A 45-year-old Tunisian woman had a GLASS removed from her bladder four years after it was inserted for “erotic purposes”.
- Unidentified woman admitted to hospital after suffering symptoms for a year
- The scan showed that a “giant” bladder stone had formed around the drinking glass.
- She admitted to using glass as a sex toy when she was in her 40s.
A woman was left with a glass cup in her bladder for four years after it was inserted for “erotic purposes”.
A 45-year-old man from Tunisia presented to the hospital with symptoms consistent with a urinary tract infection, including a constant need to go to the toilet.
But the scan showed that the unidentified woman had grown a “giant” bladder stone, 8 cm wide, that completely covered what looked like a drinking glass.
A woman whose case was published in a medical journal admitted to using glass as a sex toy when she was in her early 40s.
Bladder stones are hard masses of minerals that usually form when urine is not completely emptied from the bladder.
But painful stones can grow around foreign objects stuck inside, doctors say.
An x-ray of an unidentified woman showed that a 8 cm by 7 cm ‘giant’ stone had formed around the glass inside her bladder (pictured)
Doctors at the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital in Sfax performed a cystolithotomy, a type of open surgery to remove a stone from the bladder (pictured)
Doctors who examined her at Habib Bourguiba University Hospital in the eastern city of Sfax said there was no blood in her urine.
According to a story published in the journal Urology Case Reports, she also did not suffer from urinary incontinence.
But an analysis of her urine showed that she had a RBC range of 23-25 when the normal range is four or less.
A high red blood cell count usually indicates that the body is fighting another disease.
An x-ray revealed a “rectangular shape” inside her bladder that resembled a glass, and a large bladder stone around it measuring 8 cm by 7 cm by 8 cm.
Bladder stones usually vary in size, from too small to be seen with the naked eye to several centimeters wide.
The doctors performed a cystolithotomy, a type of open surgery to remove a stone from the bladder.
The woman was discharged two days later and she made a full recovery.
Doctors say that foreign bodies are often introduced into the urethra by people suffering from mental disorders or for pleasure.
They said there had been a “relatively high” number of incidents among women due to the short urethra and its position close to the vagina.
The urethra is also “erogenous,” according to doctors, which “may give their insertion a masturbatory character in search of erotic sensations.”
They noted that “various objects” had been inserted into the bladder.
But the embarrassment means it’s often diagnosed late, when the patient is suffering from complications such as UTIs or bladder stones, they warn.
WHAT ARE BLADDER STONES?
Bladder stones are hard lumps of minerals that can form inside the bladder when it is not completely emptied of urine.
They may not cause any symptoms if they are small enough to pass out of the bladder when you urinate.
However, most people with bladder stones experience symptoms because the stones either irritate the bladder wall or block the flow of urine.
Typical symptoms of bladder stones include:
- Pain in the lower abdomen, which can often be severe (men may also experience pain in or around the penis)
- Pain or difficulty urinating
- More frequent urination (especially at night)
- Cloudy or dark urine
- Blood in the urine
Most bladder stones occur in men aged 50 and older.
A common cause of this in men is an enlarged prostate gland that blocks the flow of urine.
The most common treatment is cystolitholapaxy, which uses a thin tube (cystoscope) with a camera at the end to detect bladder stones.
Source: NHS Choice.