(WASHINGTON PRESS)  Rachel Feltman December 7, 2015 — Only one successful surgery has ever been reported worldwide.

Johns Hopkins University will soon perform the first penis transplants in the United States — and wounded soldiers will be the first patients.  that the first surgery could occur in just a few months.

News of penis transplants might send the uninformed into fits of giggles, but the procedure — which has been successfully completed in South Africa — is serious business. In South Africa, the procedure is being perfected with an eye toward , which are common in the Xhosa tribe.

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In the United States, circumcision after infancy (and the injuries that often come with it) is admittedly less common. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for penis transplants: The Department of Defense Trauma Registry reports that 1,367 military servicemen sustained injuries to the genitals between 2011 and 2013 in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.

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