South African doctors have successfully performed the world's first
penis transplant on a 21-year-old man whose
organ had been amputated three years ago after a
botched circumcision.

The nine-hour operation, which took place in
December, was part of a pilot study by Tygerberg
Hospital in Cape Town and the University of
Stellenbosch to help the 250 or so young South
African men who lose their joysticks each year
after coming-of-age rituals go wrong.

Doctors said the patient, who was not named,
had already recovered full urinary and
reproductive functions, and that the procedure
could eventually be offered to men who have lost
their penis to cancer or as a last resort for severe
erectile dysfunction.
"Our goal was that he would be fully functional at
two years and we are very surprised by his rapid
recovery," Andre van der Merwe, the head of the
university's urology unit who led the operation,
said in a statement.

Another nine patients have now been lined up to
have the operation.
Each year thousands of young South African men,
mainly from the Xhosa tribe, mark their passage
into manhood by shaving their heads and
smearing themselves with white clay from head to
toe, living in special huts away from the
community for several weeks, and then
undergoing ritual circumcision.

But in May 2013, more than 20 youths died after
initiation rituals in the northerly Mpumalanga
province, prompting rare cross-party calls for
reform of a traditional practise.
A few months later, police made several arrests
on suspicion of murder after 30 young men died
in coming-of-age rituals in rural Eastern Cape.
Unlawful circumcisions have been known to injure
up to 300 young men across the province in the
space of a week.

The South African government has promoted
medical circumcisions over the less safe
traditional practices. Last year, the Department of
Health said it was studying a non-surgical,
disposable circumcision device that it believed
could also provide a safer alternative.
The Israeli device, PrePex, has been endorsed by
the World Health Organization. It has been piloted
at several non-profit sites across South Africa but
has not yet been introduced in government
hospitals.

hmmmmmmm....