- Questions about sexual and genital health can be tough to ask, so INSIDER talked to a urologist about common questions related to penis size, function, and more.
- He said that most people who worry about penis size and consider surgeries to make their penises bigger are actually normal.
- Erectile dysfunction is typically associated with older people, but it can strike at any age.
- Penises don't always have symptoms when you have an STD.
The penis is an organ that can be tough to talk about openly — especially if you have worries about its health, size, or how it's working.
INSIDER spoke with Dr. Aaron Spitz, a urologist and author of "The Penis Book: A Doctor's Complete Guide to the Penis — From Size to Function and Everything in Between" to answer a handful of questions on penis size, STDs, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, injuries, and more.
Read on for his answers.
Are there any pills that can really make my penis bigger?
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
"There are no pills that will increase the size of your penis, but pills will make that claim," Spitz said. "What they're really doing is they may increase some blood flow to your penis, so your penis is bigger on its way to becoming erect, but the actual size of the erection is not getting any bigger."
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Can I make my penis larger with surgery?
There are two types of procedures in this category: Those that claim to lengthen the penis, and procedures that claim to make the penis thicker.
In lengthening procedures, a surgeon cuts the suspensory ligament, which attaches the penis to the pubic bone and helps hold the erect penis at an upward angle.
"By severing that ligament, it allows the flaccid penis to drop down a little bit from the pubic bone, but only when it's flaccid, not when it's erect," Spitz said. "[These] procedures are really optical illusions."
There are procedures that can increase penis girth, he added, but they don't actually change the size of the corpora cavernosa — the two side-by-side cylinders inside the penis that fill with blood and become rigid during an erection. Instead, a surgeon adds to the soft tissue between those cylinders and the skin, using bulking agents or fat.
"The girth is increased whether it's flaccid or erect, but it's not actually making the chambers that become erect [any] larger," Spitz said.
He also cautioned that surgeries that aren't done skillfully could result in deformities, scarring, inflammatory reactions, or shortening of the penis. Plus, Spitz said, the "vast majority" of people who are curious about these operations already have a penis that's normally sized.
How big is the average penis, really?
In 2015, researchers at King's College London reviewed 20 past studies on penis size, analyzing different penis measurements (like girth, flaccid length, and erect length) for up to 15,500 men.
They found the average flaccid penis was about 3.6 inches long, while the average erect penis was about 5.2 inches long.
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In a statement about the research, lead author Dr. David Veale said he believed the results "will help doctors reassure the large majority of men that the size of their penis is in the normal range."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider