'Embarrassing Bodies' is a British medical reality/documentary show in which three doctors help members of the public with their unusual medical conditions. It can be quite graphic and it certainly isn't for the squeamish.
This week's episode had a very interesting case about something we FtMs tend to refer to when people question our identities: a cismale who lost his penis.
He was dragged under a car as a child and suffered several injuries, including losing most of his genitalia. They tried to make him a semi-functional, small penis so that he could urinate, but he's now a married man and he wants to consummate his marriage.
So they performed a phalloplasty using a graft from his arm. The only difference between his surgery and the type they perform on FtMs is that he still has one remaining testicle which they're going to try to connect to see if he can have his fertility restored. The first stage of his phalloplasty was shown this week.
I found it interesting to watch, particularly because his case is a very good example of what we mean when we say "if a man loses his penis, does he suddenly stop being a man?".
For those of you who are in the UK, this episode is currently available on 4oD (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT, OVER-16s ONLY):
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/embarrassing-bodies/episode-guide/series-6/episode-2They plan to show updates on future episodes as he goes through the remainder of his procedures.
