Worried your kielbasa might actually be a Vienna sausage? Here’s what you should know.
Now we get down to it, the sticking point, the root – the nub if you will – of all male insecurity:
Penis size.
Specifically, worrying about just how small is a small penis?
One 2006 survey of 25,000 men found nearly half reported they were dissatisfied with their penis size, rating it as too small.
The survey also found that 0.2 percent reported they felt theirs was too big.
Coincidentally, the survey also showed that 0.2 percent of men are liars.
But in all seriousness, penis size anxiety is a real thing. Reams of papers have been written documenting “small penis syndrome.”
One paper’s authors stated that men suffering from the condition present as having a specific kind of social anxiety, which can lead to real-world consequences like erectile dysfunction and other sexual performance anxiety-related issues.
We’ll talk about all things penis size-related: how small is a small penis, what you need to know about the reality of penis size, and a bit about of what women really think about your dick size.
But first, let’s talk about unreality.
Body dysmorphia: How small is too small?
The same paper mentioned above also noted that small penis syndrome can present with “compulsive checking rituals, body dysmorphic disorder, or as part of a psychosis.”
Psychosis over penis size is a terrifying notion. But it’s actually the second item on that list, body dysmorphic disorder, that hits closest to home when you start talking about small dicks and asking how small is a small penis.
Body dysmorphia is the obsessive belief that some part of one’s body is faulty and requires “exceptional measures” to fix it.
There are anorexic people who continue to perceive themselves as fat, bodybuilders who always see themselves as too small, and men who obsessively perceive their dicks as being too small.
Many of these people could be said to suffer from body dysmorphia.
Yes, there are likely to be other parallel psychological issues going on with people who take these beliefs to such an extreme.
But even still, there are plenty of men with more or less average sized penises who are forever asking: is my penis too small?
So let’s look at a few facts.
The skinny on small dicks: Some facts about your footlong
You’re looking at it all wrong
Looking down at your dick skews your perspective on it.
Take Donald Trump (please.) Notice how he always wears his tie super long?
While we can’t verify what some people say – that this is a sign of a man overcompensating for a wee willy problem of his own – what we can say for sure is that when you look down at a tie you’ve got on, it appears to be shorter than it really is.
The perspective you have when you’re gazing at your gherkin from above does it no favors as far as size goes. You get a much better perspective on the length of your love stick if you look at yourself naked in a full-length mirror.
But the only real assessment of your true size is to measure. (Here’s how to measure a penis properly.)
Do I have a small penis? Or do I just watch too much porn?
Something else that skews our perspective on penis size is the ubiquity of porn, and the fact that the men in porn are almost always way bigger than average.
A 2014 study looking at more than 15,000 men found that average erect penis size was 5.16 inches, or 13.11 cm, with an average flaccid size of 3.61 inches (9.17 cm).
But good luck finding any guys sporting a custard slinger of that proportion on PornHub. If yours comes in at under 7 inches (17.78 cm) don’t feel bad – you’re among 85 percent of the male population.
What’s more, only 3 percent of guys have a baloney pony over 8 inches long (20.32 cm).
The truly absurd dick sizes you see in porn are the outliers of the outliers, unicorns in every sense of the word. But because virtually every single dude you see in porn happens to be that massive, it tends to skew our understanding of what’s normal.
However, small dicks are a real thing
Having said all that, it’s important to note that there is a medical condition called – prepare to wince – micropenis.
Yes, it means pretty much what it sounds like it means. Micropenis is a condition that’s usually diagnosed in infants, characterized by infant boys having a penis smaller than .75 inches (1.9 cm) stretched length.
Micropenis in adults is generally defined as a man whose penis is smaller than 2.75 inches (7 cm) when fully erect. (If you’re in need of a boost in confidence about your own perhaps less-than-massive schlong, do please go to the Wikipedia page on micropenis but keep your eye bleach handy. NSFW.)
The condition is treatable if it’s caught early, and often hormone boosters are enough to do the trick.
Guys with small dicks can make them look bigger
However, micropenis only affects about 0.6 percent of men.
Something that affects far more and results in a penis of any size appearing to be smaller – and in some ways, making it functionally smaller for all intents and purposes – is obesity and being overweight.
There’s even a condition, one of the causes of which is excessive fat, called “buried penis syndrome.”
This also means pretty much just what it sounds like: the fat pad above and around the genitals is so pronounced that the penis is essentially lost. (Buried penis syndrome can also be caused by other, congenital issues.)
So you want a big ol’ dangling dipstick? Drop a few kilos.
In fact, some studies show that for every 30-50 pounds an obese man loses, he effectively gains an inch of penis length.
How’s that for workout motivation? Put down your phone and get cracking!
Small penis? Quit smoking.
Speaking of motivation, while smoking might make you feel like you look cool, you should know that it’s been shown to cause shrinkage.
A study from the Boston University School of Medicine found that smokers who quit for four weeks had erections that were 1 to 2 centimeters larger than they had been at the start of the study.
That may not seem like much, but hey, if you’re asking the question is my dick too small, then surely every little bit helps.
Another note on the relationship between smoking and your skin flute: studies have consistently shown that smokers have 1.5 to 2 times more likelihood of experiencing erectile dysfunction.
So yeah, I guess smoking is cool, if by cool you mean something that’ll give you a smaller, broke-ass dick…
“Showers vs. growers”
Studies demonstrate that 74 percent of men are “showers” – guys whose penis size doesn’t change all that dramatically between its flaccid and erect states.
But that still leaves a whole bunch of “growers” out there too.
Fully 26 percent of men reportedly have a penis whose “size expands significantly” when it gets hard.
I mean, if you know for a fact that you wield a mighty meat hammer in the bedroom, who the fuck cares what the guy at the next locker in the gym change room thinks?
Men with little feet = Men with little dicks?
Scientists have been trying forever to accurately predict a man’s penis size based on some other body part: the nose, hands, earlobes, thumbs, feet – you name it. None of those have borne out as an accurate predictor of penis size.
However, one thing reportedly has.
A South Korean study found that the difference in length of a man’s index finger and his ring finger might correlate to his penis size. That is, the greater the difference between the lengths of your index and ring fingers, the bigger your johnson.
Do remember though that this study involved just 144 subjects, so it’s kind of tough to hang your hat on it like you might hang it on a raging morning boner.
Guys with small dicks take heart: Women don’t care
We should say, most women don’t care.
The truth is most women prefer a guy not to be to far on either end of the scale.
If it’s micro-penis small, of course that’s no fun.
But if it’s too big, you can’t fuck most women from every angle or in every position without discomfort, plus you can’t even get it all the way in a lot of the time.
Mostly surveys show that women are looking for that Goldilocks cock: the one that’s just right, maybe slightly larger than average, but nothing outlandish.
For most women, it really is in the way that you use it.
And not only that, keep in mind too that the vast majority of women can’t cum from vaginal penetration alone anyway. Get good at going down on her, and bring her right up to the edge before you fuck her, and it won’t matter how big it is!
Blitz yourself better!
You must not rely on the information provided on our website as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare professional. For more information read our full disclaimer here.
Now read these:
—Understanding masturbation guilt
—Why does my girlfriend feel loose?
—Swollen penis after masturbation
—Why do I have a mushroom penis?
—Is it normal to pee after ejaculating?
—Why does it hurt to pee after sex
—Does masturbation make you tired?