By Debra Goldschmidt CNN

(CNN) -- Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital performed the first U.S. penis transplant, they said Monday.

The 64-year-old cancer patient is recovering well after the 15-hour procedure performed last month.

"Surgeons connected the intricate vascular and nerve structures of a donor penis with those of the 64-year-old transplant recipient," the hospital said in a statement.

The donated organ is from a deceased patient. Doctors will talk about the successful surgery at a press conference Monday.

Previously, doctors at Johns Hopkins said they hoped to be the first team in the United States to accomplish this procedure in a clinical trial for veterans launched last year.

In December 2014, doctors at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa performed the first penis transplant in a nine-hour operation.

The patient was a 21-year-old man whose penis was amputated after severe complications from a circumcision during a coming-of-age ceremony.

Doctors waited three months to declare the surgery a success once his urinary and reproductive functions were restored. In June the man had successfully impregnated his girlfriend.

The statement from Massachusetts referred to this as a "surgical milestone" and said it "holds promise for patients with devastating genitourinary injuries and disease."

CNN's Joseph Netto contributed to this report

TM & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.