Five things you didn't know about your penis
By Escort-List World Wide Escorts Directory, 4th October, 2015
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.
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. When you're relaxed and feeling well, your flaccid penis looks bigger than when you're stressed.
2. Average penile length and penis length when flaccid and erect
Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length.
The NHS says the average penis size is about 14-16cm (5.5-6.3 inches) when erect. The average girth for an erect penis is 12-13cm (4.7-5.1 inches).
A penis is only said to be unusually small if it is less than 3 inches (7.6cm) long when erect.
These measurements were based on a review of 50 studies on penis size conducted since 1942, which between them have measured 11,531 penises.
The NHS also offers tips on measuring your penis, should you be curious. Do with an erection. Take the measurement from the base of the penis, on the side nearest to the tummy and measure up to the tip.
Whatever the clinical significance of these data may be, the changing room significance is considerable. You can't assume that a man with a big limp penis gets much bigger with an erection. Similarly the guy whose penis looks tiny could surprise someone 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% of penises gained one-third or less of their total length with an erection, and about 7% doubled in length when erect.
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.
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. Then the penis turns black and blue. And there's terrible pain – and some explaining to do in A&E.
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 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. 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. Experts say there is a lot of variability about what is normal.
5: Most penises in the world are not circumcised
Circumcision is far less common in the UK than other parts of the world. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that worldwide only 30% of males aged 15 and over are circumcised.
It is usually carried out for religious or cultural reasons. In the UK, circumcision is only carried out on the NHS in cases where it is medically necessary.
There is some evidence that circumcision may have health benefits, including a decreased risk of urinary tract infections, some sexually transmitted infections, penile cancer and even prostate cancer.