This man’s penis transplant was a success, but there was an obvious problem

In April, doctors performed the world's third successful penis transplant.

Doctors successfully provided a 40 year old man with a new penis. The penis with which he was born had been had been lost 17 years ago.

He was operated on by the South African doctors who performed the first ever successful transplant on 11 December 2014.

According to the surgical team who spoke to the Daily Mail, the procedure took 10 hours.

During the next six months the patient will be able to have sex and urinate using the new body part.

However, there is another stage left in the process - tattooing.

The patient - a black male, was given a white member, which he is having medically tattooed to match his own skin colour at the end of 2017.

A medical tattoo artist, Rosemarie Andlauer of Miraculous Creations in Massachusetts, told the Daily Mail the tattooing process might require more than one sitting to complete it safely.

I would not tattoo all the way around. I would do lengthwise, probably one-third at a time. I would allow healing in between each session. This would take a little longer but remaining healthy and safe is too important to rush.

Professor André van de Merwe, head of Stellenbosch University's urology department, explained how the need for tattooing came about.

The patient is black, and the donor was white.

We have very few donors for this transplant procedure. But that is the only issue left.

The professor also explained that the transplant has greatly improved the man's happiness, having spent 17 years without a penis.

The man had been in relationships before, but whenever the question of sex arose, he bailed out. That will no longer be a problem.

He had been suffering with depression beforehand, and was even suicidal.

[Now] he is certainly one of the happiest patients we have seen in our ward. He is doing remarkably well. There are no signs of rejection and all the reconnected structures seem to be healing well.

HTDaily Mail

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