Photo: WeHeartIt
About 100 men in the world have diphallus (two penises).
By Dr Lori Beth Bisbey — Written on Mar 01, 2017
"A man who is ashamed to show or name the penis is wrong. Instead of being anxious to hide it, man ought to display it," says Leonardo DaVinci.
Straight and bisexual women seem to be divided between the ones who love penises and the ones who tolerate them. Love them or tolerate them, they are fascinating organs, seemingly simplistic in form and function.
So... what is a penis and how much do you actually know about it? Test your knowledge with these 15 facts. They may not all be bizarre but they are all worth knowing:
1. Only about 6 percent of men need an extra-large condom.
Condoms do come in a variety of sizes, small through extra-large. Getting the right size is important to preventing accidental pregnancies.
2. Human penises are big.
They are larger than those of any other primate, both in actual terms and in terms of proportionally to the size of the body.
3. There's a significant difference in size between soft and hard.
The average size of a soft penis is 3.5 inches. The average size of a hard penis is 5 to 6 inches.
4. There are two kinds of penises.
‘Growers’ get bigger in length and girth when erect. ‘Showers’ look big when soft and don’t get much bigger when erect. A whopping 79 percent of men have growers and 21 percent showers. The size when soft does not predict the size when hard!
5. About 100 men in the world have diphallus (two penises).
Most of the time only one of these penises is functional and some are not fully formed.
6. Smoking can shorten the penis by up to a centimeter.
It does this by calcifying blood vessels which impede blood flow to the penis. Circulation of blood to the penis is necessary for an erection.
7. Half of the penis is inside the body.
The root is attached to the pelvic bone. An erect penis is shaped like a boomerang.
8. Koro (penis panic) is a type of mass hysteria in which men believe that their penises are vanishing.
This is more common in Africa and the Far East. It is a full blown delusional disorder in which the men believe that their penises are shrinking and retracting back into their bodies and that they will ultimately disappear.
Traditional Chinese medicine recognizes two forms of the disorder. These men also fear that once their penises disappear, they will die. The anxiety is intense. Some men are so frightened, that they will pull on the penis in an attempt to stop it from retracting and others will try to anchor it to something so that it cannot shrink further.
These practices frequently cause injuries.
9. Average penis size varies by country.
Penises in the Republic of Congo are the biggest with an average length of 7.1 inches and penises in North and South Korea are the smallest with an average length of 3.8 inches.
American penises come in 18th at 5.1 inches on average. The world’s largest penis is 13.5 inches and this belongs to a New Yorker.
10. The brain has an automatic penis maintenance function that causes erections during REM sleep.
If the penis is not erect regularly, the tissue will shrink and become elastic so the brain makes sure the penis stays fit and toned by giving men wet dreams.
11. It takes 130 ml of blood to make a penis stiff.
The blood circulates at 2 ml per second and the small penile arteries will double in size to push the blood around.
12. Penises are generally darker in color than the body they are attached to.
13. You can break a penis.
The penis can have a trauma or fracture. The most common cause is rough sex. This is a serious injury and needs to be seen by a physician quickly.
14. The oldest penis fossil is from 425 million years ago.
Most animals have a bone in their penises. Humans and horses are the two mammals that don’t.
15. The average man has 11 erections daily and 9 erections during the night.
None of them are under conscious control.
More for You:
Dr. Lori Beth is an intimacy/sex coach and psychologist who helps individuals, couples and polyamorous groups create their ideal lasting relationship(s). You can sign up for her newsletter and find out more about her adventures on her website and check out The A to Z of Sex podcast on iTunes. Write to her with your questions.
