate or ejaculate from one or both, according to reports.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...boy-born-two-penises-one-5million-defect.html
