yes, penis frostbite is possible

according to page six, which claims to have received an early copy of the book before its release next week, prince harry goes into detail about the aftermath of a 200-mile expedition he took to the arctic in march 2011 as a fundraiser for walking with the wounded, a british charity that supports injured veterans.

“upon arriving home i’d been horrified to discover that my nether regions were frostnipped,” he wrote, according to the outlet. he told his father an abbreviated version of what he was dealing with, leaving out the awkward parts. “pa was very interested, and sympathetic about the discomfort of my frost nipped ears and cheeks,” he wrote. but the rest of it soon became hard to ignore: “while the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn’t.”

‘distal extremities go first’

frostbite occurs when the skin and the tissue underneath it are frozen. the body will automatically respond to cold with a process called vasoconstriction, the conversation explains. the blood vessels in the area that’s cold will narrow to prevent blood from flowing to that area, so that it doesn’t bring down the temperature of the viral organs, destroy the skin tissue, or start ice crystals from forming in the blood.

frostbite will often starts with a prickling feeling, according to the mayo clinic, followed by numbness and skin that appears hard or waxy. once the area starts to re-warm, pain will often set in, sometimes accompanied by blisters. the skin will likely also change colour: first to red, then to white. in cases of deep frostbite, the skin can turn black.

while penis frostbite is rare, it can occur in extreme temperatures, urologist dr. seth cohen told vice news last year. “ distal extremities go first, like fingers and toes, and of course the penis is a distal extremity,” he explained. distal extremities are “end organs,” he said, meaning that they can become constricted by only one blocked artery. “i f that specific flow of blood gets blocked, or frozen, or constricted for any reason, that organ starts to lose oxygenated blood,” he said. “that’s what frostbite is.”

and the nerve fibres of any area that’s been frostbitten become hypersensitive, the conversation explains , to protect the tissue from further damage. and the flow of blood that’s a normal temperature feels hotter than it normally would, which also causes some pain.

in the worst-case scenario, a penis that was significantly damaged by frostbite might have skin underneath that would start to slough off, cohen told vice. the spongy tissue beneath it could also be damaged, and potentially lead to a loss of skin on the penis — but reproductive health would likely not be impacted unless the testicles were also damaged.

olympic skiier: frozen penis lead to ‘unbearable’ pain

prince harry is hardly the only person to experience a frozen “todger,” or even to talk about it publicly. in early 2022, during the winter olympics in beijing, finnish skiier remi lindholm hinted to reporters that he dealt with “unbearable” pain in his penis after completing a 50 km cross country ski race.

he also told cnn that he had experienced the same thing during a cross-country ski race in ruka, finland, the previous year.

the pain and potential damage of a frozen penis may be the reason that some arctic mammals, including polar bears, have a baculum, or a penis bone. “while the exact function of this bone is still unclear, it potentially reduces some of the reliance on blood flow to maintain an erection, which is helpful in colder climates,” the conversation says.

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