Stanford urologist Michael Eisenberg reports in a new study of penis measurements worldwide that erect penile length increased 24% in three decades. He reported on trends in flaccid, stretched, and erect penis size in the latest edition of The World Journal of Men’s Health.
Via Stanford:
Eisenberg and his colleagues compiled data from 75 studies, conducted between 1942 and 2021, that reported on the penile length of 55,761 men. The team found that the average erect penis length increased by 24% over 29 years, a trend they saw around the world.
Eisenberg said that the increase may be another indicator that environmental exposures — such as environmental pollutants or increasing sedentary lifestyles — are causing reproductive-related changes.
It appears that age of onset for puberty may be dropping and leading to some of the effect. The study itself noted some other curious patterns that are emerging worldwide:
The current study identified an increase in the average erect penile length in men from 1992 to 2021. Importantly, the increase was seen across several geographic regions and subject populations. Moreover, when adjusting for relevant covariates, the point estimates remained similar. In contrast, no change was identified in stretched penile length or flaccid penile length. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine temporal change in penile size. In addition, the current work identified significant differences in penile size measurements across different geographic regions. Moreover, it presents normative penile measurements based on data from more than 55,000 men.
A temporal trend was noted for erect length but not other penile length measurements. While erect length is fixed, investigators have noted the subjectivity and variability of stretched length. The goal of a stretched penile length measurement is to approximate the penile length during an erection.
There is one caveat: “Penile measurements may be affected by temperature, arousal state, body size and investigator factors.” As they said 30 years ago, shrinkage!
Image: Pexels / Dainis Graveris
