Penis enlargement
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Penis enlargement is the goal of a number of men dissatisfied for some reason with their penis size. In general, where there is a perceived problem with penis size, medical advice should be sought, rather than attempting self-treatment. Most self-treatment methods are believed to be either ineffective or dangerous, or both.
A survey by sexologists showed that almost all men who believed that their penis was of inadequate size actually had a normal-sized penis. Most sexologists believe that a desire for penis enlargement comes from some other source of anxiety (see also penis panic) or perceived inadequacy.
A very few men have very small penes: this is known as a micropenis, and is a very unusual condition which will generally have been detected in early childhood. Penis-enlargement self-treatments are not effective on this condition.
Many commercial advertisements are sent via e-mail spam, direct mail, and in sexually-oriented magazines for penis enlargement aids. These are almost universally misleading and in the case of e-mail spam, are perceived as disturbing or offensive by many recipients.
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Self-treatment methods
Cosmetic
Rather than attempt to change the actual size of the penis, one may make it appear bigger, by trimming the pubic hair or by losing weight, if one is overweight.
Pills
"Penis enlargement pills" or ointments are commonly offered over the Internet; for the most part, they are scams. At best, they promote blood flow to the penis in one way or another, temporarily resulting in a slightly larger erection. Herbal ingredients have included ginkgo biloba, a stimulant and vasodilator, and yohimbe, a sexual stimulant. While both of these ingredients may increase energy and sexual performance in the short term, neither are capable of increasing the length or size of the penis over time.
Analyses performed by Flora Research of California and by the University of Maryland have uncovered harmful contaminants in a number of "penis enlargement" pills. Contaminants found included mold, yeast, dangerous E. coli bacteria, pesticides, and lead. [1] (http://www.pharmacist.com/articles/h_ts_0350.cfm) Dr. Michael Donnenberg of the University of Maryland has described herbal pills marketed by Performance Marketing Ltd. as having "heavy fecal contamination", possibly from animals grazing near the plants harvested for herbal ingredients. [2] (http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=5383).
There may however be a placebo effect i.e. a psychological effect of making the user think he has a larger penis, and increasing his confidence, when there is no actual change to his penis size.
External link: Anatomy of a penis pill swindle (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3077050/) (MSNBC, June 5, 2003)
Penis pump
Another method usually referred to in advertising is the penis pump. This is a cylinder that is fitted over the penis, and a pump creates a vacuum. These are valuable sexual aids for men who have difficulty achieving and maintaining an erection, as they can be used to achieve an erection, with a compressive ring on the base of the penis then maintaining the erection. However, their efficacy at increasing absolute penis size is marginal. They apparently have no measurable effect on shaft size. There may be some possibility of achieving a slight increase in size of the glans penis, but this may come at the cost of a roughened and coarsened texture of the skin covering the glans. Excessive use of these devices can also cause burst blood vessels. Attempts at using vacuum cleaner base units for this purpose have resulted in severe injury when the fan of the vacuum cleaner is contacted.
Penis pumps gained some popular culture notoriety in the Austin Powers films. In the first film, Austin claimed that they weren't his "bag," despite owning a Swedish-made penis enlarger pump, its receipt, its warranty card (filled out by Austin), and a copy of his book Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger Pumps and Me (This Sort of Thing IS My Bag, Baby).
Traction
Another nonsurgical method to lengthen the penis is by employing devices that pull at the glans of the penis for extended periods of time. This is known as traction; where tissues under continuous tension will undergo stretching. If the applied tension is too large injury to the tissues or nerves of the penis can result.
Jelqing
Another method is known as jelqing or jelquing. Depending on the source, this technique is variously said to have its roots in tribal Africa, or the Middle East. In jelqing, the penis is milked from root to glans while in a semi-erect state, thus encouraging more vascularity in the corpus cavernosa and associated tissues. Internet claims range in gains from .25 inches to 3 inches or more in length and 1 to 5 inches in girth. The upper end of the girth claims are highly suspect and the length claims represent many years of multiple enlargement techniques. However, there have been warnings that one possible cause of the growth is the presence of scar tissue caused by the exercise, which may harm penile function.
Surgical methods
An innovation in cosmetic surgery takes fat cells from elsewhere in the body and injects them below the surface of the skin of the shaft of the penis to increase the thickness (but not length) of the penis. The penile shaft normally has little or no fat, and this method results in an unnatural appearance and feel, as well as risking radical shifting of the fat injected.
A related method involves injection of silicone into the penis and scrotum. This technique can cause enormous increases in the girth of the penis (increasing the penis volume by over 900%) but is effectively irreversible and may have side effects including loss of sensation, inability to perform penetrative intercourse, scarring and deformation. Injections of other substances, including collagen, mineral oil and even KY Jelly may have similar effects, but also may cause extreme scarring and permanent disfigurement.
Another method is to cut the basal penile ligament, which can result in an apparent lengthening of the penis by up to two inches in some individuals. However, it also means that, while the penis elongates and hardens with an erection, it can no longer become truly erect, but only hangs. The results of this surgery vary greatly between individuals, with some subjects reporting no measurable lengthening at all.
A further method is to replace the two corpora cavernosa with inflatable penile implants. This is performed primarily as a therapeutic surgery for men suffering from complete impotence; an implanted pump in the groin can be manipulated by hand to fill these cylinders from an implanted reservoir in order to achieve an erection. The replacement cylinders are normally sized to be direct replacements for the corpus cavernosa, but larger ones can be implanted. However, the result is an uncomfortable stretching of the other penile tissues which can have a number of complications.
A practice that is gaining popularity in Indonesia and southern Asia is the implatation of small objects under the skin of the penis, usually close to the glans. Implanted such as Steel ball barrings, plastic pellets, semi-precious stones, rings and studs are used. The reasoning for this form of augmentation is varied: some do it for supposed magical benefits, other for "pleasing the women" although the implant (such as a ring or stud) might be removed before intercourse. Apparently many women have found it to cause pain, discomfort, bleeding, scaring, and infection more often than pleasure.[3] (http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit69/hull3.htm)
An experimental method is a complete penile transplant. With modern techniques and anti-rejection drugs, this certainly should be possible, but there has been no record of a successful attempt until very recently, when a rather unusual situation occurred in which a penis was taken from a male infant with two penises and attached to another male infant lacking a penis. The overwhelming drawback to this method, apart from the necessity to ever after take anti-rejection drugs with their side effects and restrictions in lifestyle, is the unfortunate fact that, performed on an adult, the penis then is an organ dead to the touch, which largely negates its usefulness. The ultimate consequences of the first penis transplant noted above are still unknown.