Petaling jaya: In Malaysia, there seems to be an increase in the use of the penis rings, and in many cases firefighters are reported to come to the rescue and remove the rings from unlucky men.
A urologist said it could be "just" awkward, but there is also a real danger: if the penis ring is left too long, it can lead to ineffective or more serious amputations.
The Star Online columnist, Dr. George Lee, said that if the ring is worn for more than six hours, the person may become powerless due to impaired nerves and blood supply.
"In the worst case, when a man actually puts it for more than a day, the contraction becomes tighter and it starts to erode the penis and get infected and then becomes necrosis.
Necrosis means cell death.
"We have actually seen that in very serious cases, men end up losing their penis because of this," said Dr. Lee . ".
For those who had to be rescued by the fire and rescue department from a ball device stuck on their penis for more than 12 hours this Saturday, it was a risk.
This is only up to date in this case.
On January, a man's penis was ringed for three days, while another man had to receive the same assistance on last December.
Samsol Maarif Saibani, chief operating officer of the Fire and Rescue Department in Kuala Lumpur, said at the time that firefighters were invited to save the day in many such cases last year.
Dr. Lee said that the situation where the penis is stuck on the ring is not as rare as we thought, although most of the problems are solved without the need to call the fireman.
"In order to maintain the erection, some men put a shrink ring at the bottom of the penis so that the blood flows in but does not flow out.
"The problem came up when they had sex-they just forgot (the ring)
"Sleep, or something like that, and the blood goes on into the penis," he said . ".
Most of the time, he says, these people can take off their rings with soap themselves, or cut them off if they are plastic.
Metal rings, however, pose a bigger problem because they are not easy to cut even in hospitals, as most rings do not have the necessary tools.
"What we do is we put a needle into the penis and breathe in (draw out)the blood.
"When we do this, most of the time it actually causes the erection to contract and we can move the ring off the penis," he explains . ".
When this method doesn't work, firefighters are brought in, he says.
Dr Lee says his confusion is that men will still turn to the penis ring from the age of 1960, and there are a lot of modern drugs that can help them maintain their erection.
"In the 21st century, if men buy blue pills because they are embarrassed to go to the doctor, they can go online.
"My suggestion is that oral treatment is very good these days and can achieve a 80% success rate, so it doesn't make sense to go and buy a ring," he said . ".
For those who still insist on using the ring, either because they don't want to use the tablet or because they have found some fun using the ring, he suggested "they 'd better use the plastic ring.