Paul Lucas was 37, had been married for only a few weeks, and had a cauliflower-shaped lump under his foreskin.
There were other signs: discharge that smelled of rotten fish, severe pain, and a stream of urine that came out at almost a right angle. Paul decided it was a fungal infection, bought medication online, and waited.
His wife, Nicky, didn’t buy his excuse and booked him an appointment with a doctor in Dudley, United Kingdom. The diagnosis was penile cancer.
Doctors performed a total penectomy to stop the disease, which, according to some reports, had already spread to some lymph nodes. Paul said he felt that something was wrong and found out what had happened a day after the operation. Before the surgery, he feared for his sex life and even his marriage.
Surgeons reconstructed a new one for him using skin and tissue from his forearm, in a nine-hour operation in which Nicky helped with the design.
Today, he says he feels happy in his body and attractive to his 38-year-old wife.