A 50-year-old Thai man developed cancer in his genitals after he injected himself with olive oil to enlarge his penis. He required emergency surgery to remove his genitals to stop cancer spreading. He had been injecting his penis with olive oil over a number of years and it had become infected which caused the cancer.
The unnamed man had injected his penis with olive oil in a bid to make it bigger. The procedure is quite common in Thailand, other substances also used include; bees wax, silicone or even paraffin. There have been reports from one Bangkok hospital that they see up to 40 patients a month suffering from side-effects of this treatment.
The procedure is carried out in back-street clinics across the country and after the latest incident, health officials have rushed to reassure men that size isn't everything.
Sirikul Jiraranaikhajorn, spokeswoman for the Police General Hospital in Bangkok said: "This is the biggest genital surgery we have ever done as we found cancer. " She also warned other men away from the
procedure; however she never mentioned that the practice actually caused cancer but that infections were common, from the use of backstreet clinics. She added: "It only brings bad results – people misunderstand [that is works]. A woman will love a man not because of the size."
