Micropenis, Inconspicuous Penis Less Common Than Small Penis Syndrome
Penis Size: What's Normal, What's Not
You might think that as long a man's penis works, he would have no problem with it. You would be wrong.
Penis
size is a key element of a man's self-image. Yet when he's not boasting
to other men, the average man significantly underestimates the relative
size of his penis.
Here's an example: Over a
two-year period, 67 men asked an Italian hospital for surgical
correction of a small penis. All turned out to have normal-size penises. "A
few days ago, I had a patient who spent an hour taking measurements of
his penis and thinking it is too small," Gilbert says. "Yet it was
normal." That man isn't alone. About 45% of his
brethren want a bigger penis. Never mind that 85% of heterosexual women
say they are satisfied with their partners' penis parameters.
Many men worry about the size of their erections. Many more worry about how their penis looks when it's limp, studies find. So
how can a man know if he's normal, super-sized, or small? Not by his
shoe size, a common and disproved myth about estimating penis length.
Like so much else in life, direct measurement is the key.
How to Measure a Penis
Men may be surprised to learn that penis length isn't measured on the erect penis. Too many variables are involved.
Instead,
the most reliable penis measurement is called SPL -- stretched penis
length. The longer a man's SPL, the longer his erect penis length,
according to studies done on brave young men who volunteered to have
erection-stimulating penis injections.
To learn your
SPL, measure the penis while it's flaccid. Press the ruler tight against
the pubic bone at the base of the penis. Don't just measure from where
the penis separates from the scrotum, or you'll lose precious
centimeters. Now gently, but very firmly, stretch the penis as far as it
will go. Measure from the pubic bone to the tip of the stretched penis.
Did
you get five and a quarter inches? If so, you are exactly normal. Most
adult men are within about a half inch of 5.24 inches, according to
statistics Palmer has compiled. Nearly all studies of penis length come
up with a similar measure.
If you're a little smaller than that, you've got lots of company. Just as many men are below average penis size as above it.
How
big is big? According to Palmer's statistics, only 0.6% of men have an
SPL of 6.8 inches or more. But too big isn't what men tend to worry
about.
Micropenis: When a Penis Really Is Too Small
There
is, of course, such a thing as a very small penis. The medical term
"micropenis" applies to the 0.6% of men with the smallest penises.
According to Palmer's statistics, an SPL of three and two-thirds inches
or less indicates a micropenis. Even then, U.S.
doctors hesitate to recommend surgery for a man whose SPL is longer than
three inches. That's because surgery is controversial and risky.
Micropenis
isn't usually something a man discovers when he's an adult. It's
usually caused by genetic or hormonal abnormalities that cause other,
more serious health problems early in life. That's because the penis starts to develop when a
fetus
is just 8 weeks old. By week 12, the penis has developed and begins to
grow. During the second and third trimesters, male sex hormones cause
the penis to grow to normal length. Factors that interfere with hormone
production and hormone action stunt penis growth.
When discovered in infancy, micropenis can be treated
with testosterone, which can stimulate penis growth in childhood, even
after puberty. While the safety and long-term efficacy of this treatment
remains to be proved, available data suggest the treatment does not
affect normal development during puberty.
For adults with micropenis, the options are few.
"For
true micropenis, there is not much you can do that is adequate for the
adult patient, except for putting in a penile prosthesis," Gilbert says.
Fortunately,
micropenis is a rare condition. Far more common is what Palmer and
colleagues call "the constellation of conditions that make the penis
look diminutive and small" -- inconspicuous penis.
Inconspicuous Penis: When Size Isn't the Only Issue
"Inconspicuous penis means a penis that is hard to see," Palmer says.
Micropenis -- a truly tiny penile shaft -- is the rarest of the conditions under the umbrella term "inconspicuous penis." Other forms of inconspicuous penis that may have remained untreated until adulthood are webbed penis and buried penis.
"The
webbed penis indicates the scrotum has connected to the underside of
the penis so it pulls the penis inward," Palmer says. "Usually the penis
is at right angles to the scrotum. But in webbed penis, the scrotum is
high riding and the separation from the penis is not clear."
Buried
penis occurs when the penis is hidden below the skin. This can happen
because of excessive belly fat in the front of the abdominal wall droops
down to conceal the penis. It can also happen when the connection to
the scrotum is absent and the penis withdraws inward toward the pelvis.
Another form of buried penis occurs when a too-large foreskin makes the
penis look buried.
Webbed penis can be addressed via surgery. Buried penis may require only weight loss, and perhaps
liposuction. There are also surgical procedures that can correct the problem.
Small Penis Syndrome
It's been dubbed small penis syndrome: the belief that you aren't a real man because you don't have a big penis. Perhaps
one reason men often believe this is that most men have no idea what a
normal-size penis looks like. When asked to guess, most guess wrong.
About 15% of men just throw up their hands and admit they don't know,
one study found.
Another reason is pornography. Palmer tells the story of
a teen patient who was in agony over his small penis size. But
examination showed he was perfectly normal. It turned out that the boy
had been viewing Internet pornography, from which he got a distorted
picture of normal male anatomy. And because penis size is such a major part of a man's body image, men suffering from body dysmorphic disorder often focus on the size of their penises.
Body
dysmorphic disorder and other psychiatric issues that may underlie
small penis syndrome may require professional psychological help. But
Palmer and Gilbert say that most men need only reassurance that they
really are normal.
"I give the patient a physical and
get his personal history and social history," Gilbert says. "If he has
no medical problem, I speak positively. I tell him that he has a normal
phallus that is no different in function from any other healthy man. I
give him confidence."
Palmer
notes that the law of averages dictates that some men will have smaller
penises than others. This does not make them abnormal. "If
a man has perfectly normal penis function, he must reconcile with the
fact that his penis is what it is," he says. "You cannot make a short
person tall. People have to accommodate to their own anatomy."
Can Surgery Make a Small Penis Larger?
It's
hard for a man to open his email without encountering an offer of a
drug, device, or surgical procedure that will give him a bigger penis.
Sure, that stuff is just spam. But are there legitimate ways to lengthen a penis? "There
isn't much to make the penis larger," Palmer says. "Surgically, there
is not much to significantly increase penis size or girth that is not
fraught with significant complications."
Procedures
known as "augmentative phalloplasty" promise to make a penis wider in
girth. And because these procedures add weight to the penis -- by
grafting fat from another part of the body -- they make the penis a
half-inch or so longer when flaccid.
"Getting a
uniformly even expansion of girth is unpredictable and often does not
lead to a good outcome," Palmer says. "You have to hope you do not get a
lumpy penis. This is not an easy thing to do."
Most men do not know that only about two-thirds of their
penis protrudes from their bodies. The other third, held in place with
ligaments, provides the leverage for sexual function.
One
surgical technique cuts these tendons and allows the penis to protrude
another inch or two. Gilbert takes a dim view of the technique, because
the penis loses its leverage.
"When surgeons take the
inside part of the penis and move it out, the most common outcome is
their erection no longer goes up but down," he says. "If a man is
unhappy with his penis length, he is going to be unhappy with a penis he
has to pick up and insert. I've had men ask me, 'Can you put it back
the way it was?'" Gilbert says that because of the high complication rate, malpractice insurance rarely covers penis-lengthening procedures.
All
of these procedures are considered "experimental surgery." Severe
complications include -- but are not limited to -- penis shortening, a
lumpy or uneven appearance, scarring, sexual dysfunction, and curvature
of the penis. These complications often cannot be corrected.
Can Devices Make a Small Penis Larger?
Traction
devices that stretch the penis may actually add an inch or so to penis
length, based on small studies and anecdotal reports. Gilbert says he is
following two patients who are using these devices in an effort to make
their penises longer.
"These devices have to be worn
for several hours a day, for many months," he says. "Most people, even
if they are highly motivated, don't have that kind of time. So I'm not
sure a lot of patients have the time or energy or perseverance to do
that."
Vacuum devices may help men with erectile dysfunction achieve an erection -- but they do not make the penis larger.
Can Regenerative Medicine Make a Small Penis Larger?
However,
there is one area of research with intriguing possibilities:
regenerative medicine. Scientists have been able to grow animal penises
in the laboratory by seeding scaffolds with the animals' own cells.
These penises then were successfully transplanted.
Already
a group of researchers in Beijing, China, have reported using a similar
technique to treat 69 patients with what they called small penis
syndrome. In this case, the tissues were grown from the patients' own
scrotal skin and grafted to their penises to increase their girth.
"With regenerative medicine, the sky is the limit," Palmer says. "We might have this as an option down the line."
"Regenerative
medicine is still not ready for prime time," Gilbert says. "These
things have a lot of potential, but nothing we can offer to patients in
the near future."
Original Post Found Here:
www.webmd.com/men/guide/is-my-penis-too-small?
