5 Things You Didn't Know About Your Penis by Martin Downs

(WebMD)

Here are some things you might have wondered about your penis, but were afraid to ask.

No. 1: Your Penis Does Have a Mind of Its Own

You've probably noticed that your penis often does its own thing. You may remember times
when it was completely inappropriate to have an erection; and yet you couldn't wish it
away.

It's true that you have less command over your penis than body parts like your arms and
legs. That's because the penis answers to a part of the nervous system that's not always
under your conscious control. This is called the autonomic nervous system, which also
regulates heart rate and blood pressure.

Sexual arousal usually isn't voluntary. The conscious mind is complicit in it, but a lot of
sexual arousal goes on in the sympathetic nervous system. In addition, impulses from the
brain during the REM phase of sleep cause erections, whether you're dreaming about sex or
about a test you forgot to study for. Heavy lifting or straining to have a bowel movement
can also produce an erection.

Just as the penis grows without your consent, sometimes it shrinks. "The flaccid penis
varies in size considerably within a given man," says Drogo Montague, MD, a urologist at
the Cleveland Clinic. Exposure to cold water or air makes your penis shrink. That's a
function of the sympathetic nervous system.

Psychological stress also involves the sympathetic nervous system, and stress has the same
effect as a cold shower, Montague says. When you're relaxed and feeling well, your flaccid
penis looks bigger than when you're stressed out.

The penis is "kind of a barometer of the sympathetic nervous system," Montague says. So
the greeting, "How's it hanging?" is more apt than you might have realized.

No. 2: Your Penis May Be a 'Grower' or a 'Show-er'

Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its
full erect length.

In one study of 80 men, researchers found that increases from flaccid to erect lengths
ranged widely, from less than a quarter inch to 3.5 inches longer.

Whatever the clinical significance of these data may be, the locker-room significance is
considerable. You can't assume that a dude with a big limp penis gets much bigger with an
erection. And the guy whose penis looks tiny could surprise you with a big erection.

An analysis of more than thousand measurements taken by sex researcher Alfred Kinsey
shows that shorter flaccid penises tend to gain about twice as much length as longer flaccid
penises.

A penis that doesn't gain much length with an erection has become known as a "show-er,"
and a penis that gains a lot is said to be a "grower." These are not medical terms, and there
aren't scientifically established thresholds for what's a show-er or a grower.
Kinsey's data suggest that most penises aren't extreme show-ers or growers. About 12
percent of penises gained one-third or less of their total length with an erection, and about
7 percent doubled in length when erect.

No. 3: Your Penis Is Shaped Like a Boomerang

Your penis is shaped like a boomerang. Just like you don't see all of a big oak tree above
ground, you don't see the root of your penis tucked up inside your pelvis and attached to
your pubic bone.

In an MRI picture, the penis looks distinctly boomerang-like, as noted by a French

researcher who studied men and women having sex inside an MRI scanner.

One method of surgical "penis enlargement" is to cut the ligament that holds the root of the
penis up inside the pelvis. This operation may give some men a little extra length if more of
the penis protrudes from the body, but there are side effects. This ligament, called the
suspensory ligament, makes an erection sturdy. With that ligament cut, the erect penis
loses its upward angle and it wobbles at the base. The lack of sturdiness can lead to injury.

No. 4: You Can Break Your Penis

There is no "penis bone," but you can break your penis all the same. It's called penile
fracture, and it's not a subtle injury. When it happens, there's "an audible pop or snap,"
Montague says. Then the penis turns black and blue. And there's terrible pain.

Penile fracture is rare, and it typically happens to younger men because their erections tend
to be quite rigid.

Here's how to avoid penile fracture: don't use your penis too roughly. A common way that
penile fracture happens, Montague says, is when a man is thrusting too hard and fast during
sex, and slams into his partner's pubic bone. Also, a woman who moves wildly while on top
of a man during sex can break a man's penis.

Peyronie's syndrome is a related condition that tends to show up more in older men,
Montague says. An older man's erection may not be as rigid, but still is hard enough for sex.
Over time, if the penis bends too much a certain way during sex, small tears in the tissue
can form scars, and the accumulated scar tissue gives the penis an abnormally curved
shape.

Not all penis curvature is a problem, however. "There is a lot of variability in what normal
is," Cummings says.

No. 5: Most Penises in the World Are Uncut

A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV /AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that worldwide only 30 percent of males aged 15 and up
are circumcised.

Rates vary greatly depending upon religion and nationality. Almost all Jewish and Muslim
males in the world have circumcised penises, and together they account for about 70
percent of all circumcised males globally.

The United States has the highest proportion of males circumcised for non-religious reasons.
A whopping 75 percent of non-Jewish, non-Muslim American men are circumcised. Compare
that to Canada, where only 30% are. In the U.K. it's 20 percent; in Australia it's merely 6
percent.

The practice of circumcising baby boys for medical and cosmetic reasons has become
controversial in the U.S. But recently the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
UUNAIDS recommended circumcision for adult men, based upon evidence that men with
circumcised penises have a lower risk of being infected with HIV.

The CDC estimates that about 65 percent of all newborn boys get circumcised in the U.S.