TOPIC: At the PMMA start line.

I was using the BIB Hanger after my round 3 touch up. I wonder if my lumps are a result of disrupting the product. Although I haven\'t been Hanging for about 9 months.

I don\'t, but send Smartman a PM, as he does.

Thanks SO much!

I\'ve just sent Dr Carruthers an email and will get in contact with Dr Lemperle once I can get his email address. I will keep everyone posted.

@Red1975

I\'ve PM\'ed you Professor Lemperle\'s contact info (including his email address). Good luck!

Red, I have a bib Hanger and for those of you that dont know, there are rows of teeth in each half of the Hanger that clamp down on the internals of the penis, thats how it keeps from slipping, imagine taking two mini waffle irons and Clamping them to your shaft with a c clamp. I would not be surprised that this is the cause of the bumps.
Did the bumps seem to be in the same place you clamped the Hanger?

Here is the response to my situation from Dr Lemperle:

Dear _____ (since I was a member of Phalloboard, too...) Thank you for your trust : this is indeed a foreign body reaction to the PMMA microspheres and thank God, you became active early on. Some call it a chronic inflammation, some a granuloma: the treatment, however, is the same. You are the first patient where the cellular immune system reacted against the PMMA in the penis, since I have good contacts to the injectors in Brazil as well.The general rule appears to be : the deeper under the skin the PMMA (or any other filler) is injected, the less possible is a foreign body reaction. The dermis is the most sensitive organ of the body, and in a penis, the loose plane between corpora and skin is \"far away\" from the dermis.Anyway, everything happens a first time - and the treatment of any overreaction is cortisone.Dr. Carruthers will tell you, that these foreign body reactions will slow down by themselves after a few years - but you do not want to wait. You have to decide whether you want to fly down to Tijuana every 4 weeks - or find a Dermatologist near you.They should inject Kenalog dilutetd 1:1 with lidocain through a fine 30G needle into every lump and pump it up (see the attached papers). Usually, 2-3 sessions are sufficient to calm down the reaction permanently.Good luck - and my compassion that it happened ... and warm regards to the Drs C. - with best regards, and keep me informed,Gottfried

Dr Lemperle has recommended 2 Dr\'s in my area that can help me out. My chin is a little more \"up\" now.

That\'s good he wrote back so fast...sounds like he\'s optimistic. You don\'t have to answer this - but are you on any medications / supplements - or have any medical condition? I\'m just wondering if there\'s anything that triggered this...especially since it happened so far away from the original date. I hope things work out. Thanks for keeping us all updated.

According to the stats you posted, you\'ve gained 3\" of Girth! Is that correct? That would mean you have a layer of PMMA about 0.5\" thick!

@ Hoddle - I will PM you, but yes I did have to take some pretty heavy medications for a couple of months. I\'ve asked Dr Lemperle if this could cause a reaction and am waiting to find out.

I have gained roughly 2.5 inches of Girth from base to mid shaft. It always fluctuates. Can\'t measure right now as I\'m too stressed out to even get a chub .

Dr Lemperle says :

Yes, to our present knowledge, this bacterial gonorrhea in April may well be the trigger for your immune system to start attacking the PMMA. For sure, the infection is totally erased since g. reacts perfectly to most antibiotics. So, don\'t worry, please.


So...yes I had gonorrhoea. It is the gift that keeps on giving apparently.

PhD student (with Masters) in Immunology here. Have been quite fascinated by the concept of PMMA since I\'ve heard about it. Have been aiming to post more... Anyways, the Gonorrhoea outbreak would explain a lot. Have had a couple of discussions regarding the immune response to PMMA and foreign bodies (in general) with a few pathologist and professor who specializes in myeloid cells. I\'m under the belief that if PMMA is truly non biodegradable (and people are being injected with high quality PMMA), the Giant cells (comprised of monocyte and macrophage lineage cells) just go quiescent. Maybe it was the gonorrhoea that started the immune response that recruited a population of more inflammatory macrophages into the area. Many foreign body granuloma\'s are self limiting.

thebeast1 wrote: PhD student (with Masters) in Immunology here. Have been quite fascinated by the concept of PMMA since I\'ve heard about it. Have been aiming to post more... Anyways, the Gonorrhoea outbreak would explain a lot. Have had a couple of discussions regarding the immune response to PMMA and foreign bodies (in general) with a few pathologist and professor who specializes in myeloid cells. I\'m under the belief that if PMMA is truly non biodegradable (and people are being injected with high quality PMMA), the Giant cells (comprised of monocyte and macrophage lineage cells) just go quiescent. Maybe it was the gonorrhoea that started the immune response that recruited a population of more inflammatory macrophages into the area. Many foreign body granuloma\'s are self limiting.

Please do! We could really benefit from someone with you educational background.

Would it still make sense that it\'s related to the Gonorrhea even though it happened weeks later?

Makes quite a bit of sense to me. The foreign body response is typically thought of as later stage response due to tissue re-arrangement. Not textbook immunology of course. It would seem quite logical that if a person has a gonorrhea infection that there is a corresponding inflammatory process, recruitment of more macrophages into the tissue, release of pro-inflammatory cytokines etc. corresponding to subsequent re-arrangements collagen. IE think of the area around the beads as it\'s own microenvironment. Once you change that milluei to a more inflammatory state, you are bound to get changes that occurGonorrhea itself has some very interesting interactions with macrophages. While Gonorrhea is known to infect epithilium, they can reside intracellularly in macrophages (at least in in-vitro experiments that I know of) and in these cases even alter gene expression profiles of these macrophages in terms of their oxidative \"ing\" mechanisms. One can only speculate if the Gonorrhea was able to infect the macrophages that comprise the giant cells in the PMMA penis.I would at least assume the increased inflammation would bring about tissue re-arrangement. All thoughts of course. In terms of timeline I would expect the issue to pop up a couple weeks after an infection- or how long it would take it to be noticeable. I\'m sure that these reactions were occurring prior to him noticing it. Also sure that some probably have gone without notice. It seems these are areas of high clumping of beads. Red- when did you first notice your infection, when was it at it\'s peak, when was it treated, and when did you get your lump issue?