All articles tagged with #urethra
A case from Iran reports a 41-year-old man who tried to treat incontinence by applying superglue to his urethra over two weeks, causing urinary retention and severe pain; doctors eventually removed a 10 cm block surgically after cystoscopy could not clear it, and he recovered normal urination six weeks later.
A medical cadaver study uncovered a 78-year-old man who donated his body had triphallia—three penises, with a single urethra routing through the two smaller penises into the main one. This is only the second documented case and the first cadaveric description, likely due to fetal genital tubercle triplication. Extra penises often cause complications, but this individual showed no symptoms, underscoring the extreme rarity and adding to medical understanding and potential surgical considerations for such anomalies.
A new study shows that the urethra of healthy men is teeming with microbial life and that vaginal sex can shape its composition. The research provides a healthy baseline for clinicians and scientists to contrast between healthy and diseased states of the urethra, an entrance to the urinary and reproductive systems. The study found that most of the healthy men had a simple, sparse community of oxygen-loving bacteria in the urethra, but some of the men also had a more complex secondary group of bacteria that are often found in the vagina and can disturb the healthy bacterial ecosystem of the vagina. The team speculates that these bacteria reside deeper in the penile urethra because they thrive in oxygen-scarce settings. Only men who reported having vaginal sex carry these bacteria, hinting at the microbes’ origins.
A new study published in Cell Reports Medicine suggests that a significant proportion of the microbes in the male urethra come from a source outside the body, specifically from vaginal sex. The study found that regular vaginal sex can reshape the male urethral microbiome, and the influence of vaginal sex was so strong that it explained 10% of the variation of the entire urethral microbiome. The researchers plan to test whether microbes can migrate from the male urethra to the vagina in a similar fashion. The study has the potential to change how STI diagnosis and management are handled in a positive way.
A new study shows that the urethra of healthy men is teeming with microbial life and that vaginal sex can shape its composition. The research provides a healthy baseline for clinicians and scientists to contrast between healthy and diseased states of the urethra, an entrance to the urinary and reproductive systems. The study found that most of the healthy men had a simple, sparse community of oxygen-loving bacteria in the urethra, but some of the men also had a more complex secondary group of bacteria that are often found in the vagina and can disturb the healthy bacterial ecosystem of the vagina. The team speculates that these bacteria reside deeper in the penile urethra because they thrive in oxygen-scarce settings. Only men who reported having vaginal sex carry these bacteria, hinting at the microbes' origins.