When Sandra Williams?* son was born, she and her husband both immediately noticed something looked different about his penis. ?When I saw him pee, it was coming out from a different spot than it was supposed to,? says Williams, noting the urethra opening seemed to be at the bottom of the head, rather than tip of his penis. It also looked crooked and she noticed that his foreskin was incomplete. When she asked for her baby to be circumcised while they were still in hospital, her doctor told her he wanted a second opinion before performing the procedure and referred her to a paediatric urologist. Her son was diagnosed with hypospadias.
What is hypospadias"
Hypospadias is a surprisingly common birth defect in which the opening of the urethra doesn?t form at the tip of the penis, explains John-Paul Capolicchio, the division director of paediatric urology at Montreal Children?s Hospital. The condition occurs in about one in every 250 boys, according to the Canadian Urological Association. ?It?s not something that most neighbours and friends talk about,? says Capolicchio. ?For that reason, most families that come in will say, ?Wow I?ve never heard about this,? but it?s actually very common.?
Researchers aren?t sure exactly what causes hypospadias to develop during pregnancy. It often occurs by chance, but it can also be inherited.
For her part, Williams didn?t know anyone with the condition and neither she nor her husband had ever heard of it. Their older son doesn?t have it...