Man undergoes surgery to get rid of uterus, cervix

Mumbai: A city-based man (29) has undergone corrective surgery for removal of his non-functional womb (uterus), fallopian tubes, cervix and partial vagina from his lower abdomen, at state-run J.J. Hospital.

Earlier, the man had approached a medico from the urology outpatient department (OPD) as he had fertility issues. Dr Venkat Gite, head of J.J.’s urology department, said, “When the patient came to our doctors, they found he was physically fine, except that his testes had not descended in the scrotal sacs, as they should have before birth.”

The team decided on a surgical solution as undescended testes can increase the risk of cancer. When they began operating the man, they found a bag-like structure which looked like a uterus. “We stopped the groping surgery and sent him for a MRI scan which revealed he had a uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix and vagina,” said Dr Gite.

After further tests including genetic karyotyping to establish he had male chromosomes, they did a hysterectomy (removal of uterus) as the uterus impeded the descent of the testes into the scrotum. “While the left testis descended with ease, the right one needed more surgical intervention,” said Dr Gite.

When asked about this particular case, Dr Gite highlighted, “This is a case of Persistent Mulle-rian Duct Syndrome (PMDS) and my team scanned medical literature and found only 200 such cases.”

The doctors also performed a biopsy to rule out malignancy and other health issues. However, he was found to have azoospermia (a condition where the man’s semen contains no sperm). “He is sexually fit, but cannot have children,” said Dr Gite.