Menstruation in Man
Periodic discharges of blood in man,
constituting what is called "male menstruation," have been
frequently noticed and are particularly interesting when the
discharge is from the penis or urethra, furnishing a striking
analogy to the female function of menstruation. The older authors
quoted several such instances, and Mehliss says that in the
ancient days certain writers remarked that catamenial lustration
from the penis was inflicted on the Jews as a divine punishment.
Bartholinus mentions a case in a youth; the Ephemerides several
instances; Zacutus Lusitanus, Salmuth, Hngedorn, Fabricius
Hildanus, Vesalius, Mead, and Acta Eruditorum all mention
instances. Forel saw menstruation in a man. Gloninger tells of a
man of thirty-six, who, since the age of seventeen years and five
months, had had lunar manifestations of menstruation. Each attack
was accompanied by pains in the back and hypogastric region,
febrile disturbance, and a sanguineous discharge from the
urethra, which resembled in color, consistency, etc., the
menstrual flux. Vicarious Menstruation in the Male Van Swieten, quoting from Benivenius, relates a case of a man who once a month sweated great quantities of blood from his right flank. Pinel mentions a case of a captain in the army (M. Regis), who was wounded by a bullet in the body and who afterward had a monthly discharge from the urethra. Pinel calls attention particularly to the analogy in this case by mentioning that if the captain were exposed to fatigue, privation, cold, etc., he exhibited the ordinary symptoms of amenorrhea or suppression. Fournier speaks of a man over thirty years old, who had been the subject of a menstrual evacuation since puberty, or shortly after his first sexual intercourse. He would experience pains of the premenstrual type, about twenty-four hours before the appearance of the flow, which subsided when the menstruation began. He was of an intensely voluptuous nature, and constantly gave himself up to sexual excesses. The flow was abundant on the first day, diminished on the second, and ceased on the third.
Walter L. Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, 1896
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