A woman in Honduras went to the doctor because she felt an “extremely strange” sensation in her genitals. It turned out that a cockroach was stuck inside her vagina.
The woman, whose name hasn’t been revealed, went to a clinic in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. She was feeling “very restless, agitated, and sweaty.”
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She also said she couldn’t sleep the night before and felt like something “really strange” was inside her vagina.
When doctors examined her, they were surprised to find a dead cockroach.
They quickly removed the insect and checked the woman for any injuries before letting her go.
The medical team said they had seen other unusual objects, like condoms and sex toys, in similar cases before.
But they said they were “very anxious” when they found the insect, noting that it was the first time something like this had happened at their facility.
Dr. Marco Calix, the gynecologist who treated the woman, explained what happened:
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“[The woman] said she felt something strange in her vagina.
“When I used the speculum, I could see it was an insect. I had to remove something like a cockroach.”
A speculum is a medical tool used to look inside places like the vagina.
It’s not clear how the cockroach got inside or how long it had been there. Dr. Calix mentioned that the woman came from a “rural area,” and the insect was already dead when it was taken out.
Reports of insects getting stuck in people’s bodies aren’t completely unheard of. In Alabama, doctors deal with up to five cases a year, but these are usually in the ears.
However, it’s very unusual for a cockroach, which experts say is the most common insect to crawl into a human body, to be found inside someone’s vagina.
Insects can be dangerous when they enter the body. They can scratch sensitive areas, like the vagina or ear, which could lead to an infection.
Signs that something is wrong might include pain or swelling where the insect is stuck.
Dr. Calix added that when insects are in the vagina, they could cause unusual or smelly discharge, bleeding, swelling, or even a rash.
This case is similar to one in Vietnam, where a woman went to the doctor because she heard a buzzing sound in her ear. The woman, from Dien Bien Province, visited the clinic because of the noise. When doctors looked inside with a small camera, they found a mosquito stuck in her ear canal.
She was surprised to find out what was causing the buzzing but had the insect taken out before it could harm her ear.
In 2019, doctors used long, thin tweezers to remove the mosquito, explaining that insects can easily fly into people’s ears.
The bizarre things gynecologists have found in vaginas:
Here’s a list of strange items that gynecologists have found in vaginas, based on information shared by doctors in 2017.
The list was made using the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database of emergency room visits across the country.
Some patients were lucky and didn’t get hurt, while others weren’t so fortunate.
Here’s the full list of unusual items:
Scented soap
Deodorant cap
Bottle cap
Penis ring with spikes
Silicone balls
A ball
Bike reflector
A sponge (one patient said she used it while swimming during her period, which isn’t recommended—it’s better to use a tampon or menstrual cup instead)
Headphones
A hot towel
A phone and cash (the patient was having sex with her boyfriend, who inserted both into her vagina)
Clay
A candlestick
A lollipop
15 stone balls (one patient was using urethral vaginal stone balls, but the string holding them together broke, and she couldn’t retrieve one of the 15 balls)
A toy wand
