A man discovered he had a rare penile condition after being hospitalized for an unrelated issue.
A 2019 case report detailed the experience of a 63-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital after a fall that left him with knee pain. During his physical exam, everything appeared normal except for some penile pain, leading doctors to conduct an x-ray to check for fractures.
The scan unexpectedly revealed a severe and asymmetric degeneration of the man’s right hip, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise. Doctors diagnosed him with penile ossification, a rare condition with fewer than 40 cases ever reported. Penile ossification occurs when calcium salts accumulate in the soft tissue of the penis, causing it to harden into bone.
The condition is often linked to Peyronie’s disease, which causes the penis to curve when erect, but other causes can include trauma, end-stage renal disease, syphilis, gonorrhea, and metabolic disorders like gout and diabetes, according to a 2013 report by Noor Khan Lakhnana and Naghmi Asif.
Despite the rare diagnosis, the patient declined treatment and left without undergoing further testing or follow-up care.
This wasn’t the only reported case of penile ossification. Another instance involved a five-year-old boy with congenital anomalies such as a cleft scrotum, as described by Khan Lakhnana and Asif. They also noted that Peyronie’s disease is the most common cause of this condition, though the exact mechanism leading to ossification is not well understood.
Penile ossification was first documented in the 1800s, and treatment varies depending on the severity of calcification and symptoms. Options include penile traction therapy, injectable medications, mechanical stretching, vacuum devices, and extracorporeal shockwave therapy, which uses acoustic waves to break down the calcified tissue.