You know your penis is in bad shape when even your penis surgeons are grimacing and covering their noses. If Gollum from Lord of the Rings had a penis, this is probably what it looked like. Up close-and yes, I was allowed to watch everything, the entire excruciating 4-hour procedure, within arm’s reach of the action-the patient’s penis is grey and disfigured.
Like a tube sock filled with mayonnaise that was left on a Florida parking lot for the summer. “I don’t think there’s a lot of healthy tissue to work with here,” he says. Bales grabs the man’s penis, examining it from every angle, his expression somber. He pauses and looks at the patient, who is lying on the operating table, his legs in stirrups, peacefully sedated.ĭr. Related: Penis Doctor Reveals the 5 Craziest Conditions He’s Ever Treated It comes off in pieces, one little chunk of flesh and muscle at a time, says Gregory Bales, M.D., a urologist and surgeon at the University of Chicago who invited me to witness a penectomy-the medical term for surgical penile amputation. You might imagine it coming off in one brutal slice, like a John Wayne Bobbitt castration. But the worst part about watching a penis get guillotined from its owner is that it takes so damn long. Sure, it’s terrifying, and bloody, and it makes you want to brush a hand against your own crotch, just to make sure it’s still there. Watching a penis get surgically removed isn’t anything like you’d expect.
