Questions about Penis Size

Does size matter?

Q: I've heard a number of opinions on the topic of whether or not penis size makes a difference.   Does it? Thanks, Tom.

A: Yes, it does matter.   However, before you jump to any conclusions, bigger is not necessarily better.   "Big" or even "average" may be too large, while "small" may be just right for some women. In my experience as a doctor I've noticed that vaginal size varies greatly — far more than penile size.   Considering only adult non-virginal women, some vaginas were so small that they'd provide a snug fit for a pencil, while others were so loose that the thick end of a baseball bat would easily fit inside.   Yes, penile size varies, but not to that degree.   Therefore, for any given couple, the size of the man's penis is less important than the size of the woman's vagina.   This fact is typically given short shrift in our culture.   Whenever the topic of "size" is broached, it is tacitly assumed that the only size which matters is penile size, while vaginal size is ignored.   If it is politically correct to discuss penile size, it should be acceptable to consider vaginal size, too.   However, while I frequently hear many direct and indirect discussions of penile size from sex experts, comedians, ad copy writers, and even on a daytime court TV program, there doesn't seem to be any commensurate mention of vaginal size.   Again, since size does matter and vaginal size is the greatest variable, it only makes sense to consider the woman's contribution, too.

Here is another reason to focus more upon vaginal size than penile size: women have more control over the tightness of their vaginas than men do over the size of their penises.   While penis size can be increased (especially on a short-term basis, as I explain in The Science of Sex and Advanced Enlargement — see the text in the red box below), vaginal tightness can be dramatically altered on a long-term basis by doing Kegel exercises.   In women, one of the greatest benefits of Kegel exercises — and one that is rarely mentioned — is that the depth of the outer "tight zone" of the vagina can be increased. I've never met a man whose eyes didn't glaze over at the thought of a tight vagina, but such an improvement can benefit women, too. When this zone of the outer vagina is not just tight, but tight and deep, the penis is better able to stimulate the sensitive outer third of the vagina and the G-spot.

Kegel exercises are able to increase the depth of the tight zone by causing hypertrophy (thickening) of the pubococcygeal muscles, as depicted in the following diagrams:

How Kegel exercises affect the PC muscle

How Kegel exercises affect the PC muscle

The diagram on the left is from a woman with a poorly developed pubococcygeal muscle, and the diagram on the right is from a woman with a well-developed pubococcygeal muscle.

Note about The Science of Sex and Advanced Enlargement: Men interested in penile enlargement often ask me which of those books they should buy, since both discuss penile enlargement. If money is an issue, buy Advanced Enlargement (AE) only. However, I strongly encourage you to also read The Science of Sex (SOS) because many topics in that book pertain to penile enlargement. I wrote AE with the assumption that men who read it will have already read SOS, so you will definitely miss some essential tips if you skip SOS. While all of the techniques in AE are more effective if coupled with the information in SOS, you can still obtain impressive size gains by following the information in AE.

I offer free lifetime upgrades to the latest edition of AE (and SOS), so if you previously purchased AE, I strongly encourage you to contact me so I can send you the latest edition free. It includes some great new tips that can enhance the effectiveness of the other techniques, or can be used on their own for immediate results.

What's the average size of an adult penis?
And why is it less than what it once was?

Q: Dr. Pezzi, it's Tom again. Thanks for answering my other question. I showed your answer to my girlfriend, and she now realizes that "my" problem is "our" problem, and probably even more "her" problem. But, she's working on it. My question today is, what is the average size of a penis?

A: The length of an average erect penis in adults is 5.72 inches* (or, if you believe the latest study, 5.1 inches). Years ago, the average length of an erect penis (measured on the dorsal, or top, surface) was 6½ inches. Later on, it was 6¼ inches, then 6 inches . . . now 5.72 or — gulp — 5.1? What's going on here? I hate to tell you this, men, but you are not quite the man your grandfather was; the average penile length is shrinking. Why? There are a number of estrogens (phytoestrogens, xenoestrogens, and exogenous estrogens**) to which men are now exposed. Furthermore, the estrogen level in men can be increased by a number of factors (which I discuss in my book in the section on the testosterone-to-estrogen ratio). Too much estrogen, and the penis either shrinks or fails to grow as much as it should. Not good. If you're interested, in my book I discuss dozens of environmental factors under your control that affect penile size.

* As the automobile companies equivocate, your mileage may vary. By random chance, some women have had nothing but large partners, so they may think that a guy with an average-sized penis is small; other women, having only been with men with small penises, may think that an average man is well-endowed. It's all relative. The average erect penis is 1.62 inches wide, and 4.5 inches in circumference. Most men have a penis measuring 4.6 to 6.25 inches long, but 12% of men have larger penises and 12% have smaller penises. Incidentally, the length of a fully stretched flaccid penis is virtually the same as that of a fully erect penis.

** Phytoestrogens are chemicals with estrogen activity that occur naturally in a variety of plants such as soybeans. Xenoestrogens are man-made chemicals that mimic natural estrogens. Exogenous estrogens are estrogens unintentionally introduced into people from ingestion of food or water containing estrogens from animals, humans, or pharmaceuticals.

Why did my penis shrink? What can I do about it?
How to trigger a "second puberty" of penile growth

Q: I am writing to you because my doctor is an idiot. I'll explain why in a minute. I am 47 years old, healthy, have usually one beer each evening, never use drugs, don't smoke, and I haven't gained any weight. I see my doctor once yearly for an annual checkup. So far, so good, except for one thing. My penis is shrinking. It doesn't look as big, or feel as large when I grasp it with my hand, even when it is fully erect. I mentioned this to my doc, and he told me that penises don't shrink. Well, mine did. It's about ¾ inch shorter, and ½ inch less in circumference. My doctor thought I measured wrong. No way. I work as a machinist, and routinely measure things to an accuracy of less than one-thousandth of an inch. There is no way that my measurements are wrong. I must have measured my penis at least a dozen times when I was a teenager, and I've checked it several times in the past few months. There has been a definite size decrease, so I know my doctor is just plain wrong about his statement that penises don't shrink.

My questions are: 1) Why did my penis shrink? 2) What can I do about it? 3) Why do doctors say that penises don't shrink, when they clearly do? I assume I am not the only man who has experienced this problem.

A: You are not alone. I'll tell you about a 62-year-old patient I saw in the ER years ago. As I prepared to insert a catheter into his penis, I asked his daughter to step out of the room. He said, "That's all right, doc. She can stay in here. There isn't much left to see. It used to be large, and now it's just a shriveled up noodle. But I'm proud of what it did. It gave me two beautiful children." This revelation about the shrinkage piqued my curiosity, and I would sometimes ask other patients if they had the same problem. Amongst older men, this was surprisingly common. This caused me to wonder why so many doctors cling to the belief that penis size is fixed at the end of puberty. I know of a few cases in which there has been a documented size increase (I discuss why in my book), and many more cases of shrinkage. Tissue shrinkage is actually a very common accompaniment of aging. Breasts shrink, the vagina shrinks (unless estrogen is given after menopause), the brain shrinks, skin and bones thin, muscles atrophy, lips shrink, testicles shrink, we become shorter, and so on. In spite of this, physicians routinely maintain that penis size does not change. The penis of an average 88-year-old man is just as large as it was on his 18th birthday? Hogwash. Doctors are wrong. Don't be too surprised, though. This isn't the first medical myth to crumble under the weight of objective scrutiny. For example, there is the myth that the average body temperature is 98.6° F. That is not true, but many docs are seemingly ignorant of circadian temperature variation and research which indicates that the average body temperature is not 98.6° F. If doctors can be deceived by the body temperature myth, it is not surprising that they can be duped in regard to age-related changes in penile size — a far more esoteric subject.

Doctors routinely see men in their flaccid state, rarely inquire into their erect size, and almost never discuss if there's been any change in size. With this in mind, I have a difficult time understanding why physicians feel qualified to make a sweeping generalization that penis size is immutable. They believe that to be true because they heard it from another doctor, who just passed on what he heard from another doctor who also didn't know the truth because he was just relaying a myth that he'd heard or read from someone similarly uninformed. Is this any way for learned professionals to behave?

Why did your penis shrink? That could result from decreased testosterone and especially dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is derived from testosterone. DHT is known to be the primary catalyst for penile growth. Physicians are taught in medical school that this is important only before the end of puberty; once the penis develops, it'll maintain that size forever. I know that is wrong, and it frankly doesn't make any physiological sense to me. As I discuss in my book, the body continuously rebuilds itself. If your house could do the same thing, it could tear off an old shingle and replace it with a new one. In time, your house would replace all of its shingles, and you'd have a new roof. Your body does a fairly good job of renewing itself until you hit middle age, at which time tissue regeneration begins to sputter. After a few more decades, this process slows even more. Wounds heal more slowly, and muscles take longer to regenerate after exercise.

If the cells and molecules in your body were not broken down, you could live off sugar water. You wouldn't need protein. But you do require dietary protein and other nutrients because tissue destruction and regeneration constantly occur. This process is more rapid than you might imagine, because your body recycles some of its building blocks. Only a fraction of the recycled material is lost in the urine or feces.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of the molecules in your body weren't there a year ago. The old ones are gone, and new ones have taken their place. Even bone, which may seem as active as a fossil, is torn down and rebuilt. The penis is no exception. Let's think about this logically. If DHT is critical for stimulating penile growth (and it is), why would this matter only before the end of puberty? Isn't there still a receptor for DHT after puberty? Yes, of course. Once DHT binds to the receptor, doesn't it affect DNA transcription, as it does before puberty ends? Yes, of course. However, physicians who contend that penis size is fixed after puberty would have you believe that it doesn't matter if your DHT level is zero, or if you have DHT bubbling out your ears. Can you think of any other example in which the level of a hormone is totally immaterial to its target tissue? I can't. I graduated in the top 1% of my class in medical school, so I am not ignorant about how the body works. Hormones exist for one reason: to influence their target tissues.

In reality, the penis becomes less sensitive to DHT after puberty, but the sensitivity is not zero. Thus, the DHT level can influence penile size, but to a much smaller degree than it could before the end of puberty, when the penis was still very sensitive to DHT. As I mentioned before, I don't think the DHT level matters after puberty in regard to penis size, I know it. (If any physician or scientist doubts this, put your money where your mouth is. Let's wager a million dollars. You'll lose.)

After reading all this, you might think that increasing the DHT level is the way to go. It may help a wee bit, but there is a much better secret that I accidentally discovered. I discuss this topic in The Science of Sex. Using this method, your penis won't just be larger, it will be exquisitely sensitive, and sex will feel much better. Your libido will increase to the point that you would be called a nymphomaniac, if you were a woman.

Besides DHT, other factors influence penile size. Genetics obviously matters, but it is pointless to discuss them because this is not under your control. In terms of what you can influence, DHT is the most important factor, but there are others. I won't reiterate everything I said in my book, but I will briefly mention other things that make a difference: other hormones, hormone transport proteins such as sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and albumin, cadmium, zinc, antiandrogens, phytoestrogens, exogenous estrogens, endogenous estrogens, xenoestrogens, obesity, numerous drugs and chemicals, collagen, elastin, and a dozen other factors.

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