A man ended up with a glass thermometer stuck in his bladder after he shoved the temperature measuring device into his penis, a bizarre case report has revealed.
Doctors did not reveal why the unnamed 25-year-old decided to insert the object into his urethra, nor did they say how long it was.
However, urologists say many similar cases – involving wires, lightbulbs and straws – are done for sexual pleasure.
The man, a resident of Shanghai, China, sought help when he noticed blood in his urine, a complaint medically known as haemtuersis.
He confessed to doctors at Tongren Hospital about his “self-insertion of a thermometer” into his urethra 11 days before seeking treatment.
Medics wrote in a journal of the report that he said it wasn’t uncomfortable and that he initially tried to dislodge the thermometer himself.
They also said that he expected “extraction of the thermometer spontaneously.”
Writing in Urology Case Reports, Dr Haining Qian and colleagues revealed they removed the object in a way often used to tackle kidney stones.
The doctors inserted a thin tube with a camera attached – a cystoscope – into the man’s urethra to look at where the thermometer was lodged.
Forceps were also attached to the tube, which allowed the doctors to twist the object around so the glass end was closest and not the bulb.
The urologists then ‘tugged’ at the thermometer. They ‘fished’ it out in 15 minutes and the patient was allowed home the following day.
“Gentle action was taken out to prevent the thermometer from fracturing and to prevent bladder wall layer injury,” the doctors wrote.
The thermometer contained mercury, which, if it leaked, would be harmful to kidney function and the central nervous system.
It is thought the thermometer reached his bladder because of contractions he had whenever he tried to urinate, curling it up and pushing it deeper.
Dr Richard Viney, a urological surgeon based in Birmingham, told MailOnline it was an “interesting case.”
He said: “There has long been a fascination in young men for sticking objects down their urethra to enhance orgasm (theoretically).
“The practice is called sounding. Problems arise when the individual loses control and the object disappears into the patient.
“The difficulty here is that the thermometer is glass with mercury in it. Two things you don’t want loose inside the body.”
Dr Viney added: “Trying to draw the thermometer without breaking the glass is the challenge.
“They got away with not shattering the glass so there was a ‘happy ending’ for the patient after all.” – Daily Mail