Penile cancer survivor who had half of his penis amputated was dismissed by doctor twice before diagnosis
Emily Puckering
Featured Image Credit: LADBible Stories
A survivor of an 'aggressive' penile cancer, who endured having half of his penis amputated, has opened up about how he was initially turned away twice by his doctor when he expressed concern over the symptoms he was experiencing.
In 2019, Steven Hamill visited his doctor complaining of swelling, pain and sudden bleeding in his penis - and little did he know that this would lead to a gruelling journey of uncertainty and agony.
Speaking candidly in LADbible's Minutes With series, Steven recalls: "Before I went to the doctor, I Googled what was happening to me. And the top of the list was penile cancer. I didn't even know penile cancer existed at this point.
"So I looked at all the symptoms. I had every single one of them apart from I was 26. It was the only one I didn't have. So when I sat down with the GP, he had a look, he's seen it, and then he told me it's most likely an infection called balanitis, which is a bacterial infection of the penis."
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Steven was prescribed steroid cream, and even though he asked his doctor further about the symptoms of penile cancer, the doctor allegedly said: "No, I've never heard of anyone getting it at your age to the severity it will be to be like that.
"It's 90% just an infection, so put this cream on, and we'll see how it goes."
Following his doctor's orders, Steven used the cream and tried to get on with his life - but the pain only got worse.
"It intensified over the next couple days," he says. "Best way of saying it is like a needle going into the end of my penis repeatedly, like on repeat, consecutively, no respite at all."
Steven went back to the doctor, only to be told once again it was simply balanitis that had got 'really, really bad'. The dosage of the steroid cream he was using was increased, but two days later, he passed out while in his brother's car and woke to find himself sat in a pool of his own blood that had come from his genital area.
This is when Steven went to the emergency department.
After being assessed in the hospital and admitted to the urology department, Steven was given the devastating blow of an 'aggressive' penile cancer diagnosis.
Speaking of the shocking symptoms he was experiencing, Steven says: "I had the swelling. I had the pain, had the bleeds. Basically what it was, what the bleeding was, was the cancer eating my penis."
"So the discharge I was talking about was death smell, just complete death smell because it was death. It was the cancer eating away at the muscle. The blood was releasing the dead muscle out of my body.
"I was being eaten alive by this growth, and that's why the pain was so consistent."
He goes on: "That's why everything was so aggressive. So it really annoys me how a GP can see I'm in this pain and go, 'Infection, this mate'."
Steven was admitted to a cancer specialist hospital, where he was booked in for a circumcision procedure due to the rapid swelling of his foreskin.
But once again, he was made to wait for several days before the procedure, which resulted in him suffering an extreme bleed that left the bathroom 'looking like a scene from Saw'.
"999 got called, and that was the first ever moment I thought, 'I'm done now. This is me done'," Steven says of the moment. "I was losing too much blood not to be done. So it took that for [the hospital] to then rush me back in for the circumcision."
But when Steven woke up from the procedure, he was told that after half of his penis just 'dropped off', there was no choice but for the surgeon to amputate four inches - something known as a partial penectomy.
Recalling the moment he saw his penis for the first time after the procedure, Steven says: "I actually remember them taking the bandage off for the first time and seeing it. Because the bandage was so wrapped tightly, keeping it all in-packed, when they took the bandage off, it... This is going into well too much detail.
"It was very like I've just got out of the bath.
"It was so wrinkly. That was the most weirdest experience because it was wrinkled. It was, like, inverted a little bit. The size was completely different."
It was a long road for Steven to come to terms with how his penis now looks and works, and he had to learn his body again and how to trust himself. But he is thankfully now cancer-free, and has urged fellow men never to ignore the signs that something is wrong in the downstairs region.
"So if anything is a bit wrong, they're gonna know and don't ignore it. That's the biggest thing I can say," he says.
The Cleveland Clinic outlines these symptoms to look out for:
It's advised to seek medical advice immediately if experiencing any of these symptoms, even if they're painless.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.