Andrew Wardle, 40, was born with an incredibly rare condition that has left him without a penis. Wardle has bladder exstrophy, a condition where the bladder forms outside the body. Because of this, Wardle lacked a penis, but was still born with his testicles intact.
Doctors were able to perform a corrective surgery on Wardle’s bladder when he was still a baby – but they were unable to provide him any procedure that would give him a penis.
For years, Wardle wasn’t bothered by his lack of a penis. It was only when he became a teenager and realized his body was different from that of all of his friends that he knew – he wasn’t the same. The bladder operation had left him “with a lot of scarring – that was it. Nothing there,” he described.
This realization ultimately caused Wardle’s self-esteem and confidence to take a downward spiral. During his teenage years, he turned to drugs, alcohol, and partying to hide his embarrassment and tried to avoid revealing this information to anyone else.
But when Wardle turned 33, his outlook slowly began to change.
That was when Wardle heard about Mohammad Abad, a British man who’d lost his penis in a childhood accident and got fitted with a “bionic” penis in its place.
Wardle was inspired by this medical accomplishment and began to seek out doctors who could offer him the same procedure.
Now, at the age of 40, Wardle finally has a penis. Doctors took skin off of his forearm and “fitted [it] with cylinders that fill with fluid when pumped from a small sac installed in his ball sac, which is how he'll get an erection.”
Only one final operation – and a two-week-long boner that ensures Wardle’s penis is fully functional – stands between him finally having his “bionic” penis.
You can watch an interview of him here:
