The-penis.com

Small Penis Syndrome

Other pages on penis size

What size are you?
Small penis syndrome (2)
Small penis syndrome (3)
Small penis syndrome (4)
Small penis syndrome (5)

Other pages on this site

Contents Page

Men and penis size (and something called small penis syndrome)

Women focus much more on a man’s personality and whether he is good-looking than the size of his penis, but men - it will not surprise you to learn - experience anxiety about penis size even when their cock is average, according to research published in the June 2007 issue of the British Journal Of Urology International.

Dr Kevan Wylie of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital has found that though men appear to have a better body image, a better genital image and more sexual confidence when they have a large penis, women don’t go along with the idea that a bigger penis is a better penis.

Dr Wylie co-operated with Mr Ian Eardley of St James’ Hospital in Leeds on a review of over fifty international research studies on the subject of penile size and the so-called "small penis syndrome" which have been carried out since the early 1940's.

They correlated the results of a dozen studies which measured the penises of over 11,500 men and found that the average length of erection was reported as between 14 and 16cms (that is, more or less, between 5.5 and 6.2 inches) while the average circumference or girth was between 12 and 13cm (i.e. between 4.7 and 5.1 inches).

Wylie and Eardley also took the time to review the various and rather bizarre practices used by men throughout the world to increase the dimensions or shape of their penises. The practices they reported included those of a tribe in Brazil, where the men stimulated poisonous snakes to bite their penises - which had the effect of making them swell up for six months. Some of us might think this rather too high a price to pay for a larger organ.

(They do not report how the men discovered this practice!) The authors also commented that Indian men have long used weights to increase the length of their penises by stretching them, and that men from Borneo make holes in the glans of their penises into which they insert items such as small stones so as to stimulate their partners during sex.

Anyhow, on the perhaps more interesting subject of penis size, one survey conducted among more than forty thousand heterosexual men and women discovered that two thirds of men believed that they had an average sized penis, while one man in five said he had a large penis, and about one man in ten said he had a small one.

Although you might think this is encouraging (it's great that two thirds of men think they are average in size, though of course this is statistically impossible!), the bad news is that only half of these men said they were happy with the size of their penis. Apparently, average size just doesn't cut it! Interestingly, the women didn't share this view - over 85 per cent of women said they were happy or satisfied with their partner’s penile size.

Of course, one of the things that men worry about is whether their partners prefer a long cock or a thick one. It seems clear from various research work that nine women in every ten prefer (or at least say they prefer) a thick penis over one that can poke her deepest vaginal recesses! What's also clear is that penis size is not a factor of great importance for a woman when she considers what makes a man attractive!

Small penis syndrome - the condition where men worry about the size of their organ and suffer needless anxiety because they imagine they are sexually inadequate - is, incredibly, a common condition among men who are in fact absolutely average in size! And, equally surprisingly, men who are genuinely small, those who have flaccid penile length of less than 7 cm (which is equal to 2.7 inches), appear to suffer from small penis syndrome much less!

There were many other fascinating pieces of information from this study. Bear in mind that this is not original research in the sense that the research team asked men these questions, as all they were doing was correlating other research published over a period of sixty years or so. But this does not detract from the interest in seeing how men perceive the penis!

For example, one of the studies revealed that just over sixty percent of men who complained they had a small penis said their anxiety about penis size had begun during childhood comparisons. Another thirty seven percent said that seeing porn in their teenage years was the root of their sense of sexual inadequacy. A yeast infection may have a similar effect.

One famous finding of the work by Kinsey in the 1940s suggested that gay men had on average larger organs than straight men. (This remains unproven.) However, it probably has something to do with the fact that the gay subculture has always regarded penis size rather than sexual stamina as a totem of masculinity and male sexuality.

These days, there is still some truth in this statement, although we would tend to regard sexual performance as being incredibly important to most men. This can be measured in terms of staying power, sexual stamina, or knowing how to last longer in bed.

And what of the famous idea that the penis shrinks as a man gets older? Well, Wylie and Eardley could not find any differences when they looked at studies of older men, although common sense suggests that decreasing levels of male hormone, less sexual activity, and an increase in body fat must have some impact on the apparent or real size of the penis.

This work didn't show whether different races have different sized penises, and this too remains unproven.

Penis enlargement is a big area for scammers, tricksters and hucksters, and this study appeared to back up the suspicion that many of us feel towards the idea of penis enlargement, at least in some cases: the effectiveness of vacuum devices, penile extenders and traction devices remains unproven in every case. However, it's possible that men may gain some reassurance from them.

As for enlargement surgery, the results are poorly documented and significant side-effects all too common. complications can ensue.

Dr Wylie observes that men often worry about the size of their penis, and these are real concerns which should not be dismissed as this can make the emotional state of the man in question even worse. The answer, in most cases, lies in providing accurate information about penis size, and correcting any wrong impressions which men may have picked up.

As Wylie observes, for the doctor who faces a man convinced that his penis is abnormally small or inadequately small, there are a number of treatment options. Education and self-awareness come first, followed by short-term therapy. However, penile extenders and surgery are neither effective nor satisfying in their effect to the man concerned.