The case of the missing "Prince Albert".

Abstract

Body piercing is increasing and so are its complications. We describe a case in which the female partner of an individual who had penile piercing was affected. A young female presented to the emergency department with the possibility of a lost/missing foreign body in the vagina. Her partner had had a "Prince Albert" type of penile piercing, which was found to be missing after sexual intercourse. Prince Albert penile piercing is a metallic bead, which is anchored to the urethral opening. On clinical examination, the bead was not found in the vagina but was seen on pelvic X-ray. A thorough sexual history resolved the mystery of the missing Prince Albert. Our case suggests that the gynecologist should be aware of the practice of genital piercing and stresses the importance of proper sexual history taking.