Some homosexuals insert objects into their penis for pleasure. Some such objects include pencils, pens, swizzle sticks, buckshot, and glass beads.(1) Goldstone described the case of a man who inserted a piano wire in his penis and it ended up knotted in his bladder.(1) The surgeon could not get it through a scope and the man had to have his bladder cut open.

Van Ophoven and deKernion reviewed 800 cases of penile foreign body insertion from 1755 to 1999.(2) The inserted objects fall into the following categories: animals or parts of animals (coyote’s rib, dog’s penis, leech, snails, animal bones, etc.), plants and vegetables (slippery elm, grass, cucumber, pistachio shells, etc.), sharp and lacerating objects (pencils, pins, needles, etc.), wire like objects (cable, catheter, rubber tube, etc.), and fluids and powders (nasal mucus, glue, cocaine, etc.).(2) Jaiswal described a 28 year-old-man with a penicillin bottle containing tincture of iodine, in the preputial sac.(3) The patient had inserted the bottle to tickle his glans penis during masturbation. The bottle was so firmly impacted that general anesthesia was required to remove it.

The most common motive associated with foreign bodies of the genitourinary tract is sexual pleasure.(4) Penile foreign objects occur with such frequency that every urologist and practitioner may expect to treat them.(2)

Insertion of objects into the penis is rarely fatal. However, Byard et al. described a 40-year-old man who inserted a pencil into his penis, whereupon it could not be retrieved. He developed a septic condition, did not seek medical help, and subsequently died.(5)

As with rectal foreign body insertions, it is difficult to estimate the incidence of urethral foreign body insertions among homosexuals because medicine is aware of only those individuals that require professional help in removing stuck urethral objects.

References

  1. Goldstone SE. The Ins and Outs of Gay Sex: a medical handbook for men (Dell Publishing, New York, NY, 1999 [The author is an out-of-the-closet homosexual physician]).
  2. van Ophoven A, deKernion JB. Clinical management of foreign bodies of the genitourinary tract. J Urol 2000;164(2):274-87.
  3. Jaiswal AK. An unusual foreign body in the preputial sac. Genitourin Med 1992;68(5):334-5.
  4. Grumet GW. Pathologic masturbation with drastic consequences: case report. J Clin Psychiatry 1985;46(12):537-9.
  5. Byard RW, Eitzen DA, James R. Unusual fatal mechanisms in nonasphyxial autoerotic death. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2000;21(1):65-8.