A Tunisian woman was believed to suffer from a urinary tract infection, but her problems were caused by something else altogether. The 45-year-old woman had a glass tumbler cup stuck in her bladder, and apparently, it had been there for four years!
The woman came to the hospital complaining about UTI symptoms. She experienced problems with leaking, and she always needed access to a toilet.
When the doctor scanned the woman's bladder, they found an 8-cm wide bladder stone with a drinking glass-encased. Usually, these stones are so small that it is hard to spot them with the naked eye. The size of the stone found in the woman's body was something out of the ordinary.
The woman told the professionals at Academic Hospital Habib Bourguiba that she had used the drinking glass as a sex toy. Four years ago, she had inserted the glass tumbler into the urethra. How this is possible is not easy to understand!
The medical journal Urology case reports have published this strange case. In the image from the scan, the glass inside the bladder stone is clearly visible.
Bladder stones normally form when urine is not completely emptied from the bladder. They consist of hard minerals. There have been other cases where doctors have seen them grow around objects that, by mistake, have entered the body.
To remove the bladder stone, doctors had to perform a cystolithotomy surgery. Two days after the surgery, the woman was fully recovered and could leave the hospital.
The report by Urology case reports stated that this is a serious and dangerous problem.
"The motivations most frequently associated with the presence of foreign bodies within the bladder are of a sexual or erotic nature. Various objects have been inserted into the bladder and many patients fail to remove them themselves and are very embarrassed to seek medical advice, which is the origin of a clinical picture which is most often atypical which occurs in a patient particular terrain."
The study concluded:
"Complicated forms are those diagnosed late and often associated with recurrent urinary tract infections, lithiasis and/or fistulas. The best treatment remains preventive by balancing the underlying etiopathogenic disorder and by a good sex education."
