He has no penis, cannot control urine
Sep 09, 2007
EiGHT-year-old Haruna Muyomba was born with a strange genital abnormality. He has no penis, save for tiny tissues surrounding an outlet that provides passage for urine. His testicles appear big for his age.
By Moses Nampala in Jinja
EiGHT-year-old Haruna Muyomba was born with a strange genital abnormality. He has no penis, save for tiny tissues surrounding an outlet that provides passage for urine. His testicles appear big for his age.
When Muyomba was born, Fatuma Nanyonjo his mother knew something was wrong.
“The midwife neither smiled nor congratulated me. She remained quiet,†Nanyonjo remembers.
Then there came the shocking words:
“It seems you have just given birth to a baby boy but he does not have a penis,†the midwife announced.
Nanyonjo says she passed out for close to three hours after seeing the abnormality. She later come to terms with the problem.
Muyomba’s father disowned him at infancy because of the abnormality.
Nanyonjo still recalls the fateful day.
“His father was delighted to see me holding his son before I broke the bad news to him. He was quick to point out that the infant was a replica of himself, which was indeed true.
But when I told him about the abnormality, he frowned.â€
Then he picked up a big stick.
“In a fury, he ordered me out of his courtyard and take the child to its rightful father,†says Nanyonjo sobbing.
“I pleaded with him in vain. Abdu Muyomba always treated me with love. That ended after he saw the child’s abnormality, Nanyonjo. says.
Worse still, Muyomba passes out urine relentlessly.
This condition started after he had undergone two major surgical operations on his genitals. When Muyomba was two years old, a swelling developed above his genitals. He was referred to Mulago Hospital where he was operated on.
“Until the first operation, his urinary system was normal,†Nanyonjo recalls.
She noticed the irregularity, shortly after the operation and immediately informed the physicians.
“But they assured me that the irregularity would go when the incision wound healed. But it never stopped even after he was discharged,†she recalls.
Two years later, in 2005, another similar swelling developed on the left side of his genitals.
Again, surgery was done, but urine still continues to drip from his genitals.
Nanyonjo always breaks down in tears whenever she thinks about her son getting of age.
“He is handsome and women will find him attractive, but he will not be man enough to consummate with them, not even bearing me grandchildren,†says Nanyonjo with sadness.
At Bright Future Primary School in Jinja district, where Muyomba is a Primary One pupil, he recalls getting upset when he had just joined early this year.
“Classmates would scold me,†says the soft-spoken juvenile.
“They would screw their noses, then yell at me, saying I stink because I regularly wet my bed,†he adds.
But a stern warning by the school staff against bullying, has given him confidence. He no longer feels offended when teased.
Muyomba changes his shorts several times a day.
You would think that his problem would affect his performance in class, but his class teacher Brenda Nabukwasi says he is incredibly brilliant.
“Brilliancy is the main strong point that has given him a certain invulnerability against routine nudging by pupils,†Ntalo Sadique, the headteacher of the school, says.
Nabukwasi is all praises for Muyomba, “He was the 7th in a class of 78,â€
Muyomba says his ambition is to become a doctor, “so that I can help patients with problems like mine.â€
Nanyonjo has dutifully taken up the task of always keeping his son clean.
“My reward has always been to see my son’s weary and dejected little face lighting up whenever he returns with his pair of shorts soiled,†she says.
Nanyonjo met Abdul Muyomba in 1997 while working as a fishmonger on Buvuma Island in Mukono district and the two began cohabiting. When she was four months pregnant, Abdul left to look after his sick parents.
He returned after Nanyonjo had delivered. This is when her woes started. After Abdul dismissed her from their home, she returned to her parents’ home in Bugerere.
It was then that she met Grace Kyangwa, a trader in Jinja and the two now have an eight-month-old baby girl.
However, Nanyonjo is back to her woes. Kyangwa, who had promised to raise Muyomba as his stepson, now wants him out of his home.
“For two months now, Kyangwa insists that my son should get out of his home because he can no longer tolerate the stench of urine,†a helpless Nanyonjo says.
“If only the urine could stop dripping, I will have enough time to be in class and concentrate well on my studies, but by mother does not have money to pay for the hospital bills,†says Muyomba.
Unfortunately, his mother, a vendor at Bugerere trading centre, does not have the money needed for an operation. Kyangwa cannot also foot his medical expenses.
What the doctors say
Dr Dean Ahimbisibwe, a consultant urologist at Jinja referral hospital, says such a problem is a result of congenital abnormality –– a series of abnormalities in a particular body system during formation of an embryo.
He says Muyomba’s irregularities were manifested on his genital system.
“Formation of his genitals stopped mid-way to completion of his genital system, and the visible indicators of this fact is explained by the partial formation of his genitalia, (born without a penis), although he has the rostrum (tentacles).
He explains that the tiny fleshy tissues around his urinary outlet, affirms the argument that the penis had just started to develop, when the process of formation suddenly stopped.
Ahimbisibwe says while lack of the penis could be one of the visible irregularities on Muyomba, there are also other irregularities in the interior of Muyomba’s genital system.
Commenting on the persistent dripping of urine, Ahimbisibwe is reluctant to blame the two previous surgical operations, but says the sphincter muscles around the bladder could have been rendered defective due to irregularity at birth.
“The sphincter muscles at Muyomba’s bladder are no longer functional,†he says.
He says under normal circumstances, the sphincter muscles, contract in order to prevent urine to escape from the bladder and expand when one feels like urinating.
In Muyomba’s case, the sphincter muscles on the bladder are loose, which is why they allow urine to flow freely from the bladder.
He says Muyomba’s plight can be corrected by attaching a catheter with a urine bag and fixing it on his bladder.
“This would mean that urine would flow out through the catheter into the urine bag. when the urine bag gets full he could drain it by opening the stopper on it then fix it on thereafter,†says Ahimbisibwe.
He says the surgery can be done at Mulago Hospital.
On whether, Muyomba could pro-create, he says:
“He could be having the sperms when he gets of age but unfortunately, he would not be able to have the penis doing its cardinal role of delivering the sperms appropriately in the genitals of the opposite sex.
He, however, says that with scientific innovation in developed countries, a penis could be erected around him making him able to consummate with the opposite sex.
EiGHT-year-old Haruna Muyomba was born with a strange genital abnormality. He has no penis, save for tiny tissues surrounding an outlet that provides passage for urine. His testicles appear big for his age.
When Muyomba was born, Fatuma Nanyonjo his mother knew something was wrong.
“The midwife neither smiled nor congratulated me. She remained quiet,†Nanyonjo remembers.
Then there came the shocking words:
“It seems you have just given birth to a baby boy but he does not have a penis,†the midwife announced.
Nanyonjo says she passed out for close to three hours after seeing the abnormality. She later come to terms with the problem.
Muyomba’s father disowned him at infancy because of the abnormality.
Nanyonjo still recalls the fateful day.
“His father was delighted to see me holding his son before I broke the bad news to him. He was quick to point out that the infant was a replica of himself, which was indeed true.
But when I told him about the abnormality, he frowned.â€
Then he picked up a big stick.
“In a fury, he ordered me out of his courtyard and take the child to its rightful father,†says Nanyonjo sobbing.
“I pleaded with him in vain. Abdu Muyomba always treated me with love. That ended after he saw the child’s abnormality, Nanyonjo. says.
Worse still, Muyomba passes out urine relentlessly.
This condition started after he had undergone two major surgical operations on his genitals. When Muyomba was two years old, a swelling developed above his genitals. He was referred to Mulago Hospital where he was operated on.
“Until the first operation, his urinary system was normal,†Nanyonjo recalls.
She noticed the irregularity, shortly after the operation and immediately informed the physicians.
“But they assured me that the irregularity would go when the incision wound healed. But it never stopped even after he was discharged,†she recalls.
Two years later, in 2005, another similar swelling developed on the left side of his genitals.
Again, surgery was done, but urine still continues to drip from his genitals.
Nanyonjo always breaks down in tears whenever she thinks about her son getting of age.
“He is handsome and women will find him attractive, but he will not be man enough to consummate with them, not even bearing me grandchildren,†says Nanyonjo with sadness.
At Bright Future Primary School in Jinja district, where Muyomba is a Primary One pupil, he recalls getting upset when he had just joined early this year.
“Classmates would scold me,†says the soft-spoken juvenile.
“They would screw their noses, then yell at me, saying I stink because I regularly wet my bed,†he adds.
But a stern warning by the school staff against bullying, has given him confidence. He no longer feels offended when teased.
Muyomba changes his shorts several times a day.
You would think that his problem would affect his performance in class, but his class teacher Brenda Nabukwasi says he is incredibly brilliant.
“Brilliancy is the main strong point that has given him a certain invulnerability against routine nudging by pupils,†Ntalo Sadique, the headteacher of the school, says.
Nabukwasi is all praises for Muyomba, “He was the 7th in a class of 78,â€
Muyomba says his ambition is to become a doctor, “so that I can help patients with problems like mine.â€
Nanyonjo has dutifully taken up the task of always keeping his son clean.
“My reward has always been to see my son’s weary and dejected little face lighting up whenever he returns with his pair of shorts soiled,†she says.
Nanyonjo met Abdul Muyomba in 1997 while working as a fishmonger on Buvuma Island in Mukono district and the two began cohabiting. When she was four months pregnant, Abdul left to look after his sick parents.
He returned after Nanyonjo had delivered. This is when her woes started. After Abdul dismissed her from their home, she returned to her parents’ home in Bugerere.
It was then that she met Grace Kyangwa, a trader in Jinja and the two now have an eight-month-old baby girl.
However, Nanyonjo is back to her woes. Kyangwa, who had promised to raise Muyomba as his stepson, now wants him out of his home.
“For two months now, Kyangwa insists that my son should get out of his home because he can no longer tolerate the stench of urine,†a helpless Nanyonjo says.
“If only the urine could stop dripping, I will have enough time to be in class and concentrate well on my studies, but by mother does not have money to pay for the hospital bills,†says Muyomba.
Unfortunately, his mother, a vendor at Bugerere trading centre, does not have the money needed for an operation. Kyangwa cannot also foot his medical expenses.
What the doctors say
Dr Dean Ahimbisibwe, a consultant urologist at Jinja referral hospital, says such a problem is a result of congenital abnormality –– a series of abnormalities in a particular body system during formation of an embryo.
He says Muyomba’s irregularities were manifested on his genital system.
“Formation of his genitals stopped mid-way to completion of his genital system, and the visible indicators of this fact is explained by the partial formation of his genitalia, (born without a penis), although he has the rostrum (tentacles).
He explains that the tiny fleshy tissues around his urinary outlet, affirms the argument that the penis had just started to develop, when the process of formation suddenly stopped.
Ahimbisibwe says while lack of the penis could be one of the visible irregularities on Muyomba, there are also other irregularities in the interior of Muyomba’s genital system.
Commenting on the persistent dripping of urine, Ahimbisibwe is reluctant to blame the two previous surgical operations, but says the sphincter muscles around the bladder could have been rendered defective due to irregularity at birth.
“The sphincter muscles at Muyomba’s bladder are no longer functional,†he says.
He says under normal circumstances, the sphincter muscles, contract in order to prevent urine to escape from the bladder and expand when one feels like urinating.
In Muyomba’s case, the sphincter muscles on the bladder are loose, which is why they allow urine to flow freely from the bladder.
He says Muyomba’s plight can be corrected by attaching a catheter with a urine bag and fixing it on his bladder.
“This would mean that urine would flow out through the catheter into the urine bag. when the urine bag gets full he could drain it by opening the stopper on it then fix it on thereafter,†says Ahimbisibwe.
He says the surgery can be done at Mulago Hospital.
On whether, Muyomba could pro-create, he says:
“He could be having the sperms when he gets of age but unfortunately, he would not be able to have the penis doing its cardinal role of delivering the sperms appropriately in the genitals of the opposite sex.
He, however, says that with scientific innovation in developed countries, a penis could be erected around him making him able to consummate with the opposite sex.