The rise in botched penis enlargement procedures in Papua New Guinea has become so concerning that it has prompted doctors to warn of a “nationwide problem.”
Men in the southwestern Pacific country are injecting themselves with substances like silicone and coconut oil in an attempt to make their genitals larger, The Guardian reported.
The problem is so rampant in the region that Akule Danlop, a doctor at Port Moresby General Hospital, said he’s seen as many as 500 patients with botched injections in recent years — and treated seven patients with the problem just the other day.
“I have seen five new cases every week for the past two years and these are the ones that have come forward for treatment,” Danlop said.
Danlop’s operated on at least 90 men to treat deformities as a result of injections — some of whom lose their ability to have an erection following the procedure.
“The bulk of them have abnormal, lumpy masses growing over the penis and sometimes involving the scrotum. A good number are coming in with ulcers; they eventually burst open,” said Danlop. “Some of them have difficulty urinating because the foreskin is so swollen it cannot contract.”
The victims of botched injections come from all walks of life, but Danlop said a majority of them are between the ages of 18 to 40. Although, he has seen patients as young as 16 and as old as 55.
These injections aren’t just creating problems for patients, they’re draining medical resources and making it difficult to care for other patients with diseases.
Danlop is reportedly the only surgeon in the region capable of treating the problem, and it’s taking up a lot of his time.
“There’s cancer, there are other conditions [that need treatment]. It’s a bit frustrating to see these cases when you have other people who deserve [help] and then these people are causing themselves harm, they do it to themselves,” he said.
Adding weight to the problem is that several of those performing the procedures are shady medical professionals trying to make money on the side.
“Lots of young men are being conned … to pay some money to be enlarged and sustaining quite serious injuries,” Glen Mola, professor of reproductive health, obstetrics and gynecology at the University of PNG, said.
“It doesn’t do what it’s purported to do and can cause terrible damage, and can mean in some cases that you can’t have sex anymore.”
But Mola said Papua New Guinea isn’t the only place where men are subjecting themselves to harmful procedures in a bid to feel better about themselves.
“I don’t think it’s particularly a PNG thing, in every society, adolescents and young men have a thing about their penis,” he said.
Earlier this year, Jack Chapman, a 28-year-old Australian living in Seattle, died from fatal bleeding as a result of silicone injections in his genitals.