In 2014, a team of South African surgeons achieved the first penis transplant with history success. That intervention marked a before and after in the reconstructive medicine and recalled the extent to which problems related to this organ can affect much more than a patient’s sexual life.
The viral that changed the conversation. “My urine spills everywhere.” That was the descriptive phrase with which Michael Phillips has ended up getting thousands of people to stop seeing his case as a simple Internet curiosity and begin to understand the medical problem behind a micropenis.
In fact, what seemed like another statement destined to go viral hid a much deeper reality. less striking: that of the difficulties in doing something as everyday as urinating, a practically impossible sex life and a profound psychological impact.
The challenge that went around the world. I counted the weekend Guardian that Phillips rose to fame after publicly challenge anyone to prove that he didn’t have “the smallest penis in the world.” That provocation quickly attracted the attention of media outlets around the world and generated an enormous debate on social networks.
However, Phillips always insisted that his goal was not to gain notoriety, far from it, but to make visible an extremely rare medical condition and the consequences it has for those who suffer from it.
Behind the size there was a medical problem. Because Phillips’ diagnosis does not respond to a subjective perception, but to a micropenis clinically diagnosed as such. As explainedeven when erect his member barely reaches 0.97 centimeters in length, very much below the medical threshold used to define this condition.
That situation, accountaffects such basic aspects as going to the bathroom to urinate or having penetrative sexual relations, two problems that marked a good part of his adult life.
The surprise. Be that as it may, the public exhibition has ended up causing an effect that not even he himself expected. After launching a financing campaign collectively to finance an intervention aimed at partially improving their quality of life, donations began to multiply.
“I never thought anyone would care to help,” Phillips acknowledged.which ended up raising nearly $13,000 thanks to more than 250 people and confessed to feeling “really grateful and surprised” by the support received.
Virality changing destiny. The impact was so great that even a well-known Beverly Hills plastic surgeon publicly offered to operate on him. for free.
Finally, Phillips decided to undergo the intervention at a center closer to his home, where he hopes to increase the thickness of his penis to alleviate, at least in part, the functional problems derived from his condition. The procedure will not resolve all your limitations, but it does aim to improve everyday aspects that affect your quality of life.
From stigma to vindication. The case has also brought to light the stigma surrounding to the micropenis. Phillips has acknowledged that his diagnosis practically ended his love life and that he even had to prove to a British television program that he really suffered from this condition before being interviewed.
He has also endured ridicule and doubts about the veracity of his story, although he has turned that exhibition in a tool to demand that the micropenis stop being treated as a simple reason for jokes or ridicule.
It started with morbidity, it ended with health. If you also want, the story of the American Michael Phillips went viral because it revolved around a striking figure and a diagnosis that was almost impossible to verify. However, the story itself ended up moving towards another terrain much more relevant.
Curiously, the phrases that they generated more impact They were not those related to size, but those that described how a medical condition could turn such normal actions as going to the bathroom or having an intimate relationship into a daily problem. And it was precisely those confessions that ended up changing his life.
Image | YouTube, Wikimedia
In Xataka | Millions of men wake up every morning with an erection. This is excellent news for them.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings