As a urologist, you see many unexpected patients with unexpected stories, but some are even more surprising than others.

This patient was a middle-aged man with a wife and kids, and he had a problem downstairs. His testicles were swollen and slightly wounded, and so was the skin of his glans penis. My girlfriend felt that the patient was hiding something, and asked him to tell the entire story — not a selected part which blurred the bigger picture.

He hesitated for a while, but then opened his backpack to take out a device, while he obviously was getting a wee bit aroused (but she tried to ignore it).

A little metal birdcage with a round opening at the back — my girlfriend had no idea what it was.

“It’s a chastity cage. To put my genitals in. I wear it at certain parties, and it’s the only thing I wear at those parties.”

It was the kind of party his wife did not know about, and he liked to keep it that way. The cage was the obvious culprit of his genital condition, and my girlfriend did not even try to ask what the cage was for. But this was obviously one for the books.

A patient with a secret life, wounded, and aroused.

And caged like a bird in more than one way.