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WATCH | Baby born with three penises, a world first

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In the town of Duhok in Iraq, an unidentified boy has undergone surgery to remove two extra appendages after he was born with three penises.

This is the first-ever case of triphallia, as recorded in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. Triphallia a rare deformity where a child is born with three penises.

Doctors state that only one in five to six million boys is born with supernumerary (more than one) penises. The research also shows that even diphallia is rare - a case where a child is born with two penises. Only 100 cases have been recorded worldwide since 1609. 

In India, a similar case was reported in 2015, but experts could not verify that this was true. As a result, it was not recorded in the medical journal.

Read: Surrogate mum suffers pricy legal battle for full custody after falling pregnant while already pregnant

When the doctors observed the Duhok baby, they found that only one of the three organs was functional and that two of the penises did not have the urethra - the tube that urine passes through - and decided that surgery was the best option.

After the surgery, the boy was discharged and a year later went for a follow-up, where no problems were found.

Usually, the condition may be caused by the child being exposed to drugs during pregnancy or a family history of genetic abnormalities, yet neither of these were the cause of this child having three penises, says Dr Shakir Saleem Jabali, who authored the report. 

He added that scientists are perplexed by this occurrence, and the uniqueness of it.

Watch the video above for more. 

Sources: Mailonline

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