Penile Size Revisited: Conversations with my Patients

Penis Size After Penile Implant

The Guardian reported on a study published in the BJU: researchers measured 15,000 erect penises so as to determine what is in fact average penis size.

The results of the study where that on average:

• an erect penis is 5.16 inches (13.12 cm) long and 4.6 inches (11.66 cm) in circumference

• a flaccid penis is 3.6 inches (9.16 cm) long and 3.7 inches (9.31cm) in circumference

The same day, The Guardian published a related opinion piece entitled, “Men are too insecure about penis size to ever stop worrying about it.”

That has certainly been my experience as a doctor. Almost every patient I see will bring up their penis size at some point in a consultation, often within the first 2 to 3 minutes of our meeting.

Men in their 70s raise the topic of penile size faster than men who are in their 20s and 30s.

Interestingly, the men with larger penises tend to downplay their size – the guys who have 6-inch penis vs. men with 4 inches in length tend to think that their penises are smaller than average.

I am always surprised by how many misconceptions there are about penile size.

Patients always want to know how to make their erect penis bigger, and most men find it hard to believe that there is no product on the market that will increase the size of their erect penis.

Even the men who are satisfied with their penis want to entertain the option of making it bigger.

Misconceptions about Penile Implants

Penile implants are not like breast implants. Many people are unaware that the penile implant is a treatment for men with organic erectile dysfunction and will not increase the size of a penis. Nor will a penile implant decrease the size of a penis.

An unexpected by-product of getting an implant is that older men who have retracted penises are more satisfied with the way their flaccid, non-erect penises look after surgery. Because a penis with an uninflated implant will not retract.

Penile Implants and Cancer Treatments

Penile implants can mitigate the effects of some cancer treatments. Prostate cancer patients who have gained weight after cancer treatments can urinate standing up after having a penile implant installed.

• Hormone therapy after cancer shrinks a patient’s penis.

• When performing a radical prostatectomy, doctors try to spare the nerves around the patient’s penis, but that is not always possible; and after the procedure the penis can shrink.

The penis will shrink less than it would without an implant during adjunct cancer treatments if a patient already has an implant.

Before and after the implant procedure, I measure my patients’ penis so that there is a record of the length and size. This serves to alleviate their fears about penile shrinkage and assure them that it is neither larger nor smaller than before.

A penile implant will not increase the size of your penis, but it is a very effective surgical treatment option for ED, and it will mitigate the side effects from some cancer treatments.