My story of CPC of 45° and surgery by Dr Kuehhas

[g123]

Hi, this is my story in great detail. You can find a summary at the end.

I'm 26 y/o now, live in Switzerland and the following is my report on my experience with congenital penile curvature (CPC) surgery 2 years ago and my life since. This forum helped me to make a decision when people (parents and doctors) around me couldn't emphasize with my problem, which I'm really thankful for. I hope that this report can help other people make an informed decision.

Backstory:
I had a curvature of ~45° to the left. I don't know why I had this problem. As far as I know, I'm the only one in the family (I talked to my dad about it). Regular appointments at the pediatrician, including inspection of the genitals did not show any abnormalities, as it's only visible during an erection.
This was something that I didn't consciously think about for a long time, but it certainly did hurt my self-confidence with girls, which is why I was 23 y/o when I first had a girlfriend and tried to have sex with someone. (In other parts of life I'm really social and extroverted.) Sex with my then-girlfriend wasn't possible, partly because of my curvature, which made penetration impossible, or at least quite painful, partly because I was deeply embarrassed by the entire situation that it lead to erectile disfunction (ED), which I didn't have before I met my then-girlfriend. She was very understanding in the beginning and didn't miss sex because she had traumatizing experiences in the past. However, after around 6 months it was clear that it did bother her, because she didn't feel desired (which I understand). We broke up 3 months later. After thinking about my CPC for months, it became clear to me that I couldn't live like this forever, and that I had to change something.

Finding a specialist:
I was 23 at the time. I did a lot of online research on therapies and surgery, including on this forum. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no doctor primarily focused on the penis as a surgeon in my entire country. At that point I thought that I needed to at least talk to a "normal" urologist, so hear their opinion.
So the first appointment I got with a urologist was at the University Hospital Zurich (near where I live). I told the youngish doctor my problem and she proposed to perform a Nesbit surgery a few weeks from then. I then asked if she knew of the STAGE technique, and it turned out that she hadn't. This made me skeptical, which is why she said that I don't have to worry, if the surgery doesn't go well, the chief surgeon would be her backup.
I told my father about the appointment (he is a surgeon as well) and he said that in this case I should absolutely cancel the operation. He said that by far the most important thing in finding a surgeon is to make sure that he's really specialized for the relevant organ and has as much experience as possible. The situation with urology is that 99% of surgeries do not involve the penis, but the prostate, bladder, urethra or kidneys. A good prostate surgeon is NOT AT ALL necessarily a good penis surgeon!
I then decided, as many in this forum, to contact Dr Kuehhas in Austria, as he focuses exclusively on the penis. After some exchanged emails and a skype appointment with Kuehhas, I felt like he most likely was my best shot at having a good outcome and I got an appointment for a surgery a few months later.

The surgery.
So in March 2022, I flew to Vienna, where I stayed in a hotel, very close to Dr. Kuehhas' practice. My mother offered to come with me, but I was still embarrassed about the entire situation and did not want to make a bit fuss about it or for anyone except my parents to find out that I even had this problem. I had an in-person appointment with Dr Kuehhas on the first day. There I could ask all kinds of questions, about the expected outcome, risks, recovery, etc.. Dr. Kuehhas said that in most cases he can substantially help the patient, however, if the penis is damaged from a previous, poor surgery, there's not much he can do. Very glad that I did not undergo surgery in Switzerland, I was confident that I was in good hands.
The following day I went to the hospital for the surgery. The surgery itself is actually the best part. They put you to sleep and you wake up a few hours later and feel like you've just had an amazing nap. At that point you don't feel any pain because the potent pain killers of the surgery are still at work. My penis was wrapped up tightly in a dressing. I got a brief visit by Kuehhas, in which he told me the surgery went well and after a couple of hours I took a taxi back to the hotel.

The recovery.
Now the painful and arduous part began. For the 3 following days, I had appointments with Dr Kuehhas, in which he changed the dressing and to teach me how to do it myself, which I would have to do for the following weeks at home. To apply the dressing, the penis had to be grabbed tightly at the tip, and be pulled as much as possible while wrapping the dressing around. The entire procedure is quite painful and at first it took me a few tries before I managed to stretch it as much as was needed. The days in the hotel were honestly quite tough and staying in a hospital during that time would not have been a luxury. Walking was very painful as putting on trousers bent the in-dressing-stiff penis and moved it with each step. At this point I found out that my mid-range hotel did not have a restaurant and did not deliver food to my room, which forced me to go out to shops/restaurants every day, which was really not great during that period. I was also on a few medications, including a testosterone inhibitor to prevent erections, painkillers and an antibiotic.
3 days after the surgery I flew home.
The recovery period took a long time. For weeks I had to change the dressing daily, take the meds and urinate through a tightly compressed penis. On Kuehhas' website it says that exercise is possible 1 week after the surgery, and sex 6 weeks later. In my opinion that's too optimistic as both of these activities will give you a lot of pain and might even damage the penis during those times. After I could finally stop using the dreaded dressings and the medication, the second step of the recovery began: Stretching the penis daily with a vacuum device (phallosan forte). At this point erections were allowed again, and would not damage the penis. This is when I could see the result for the first time. And it was actually just straight. From 45° to nothing. I was so happy and relieved to see and feel that (Kuehhas had shown me pictures of the surgery, but on the inside, you don't want to get your hopes up to much in case anything goes wrong during recovery). The penis was somehow also "more stably" attached to my pelvis than before, which I didn't expect and was very happy about. The penis was also significantly shorter than before (maybe 3-4cm less from 17cm). Partly due to the surgery, party due to the tissue contracting for many weeks without a single erection, I think. This encouraged me more to really use the phallosan for as long as needed. The phallosan was nowhere near as painful as the dressings, and the wounds including the sutures were healed almost entirely. However, attaching a strong vacuum to your penis every evening is also not the most pleasant thing, but it seemed to work and help with the recovery. I did not use it as long as others and after maybe 2 months I let it be, as I was actually quite happy with it at that point.

Life since.
I can honestly say that undergoing this procedure has been one, if not the best decision of my life. My penis works completely fine and after 2 years I've had no remission of the curvature. My erections are as hard as before (something I was concerned about) and my sensation during stimulation is identical as before (this took a few months). I had sex for the first time in my life around 9 weeks after the surgery (which was still a bit early tbh), and since have "normal working" sex now and then, like most guys do. This is everything I hoped for and sex is now a positive in my life instead of something that I feared I would miss out on and prevent me from having serious relationships. I am also no longer ashamed of my penis. From a part of me that I hated and was crippled, it has become just another body-part that functions and looks normal.
I can't tell you what's going to help you because I'm not in your situation. I'm sure there are people out there, especially those with less severe curvature (I had 45°), that could also have a great sex life without surgery. But I can tell you that for me this was 100% the right decision and the only thing I regret is, that I didn't do it at 18 instead of 24.


Summary
- I had curvature of 45°
- Surgery in Vienna by Dr Kuehhas at age 24
- painful recovery, but 100% success of operation
- MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE: Do not get this surgery by a doctor who is not specialized on the penis! Most urologists perform almost exclusively surgeries that have nothing to do with the penis. Ask your potential surgeon how ofter he/she has performed this EXACT surgery before (this is critical). Cancel the surgery if the response is 'only a few times per year'. Surgeons will oftentimes exaggerate how often they perform a certain surgery. It will likely be even fewer than stated. This procedure is not an emergency and you do not want this surgery to go wrong. Make sure that you find the best person in your area to perform it, a surgeon that PRIMARILY focuses on the penis! Ideally: Take a few months to consider and find the right surgeon, but if you make the decision to undergo surgery, don't let years go by either. However you will decide what's the best for your exact situation, all the best and good luck!

(Cost
The surgery, including appointments before and after cost me a bit more than 9000 euros, which my private insurance luckily mostly covered. Additionally, there's the cost of going to Vienna and the hotel. I definitely would have went through with the surgery even if insurance didn't pay anything though.)  

[Mikel7]

Thank you for this informative and positive post! Now could you please fill out your signature line so in the future this can be a benefit for others to read.

[RA17]

Hi lads. Really good post g123. Can relate to so much of what you said and has the exact same curvature. 45 degree left. Few differences as I was lucky enough to have ONE experience surgeon at my door step. Was 3x cheaper than going to more 'sought after' surgeons in London and he made me feel comfortable. Honestly I didn't do much research on him but seen he has been doing surgery's on penile curvature for years and years so that was enough for me. Few differences.. I was never given meds to stop erections and for the first 2 weeks I'd wake up 5 times a night in excruciating pain from the nocturnal erections. Not saying one of our surgeons is was right and wrong but seems your way was better. The theory behind my surgeons is that the pain is almost required in a sense as that is the sutures making the changes / creating the scar tissue  required to keep penis straight. Absorbable sutures used same as you and were gone after 8 months. Still got around 10-15 degrees recurrent curvature (heard and felt suture pop 4 weeks after surgery, not sure if this had any effect. Had 0 pain and little pressure from sutures 4 weeks in when it popped so seemed strange but oh well.) I am far from 100% satisfied with result and something that annoys me is penis still LEANS/POINTS to left more so now that curves but I think that's because I literally had no tissue on the one side and now it just pulls this direction than curves. Tbh it probably did before the surgery as well. Anyway, I like you, am really glad I got this surgery as Although im not fully satisfied it's a whole lot better than it was and I can now live with it. Not sure about you but after all of it I obsess over it now too much I.e checking for recurvature and just overall looking at imperfections etc. anyway my advice to anyone would be similar to yours. If someone has more than 30 degree curve and it's making them desperately unhappy then do some research for surgeons etc and go for it. Hope it goes as well as mines and g123 did. Again pick a surgeon that has plenty experience in performing penile surgery's to minimise risk.  

[Alex83]

The accounts writing testimonials with Kuehhas all have one thing in common: they have very few messages published on the forum

[Mikel7]

The accounts writing testimonials with Kuehhas all have one thing in common: they have very few messages published on the forum

Very true statement. They also don't want to follow the rules and fill out their signature line.

[Pfract]

Alex: a few years back there was a lot of members having issues and complaints with that Dr. A few made it their mission to constantly write negative things about him and his practice. It eventually stopped.

Hopefully it doesn't start again.
 

[Alex83]

We must be wary, Kuehhas knows the existence of this forum, these accounts are very suspicious.

[g123]

The accounts writing testimonials with Kuehhas all have one thing in common: they have very few messages published on the forum

Lol. I published very few messages in this forum because this part of my life is over and I don't regularly think of this topic anymore. The only reason I came back at all was because I made a resolution to do so ages ago and only now really had a lot of time on my hand and the presence of mind to do so. And the resolution was made because this forum helped me make a decision when it wasn't easy or obvious.

Personally, I don't care at all what you choose to do with your situation or which doctor you see or if you even believe that I am a real person. I win or loose nothing in either scenario. I just wanted to tell my story.

And FYI, I obviously don't know for sure, but I would be extremely surprised if a doctor that makes 9000 euros revenue on one surgery, with a waitlist of a few months (in my case) would hang out on forums like this one to write fake reports.