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Man, 37, reveals warning sign he ignored before cancer led to penis amputation and reconstruction using his arm
A British man who had undergone a penis amputation has publicly discussed his experience and issued a warning to anyone else with the same symptoms.
A local government official from Dudley, Paul Lucas, was 37 when he was diagnosed with penile cancer, and has since opened up about the illness during a television interview.
Penile amputee discusses cancer symptoms he ignored
Lucas, who underwent reconstructive surgery, using the skin from his forearm to surgically create a new penis, appeared on ITV’s This Morning to reveal what the warning signs were before his devastating diagnosis.
Opting to go for the chop to prevent the disease from spreading and metastasizing, after the cancer had already spread to some of his lymph nodes, Lucas was then forced to go into a nine-hour operation to reconstruct his phallus, using skin and tissue from his arm.
Appearing on the TV show alongside his wife and surgeon, Lucas explained how he first noticed symptoms, explaining: "I was peeing at almost right angles, and I just left it, left it, as you do and tried to bury my head in the sand. It was getting worse, and then a growth started appearing, and that got bigger and bigger and bigger.
"I bought medication from the internet just to avoid going to the doctor, you know what men are like, we get embarrassed and try to ignore things.
Following encouragement from his wife, Nicky, Lucas visited a doctor, and was eventually diagnosed with cancer.
While the operation invariably saved his life, Lucas wasn’t initially aware that his penis had been removed until a day after the operation, having felt that “something is not quite right”.
According to the NHS, symptoms of penile cancer can vary from a growth, lump, or sore on the penis that does not heal within four weeks, to a rash, penile bleeding, smelly discharge, difficulty pulling back your foreskin, or a change in the color of your penis or foreskin.
The diagnosis ultimately changed his life in an unexpected way
Lucas underwent complex surgery to reconstruct his penis
Lucas has since had complex, "sci-fi" surgery to reconstruct his manhood.
Urology surgeon Wai Gin Lee, who appeared alongside the couple, explained that the operation involved reconstructing Lucas' phallus and urethra using tissue from his arm, with nerves connected to those in the pelvic region.
The second and third parts of the surgeries are more for "cosmetics," to create glans and then insert an erectile device, which makes the penis functional in an intimate setting.
Nicky admitted that she had a hand in the design of Lucas' new penis, saying: "When it came to the size measurements, we said why not go a bit bigger if possible, so that’s what we did."
"I’ve got a designer phallus, and there’s not many wives can say that," Paul quipped.