The Sunday Mail
Sharon Kavhu
“For the past four years I used to have a problem of producing an unpleasant odour from my sexual reproductive organ after playing soccer or any activity that would make me sweat. The odour was so abnormal that people would get uncomfortable around me.
“However, when I decided to visit the male circumcision centre two months ago, the doctors told me that my sexual organ had an abnormality on the foreskin which accumulated bacteria that caused the unpleasant smell.
“This was established during the screening of my male sexual organ before the circumcision process,” said Robbin Sibanda, an 18-year-old Shurugwi man who had accompanied his neighbour for circumcision in Chachacha recently.
The young man said his organ used to produce paste-like white substances and this forced him to bath at least two to three times daily.
Sibanda added: “I got circumcised using the PrePex method and after the six weeks of healing, my organ stopped releasing the unpleasant smell.
“This, however, was not the reason why I had decided to be circumcised, my motive of being circumcised was triggered by the fact that circumcision reduces HIV transmission.”
PrePex is a non-surgical medical adult male circumcision device where the foreskin is removed through a plastic ring device being placed on the organ.
While some men may take the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) Programme for granted, the process has proved more important in addressing male reproduction health issues than just reducing HIV transmission.
Since the introduction of VMMC in Zimbabwe in 2009, there have been 540 473 circumcisions. Of these, at least 38 percent of these men had problems such as deformities of sexual organs.
As such, VMMC has given a platform for men to share their reproductive health problems with doctors.
“We have had cases where some men would come with sexual organs that have urethras that are placed at wrong places of the organ. Such individuals will actually be unaware of their condition and the screening process for circumcision would actually give them a platform to be enlightened of their reproductive health,” said Lewis Masimba, VMMC demand creation manager at the International Training and Education Centre for Health.
He said the urethra can be seen undersurface of the penis or on the perineum and the condition is medically referred to as hypospadias or epispadias.
Masimba said such cases could be solved by incorporating an urologist to assess the organ and decide if the correction can be made while allowing circumcision to take place.
“It is possible to still circumcise a victim of hypospadias after a correction has been done and healing has taken place.
“However, the decision depends on the surgical operation, if the correction has affected the foreskin then circumcision procedures may be impossible,” said Masimba.
Dr Shingiral Makaure of Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research Project said some men who came for circumcision screening had abnormally tight foreskins.
“Such a condition deprives an individual from maintaining personal hygiene when bathing and may cause discomforts during intercourse,” said Dr Makaure in a recent presentation on VMMC.
“For instance, I remember one case where a 47-year-old man had five children with his wife but strangely he had never seen the head of his organ. Although his fertility was not affected, this man complained of discomfort during intercourse and this was solved after he got circumcised.”
He said many men are shy to disclose their reproductive health matters and do not visit clinics as much as women do.
“There are some cases where men come with sexual organs that have abnormal structures such as appearing as if they are bent or having an abnormal vein that pulls down the head of an organ causing complications during intercourse,” he added.
