Knowing how to measure your penis is not all about bragging rights. It is also very important to know the right condom size, not only for comfort but more importantly to minimize the risk of you and your partner contracting STIs from unprotected sex. If you have one sexual partner or more, you may need to check in with a board-certified urologist to know more about sexually transmitted infections. But measuring penises is both easy and complicated for several reasons.
Your sexual health depends heavily on knowing your measurements. It can have a bigger impact than you might imagine, ranging from condom size recommendations to more precise sexual health diagnoses for conditions like Peyronie’s disease, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, or other medical conditions.
Now, let’s talk about how to measure your penis properly.
As we’ve previously covered, BJUI’s worldwide review of studies found that on average the girth of a flaccid penis is 3.66 inches and 3.61 inches in length, while the average erect penis girth is 4.59 inches and 5.16 inches in length. And while this study on the average penis size is one of the most recent, the researchers add that, like all other studies, the participants in them might not represent the real diversity of penises in the world. A lot of these studies are made mostly in Europe and North America, although there are several from other countries.
But in any country, researchers are always afraid about the possibility that the only men that agree to have their penises measured are those confident in their size in the first place. Nevertheless, most studies try to get a varied set of volunteers and measure everybody in a standardized way.
And by using a disposable tape measurer. The authors of the study recommend a disposable, flexible tape measurer for hygienic purposes, as most erect length penis have to be stimulated by the participants when watching pornography or after receiving a prostaglandin injection.
How They Measure Length and Girth?
Length is simply the measure of the penis from its root to the tip (glans, without the foreskin).
Here is how to measure penis length correctly:
Measure your penis’ shaft in a straight line with measuring tape, tip to the pubic area bone, pushing past pubic hair or excess fat in the way. Pressing into the pubic bone, the clear stopping point is especially important if you happen to have a lot of belly fat.
Girth is the measurement of the circumference of the penis at the base or the middle. To measure penis girth, hold the flexible measuring tape to one side of the base or mid-shaft and wrap it around until it reaches the starting end of the tape measure. (BONUS: Some condom manufacturers base the size of their products according to penis width or diameter. To know this, simply divide your girth measurement by 3.14.)
And all credible and trusted studies carry out the measurements by a professional health practitioner working for the studies because men will likely lie about their size if the measuring is left to them.
As we mentioned before, the BJUI International study is one of the most comprehensive ever, and they also made it clear what they didn’t measure: men with congenital or acquired abnormalities, erectile dysfunction or wanted to get a penis enlargement of any type. Oh, and creepily, no cadavers either.
Another unknown factor in measuring erect penises is the question about how the penis gets erect. Does penis size matter? Anecdotally, many men report getting better erections depending on what sexual activity are they being aroused by, but this has not been explored nearly enough in studies in order to draw even a hypothesis.
When it comes to what women think about most penis size, a vast majority (84%) think their partner’s penis is fine, according to a study from UCLA and Cal State LA. Only about 14% of women wished their partner’s penis was larger, and 2% actually wanted a smaller one.
Does Your Penis Shrink As You Get Fatter or Older?
Reliable studies about average penis sizes are rare, and much rarer still are longitudinal ones that take into account the effects of weight gained or lost, and age.
There’s one study from Saudi Arabia that tries to answer the question by simply measuring the penis sizes of men with a different body mass index (BMI) —which measures obesity—, and those of different ages.
When it came to the sizes between men with different BMI, there was a weak correlation between shorter erect penis length and greater BMI. This meant that, yes, some men lost length in their penises after gaining some weight, but this wasn’t true when measuring from the bone to the tip. So that extra skin after gaining weight did hide parts of the penis.
You could go for liposuction if you don’t want to work off all that weight, but the best solution is always to change your habits and get slimmer. That’s the best option for everything, honestly.
“For every 30-50lbs of excess weight, you will likely lose
around an inch of the visible penis. lose weight” – ManVFat
And as for the effects of age on your penis size, there was even less correlation. Men between the ages of 70 and 20 had less than a centimeter (.39 in) of a difference in their length.
Myths about penis sizes
Insecurity and curiosity about your own penis size and worrying about the average length of a penis come from constant comparisons to those of other men. But few men actually get to see the penises of their peers, so the next best thing is to look for “clues” that might tell us just how hung or not another guy is.
Are big feet and shoe size indicative of a large package between a man’s legs? Are small hands telling us a man has a small penis? Do tall men have a large penis?
The short answer to those questions: No, no, and… maybe.
The BJUI review of studies found that, on average, there
was a weak correlation between height and penis size,
although nothing definitive could be concluded by the
studies that were found about the issue. One study found
flaccid length to be moderately significantly correlated with
height, while three others found weak correlations.
In any case, the difference between a tall man’s average penis and a short man’s average penis are relatively insignificant, and not worth any effort into equating tall men with large penises. Most of the time, you’ll end up with an average penis size. So all men below the average of 5.8 feet in height shouldn’t worry at all about being compared to their taller brethren.
The stress from worrying too much if you have a big penis or a small penis won’t do you much good. At the least, this can affect your sexual performance. At worst, it can lead to erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation altogether.
“There are so many things in life us guys can’t control,
like our height. Don’t waste time and mental energy
dwelling on this stuff. Instead, focus on improving what
you can control, like your style, grooming, and social skills.
This is how you build confidence, which improves every area
of your life, including the bedroom.”
–
Brock McGoff – Founder of The Modest Man.
Showers vs. Growers
Like we mentioned before, an optimal erect penis should be around 5 to 6 inches in length, and about 3.5 inches in girth in order to function properly, but there’s an urban legend about showers and growers. Supposedly you either have a relatively small flaccid penis, which gets bigger when it becomes erect, or you have a relatively large flaccid penis, which also gets bigger when it becomes erect.
That said, there are some medical conditions or disorders that can affect the elasticity of a penis, which can result in something akin to the “shower” effect. Erectile dysfunction, for instance, is a sexual health condition that can reduce the strength of your erections, thereby making your erection not as large as it might otherwise be.
In this way, who suffer from erectile dysfunction aren’t just missing out on sexual satisfaction and the joys of sex, but also from seeing the full size of their penis. Getting professional medical advice and treatment for erectile dysfunction will also help them see much better growth when erect, and so enlarge their penis size, in away.
“There’s really no such thing as a “shower,” When men
get erections, their penises get bigger. That’s true
across the board, regardless of how big or small
you are flaccid.”
–
Meagan Drillinger – Men’s Health