A forty-year-old was convinced that she had developed cystitis. But scans revealed that a piece of glass had been present in her bladder for four years. How is it possible ? Explanations.
- The voluntary introduction of an object through the urethral meatus often reflects a particular psychopathological state.
- Its relatively high frequency in women is explained by the shortness of the urethra, its contiguity with the vagina as well as its erogenous character, which can give the introduction of the object a masturbatory character.
In Tunisia, a 45-year-old woman went to the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital in Sfax because she was suffering from symptoms suggestive of a urinary tract infection, such as urgent need to urinate, urinary leakage, burning or pain during urination. The patient told doctors she had developed cystitis on several occasions, but had never been examined, according to the British newspaper The Sun.
An 8-centimeter container found in his bladder
The practitioners performed a clinical examination. According to a report published in the journal Urology Case Reports, they found that the 40-year-old had no blood in her urine and did not suffer from urinary incontinence. However, the Tunisian had a higher than normal level of red blood cells, which indicated that her body was fighting an infection. Bladder stones are usually very small, but this patient’s stone was several centimeters in size. “The X-ray showed a radiopaque shadow with a rectangular shape inside reminiscent of the shape of a glass. The giant stone measured 8cm × 7cm X 8cm”, said health professionals.
The glass used to increase sexual pleasure tenfold
The doctors could not believe their eyes and asked this woman how a glass could have lodged in this pocket located in the lower abdomen. The patient revealed that this had happened when she had used the glass for erotic purposes four years earlier. The forties had inserted the object into the urethra, namely the channel which evacuates urine from the bladder to the outside of the body, rather than into the vagina.
According to Tunisian health professionals, she is not the first person who has found herself with an object lodged in her bladder. The introduction of intravesical foreign bodies may or may not be voluntary, depending on the practitioner. “The motivations most frequently associated with the presence of foreign bodies in the bladder are of a sexual or erotic nature. Various objects have been introduced into the bladder and many patients are unable to remove them themselves and are very embarrassed to go to a doctor, which is the cause of a most often atypical clinical picture”, they wrote in the report.
An operation to remove the object
The Tunisian underwent surgery under general anesthesia so practitioners could remove the glass from her bladder. The patient was discharged from the hospital two days after the operation and the follow-up went smoothly. “The complicated forms are those diagnosed late and often associated with recurrent urinary tract infections, lithiasis and/or fistulas. The best treatment remains prevention through good sex education”can we read in the report.
.
