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According to recently published research, men’s average penis size has increased considerably over the last 29 years. Which might sound like great news—but what does it actually mean? In a new video on her YouTube channel, urologist and sex educator Dr. Rena Malik breaks down the new findings.
“This is actually pretty surprising, because over the year’s we’ve seen a decline in average testosterone levels, more testicular tumors, and more genital defects in newborn babies,” she says. “We’ve also seen sperm counts go down worldwide… One would expect that with all these changes, there may be actual changes in the visual appearance of the genitalia as well.”
She explains that this new study was actually a systematic review of a high volume of individual studies which measured the stretched penile length (a good indicator of length when erect) of around 40,000 participants, and the erect length of around 18,000. In the 64 studies that covered stretched penile length, measurements ranged from 3.5 to 6.9 inches, with an average length of 5.1 inches. Of the 24 studies that looked at erect penises, length ranged from 3.7 to 6.6 inches, with an average of 5.5 inches.
“When they looked at the numbers over the course of decades, they found that over time, stretched penile length didn’t change,” Malik continues. “However, when they looked at the erect length over decades, they found that it increased by 24 percent, from 4.8 inches to 6 inches.”
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that men are getting bigger erections now than they were in the past. Malik breaks down some of the data in the review and finds that men who achieved erection via intracavernosal injection (as opposed to spontaneous erection) were more likely to see this increase—but that the team accounted for this in their research. She also suggests that one takeaway from the study could be that stretched penile length is not a sufficiently accurate measure of size across all demographics. For instance, in many older men, stretched length can surpass erect length due to an increase in elasticity in their penile tissue.
But what is actually causing this increase in erect penis size? The researchers speculate that it could be because boys are going through puberty earlier, possibly due to external factors like pesticides which can have an effect on our hormones.
“It’s really unusual to see such a dramatic change over a short period of time,” says Malik. “Ultimately, we need to be thoughtful about what we’re putting in the environment, what we’re putting in our bodies, what we’re eating, and what we’re exposed to.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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