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Topics: Health, Social Media, News, Reddit
Lucy Devine
A man has taken to social media to answer questions about his unusual health condition.
The urethra is a tube that allows urine to leave the body. Usually, people have just one urethra.
"I have found out at the age of 16 that other boys all had only one urethra. My parents don’t know about it, and no doctor have ever checked, so I had no way of finding out earlier," the man claimed.
"I used to think men had two tubes: one for peeing and the other for reproductive purposes. Turns out I was wrong. I did some research, and apparently, I have what’s called 'urethral duplication' with only about 300 cases ever reported."
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Taking to Reddit, the poster invited other users to ask their most burning questions about the condition.
People had many questions for the man, but one question everyone wanted the answer to.
One person asked: "That's confusing, when you pee, from which urethra does the pee comes out from? Both?"
To which the man explained: "In my case it only comes out of the lower hole."
He further claimed that he only realised there might be something unusual when he had a suspicion that it wasn't normal, and so decided to Google it.
"I simply had a thought go through my head randomly: 'what if this wasn’t normal?' So I Googled, and to my surprise, it actually wasn’t normal," he said.
Another person on the thread explained that they had encountered the same issue and always assumed the urethras were for different purposes.
They explained: "I have the exact same thing! I also thought one hole was for peeing and the other for reproductive purposes. Didn't realise until I was in my 20s and made an offhanded comment to my friend about how a penis has two holes.
"After a very confused look and an even more confusing conversation, I found out that most people just have one hole. I told my doctor next time I saw him, and he went 'huh, well will you look at that, you're right!'
"I never got any imaging done or anything because it doesn't bother me, so no idea if both actually fully connect or not."
The man explained that, as he is asymptomatic, he's never sought medical advice for the condition, which is extremely rare but more common in men than women.
According to a study in European Urology, 'urethral duplication' is a particularly rare, congenital malformation that is often idiopathic.
However, some theories into maternal hormonal disorders, environmental factors and medications have also been suggested as possible explanations for its occurrence.
The publication reports that there are thought to be around 150 cases in the literature. Many are asymptomatic; however, some symptoms that can present include a double urinary stream, incontinence and recurrent urinary tract infections.