Man born without genitals has a penis made out of skin from his ARM

‘I feel like a cyborg’: Man born without male or female genitals has an operation to construct a penis out of skin from his FOREARM and a pump to give him erections

• Anick Soni, 23, said he grew up knowing something about him was different
• He had to have multiple surgeries and treatments to correct his genitals 
• At 18 he finally realised he was intersex, something which affects 1.7% of people
• He has had surgery to create a penis which has given him the confidence to date

A man born with neither male nor female genitals has had surgery to give him a penis made from skin on his arm and a pump to allow him to get an erection.

Anick Soni, 23, spent years grappling with his own identity, struggling to make friends, not having relationships, and even attempting to kill himself.

At the age of 18 he discovered he was intersex, meaning he did not have a typically man’s or woman’s body, something which is thought to affect 1.7 per cent of people.

After a lifetime of taking hormones and having surgeries – including to move his testicles – to treat what he thought was a medical problem, he had finally found an answer.

He now says he feels ‘like a cyborg’ after being fitted with a bionic penis which has boosted his confidence and made him comfortable enough to start dating. 

Anick Soni, 23, was born with genitals which he says didn’t properly resemble a penis or vagina and, for the first 18 years of his life he believed he had a medical problem. In fact, as many as 1.7 per cent of people may be born intersex – neither totally male nor female

‘The doctors could tell there was something different about my body,’ Mr Soni said on BBC show, The Intersex Diaries.

‘I didn’t look like the other boys or the other girls. Specifically, my genitals just didn’t look like either.

‘So my whole life until this point has been going through surgeries and hormone treatments to make my penis look at work like other males’.’

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Doctors did a DNA test when Mr Soni was born, on April 3rd, 1995, and discovered he had XY chromosomes so was male – though his penis was different.

His first operation came when he was four months old, which he needed to move his testicles because they weren’t in the right place, the BBC reported.

He needed to have various other therapies and procedures as he got older, but always believed he had a medical problem.

After having a DNA test to confirm he was male, Mr Soni had to have various surgeries and hormone treatments to reconstruct his genitals – he said: ‘I knew there was something different about me but i didn’t understand what’

Mr Soni said his family found it difficult to talk about his condition. He said: ‘We couldn’t share with anyone, both because of our culture and also society and doctors making us feel like it was something that shouldn’t be shared’

It wasn’t until he was 18 that he realised he wasn’t sick, but he was part of a minority of people who are born intersex.

It was at this age that doctors told him he could have reconstructive surgery to give him a new penis, and he decided in 2016 he was ready to make the change.

He had the final procedure in June this year, in which surgeons took a chunk of skin from his forearm to fashion a penis.

He has been left with a large scar on his arm and jokes: ‘You’ve heard of the phrase, “I wear my heart on my sleeve”, well, I kind of wear my penis on mine.’

Surgeons used skin from Mr Soni’s arm to construct his penis, leaving him with a large scar. He jokes: ‘You’ve heard of the phrase, “I wear my heart on my sleeve”, well, I kind of wear my penis on mine’

This diagram shows how a penis implant works – it is not clear whether it’s exactly the mechanism Mr Soni has, but was used for Andrew Wardle, a Manchester man who was given a bionic penis earlier this year and lost his virginity at age 45

After some complications – at one point the device which produces his erections became tangled with his testicles – Mr Soni now has a functioning penis.

It still causes him pain and he has to be careful it doesn’t become infected, but he is able to urinate out of it and should be able to have sex when he’s fully recovered.

Intersex can mean people have genitals or chromosome patterns which don’t fit the usual definitions of male and female.

The UN says between 0.05 per cent to 1.7 per cent of people is born with intersex traits – 1.7 per cent is similar to the proportion of people who have ginger hair.

But the United Nations says it is still common practice to give intersex children ‘unnecessary’ and potentially damaging surgical treatment.

‘I’ve lost count of how many doctors and nurses have seen me naked over the years,’ Mr Soni said. ‘In the past few years alone it’s been over 100.

Mr Soni, pictured in hospital with his family, said his newfound confidence in his own body has inspired him to form closer relationships with people around him and start dating

Mr Soni said after finding out he was intersex and that he wasn’t the only one, he felt less like an outsider – ‘Suddenly I realised that I don’t have to be ashamed of who I am and how I was born,’ 

‘I knew there was something different about me but i didn’t understand what.

‘As a family we felt like it was something we couldn’t share with anyone, both because of our culture and also society and doctors making us feel like it was something that shouldn’t be shared.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BORN INTERSEX? 

Intersex refers to a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive anatomy that doesn’t fit the definition for male or female.

Examples: 

• Appearing to be a female on the outside but mostly male anatomy on the inside
• Genitals in between normal male and female type 
• Female born with a noticeably large clitoris
• Female lacking a vaginal opening
• Male with a notable small penis
• Male with a scrotum divided to appear more like a labia 
• Individual born with some XX chromosomes and some XY 

Intersex anatomy does not always appear at birth, and sometimes it isn’t realized until he or she reaches puberty or until finding himself or herself an infertile adult. 

Information from ISNA.org 

‘Because of that I’ve lived a life feeling totally alone, paranoid of people finding out and carrying the weight of this big secret around even to the point where, when I turned 14, I decided it was time to take my own life.’

But when Mr Soni discovered he was intersex and he wasn’t a ‘random miracle case’ as he had spent years believing, he started the process of moving on with his life.

‘Suddenly I realised that I don’t have to be ashamed of who I am and how I was born,’ he said.

‘I always found it hard to make friends and have ordinary relationships.

‘No matter what happened to me I felt like i’d never be able to get married or have a family or anything like that.’

Mr Soni, who has dated both men and women, hopes that coming to terms with his new body will give him the confidence to form closer relationships with other people.

‘I kind of feel like a cyborg,’ he said. ‘But at least I won’t have performance or anxiety issues.

‘As soon as I’d had the surgery I saw my body in a completely different way.

‘And now I’m more comfortable with it and talking about it that’s led to me forming closer relationships with other people.

‘I’m just seeing what’s out there. One of the first dates wasn’t that positive – I went out with a girl who told me I wasn’t really a guy.

Mr Soni hopes sharing his story will inspire others in the same situation to do the same thing. He said: ‘I am normal, I’m just not common. There is no one intersex story’

‘And then I went out with a guy but just didn’t feel anything, so I’m having the normal problems that people do with dating and relationships – that’s a nice feeling.’

After such a big change in his own life, Mr Soni hopes his story will inspire others in the same situation – which could be as many as one in every 100 people – to embrace their own.

He added: ‘I am normal, I’m just not common. There is no one intersex story, but I hope that mine inspires other people to come forward with theirs.’

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