Five strange and wonderful things about penises
We get many a strange question when it comes to penises, so we have put together some top facts you might not have known about the penis and its weird and wonderful fuctions and oddities.
- Be careful with your penis as you can in fact break your penis
Firstly, on our list of five facts about penises is the breaking of the Penis. When the penis is bent or roughly twisted when it is erect, believe it or not it can be broken. There are no bones in the penis, but instead tubes fill with blood causing the erection, and these can burst. Blood can at this time pour out of the penis which can cause a very painful swelling.
Thankfully cases of penile fracture are rate, however its though amongst many that are too embarrassed to go to A&E or to report this to their doctor. Of cases reported the damage most often occurs during sex, where ones partner is on top, this is reportedly responsible for up to one-third of all cases, occurring when the penis slips out of their partner and is violently bent.
- The Penis is erect several times every night while you sleep
Second on our list of the five facts about penises we will talk about night time erections. The average penis in a healthy person has three to five erections during the night, which each erection lasting from twenty-five to thirty-five minutes. These are in fact a sign that a penis is in fact in full working order.
It is common to wake up with an erection, the colloquially called “morning glory”, is not just a singular morning erection, but one of many one may have had during the night. Interestingly the causes of these night time erections is not fully understood, but we do know that they are linked to REM sleep (rapid eye movement phase of sleep), when our dreams are most vivid and frequent.
- The length of the Penis is not linked to foot size
Unlike many of the sayings you may have heard before the size of a Penis is not linked to either hand size or foot size, and this is in fact a complete myth. At least according to a study published by the British Journal of Urology International. With the average penis in the UK being 13cm in length and the average footsie being a UK 9, and research found that there was in fact no link between shoe size and penis length.
- Small Penises make larger erections
So the old saying of ‘are you a grower or a shower’ does actually have some merit. Shorter penises tend to increase larger in length when they become erect than larger penises.
A study in 2015 found that men with smaller penises increased by 86% when erect, nearly twice that of longer penises, at just 47%. Thus finding also that when erect the difference between a short penis and a longer one was significantly less obvious when erect than when flaccid. Thus the differences in size between penises when erect is significantly smaller.
- The Penis is a sponge not a muscle.
Contrary to common thought, the Penis does not contain any muscles within it, and this is why it is unable to move when it is not erect. The Penis is actually a kind of sponge that fills with blood when it is aroused or excited or when sleeping.
The Penis is made up of two cylindrical chambers, causing the Penis to both swell and stiffen. This swelling actually blocks of the veins that would normally take blood away from the penis and keep it circulating around the body away from the Penis.
When the erection ends these arteries in the two cylindrical chambers narrow again, allowing blood to drain away from the Penis.
In this article we have only given you five strange and wonderful things about penises, there are of course many many more so please let us know if you have any questions or facts that you might like us to go into further detail upon.
By Gregory Davis