12 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know About the Penis

It’s an object of worship yet causes more anxiety than any other body part. Myths about the male member abound, so let’s dispel a few, shall we? Turns out you can’t really predict the size of his penis by the size or his feet or nose – but there are damn good reasons to be having lots of sex!

Teenage erections last for up to an hour.

The average guy 20-40 can keep an erection for around 40 minutes. Between 66 and 70, you’re lucky to last seven.

If you’ve got large testicles…

you’re more likely to cheat and will want sex 30% more than other ‘average’ guys. Well, that’s what one study turned up.

Two in every thousand men can give themselves fellatio.

The quality, however, is debatable.

Testicles suddenly disappear during sex for a reason…

– they’re getting out of the way of any rough stuff. Clitorises do the same thing, duck back under the hood, if the play gets too rough.

The more often you have sex, the less likely it is that you’ll have erection problems later on.

One Finnish study followed almost 1000 men, aged between 55 and 75, for a five year period. Men who had sex less than once a week were twice as likely to develop erectile dysfunction as men who had sex at least once a week.

Between half and one teaspoon…

is what the average man ejaculates. You’ll do this in between three to 10 spurts, about .8 second apart at a speed of around 25-28 miles an hour.

Studies prove you really can’t predict the size of someone’s penis by the size of their feet, their nose…

or the distance between the top of their middle finger and bottom of the hand (though personally, I’m sticking with that one).

It doesn’t work with animals either – pigs have penises up to 18 inches long (I know, far too much information) and Gorillas, bless them, have penises that are two inches long.

Having lots of sex is necessary to keep your penis healthy.

Use it or lose it. Erections flood the penis with oxygen-rich blood and oxygen is what keeps the muscle tissue inside healthy. A shortage of oxygen can lead to a build up of collagen, which in turn affects his erection. It doesn’t matter if it’s sex with yourself or a partner, both work.

Between 15 and 60, the average man will ejaculate 30 to 50 quarts of semen…

containing 350 to 500 billion sperm cells.

Think twice before lighting that cigarette.

Smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to become impotent.

You don’t have to be rock hard to have good sex.

If they were asked to rate their erection, most guys would probably only have two ratings – up and down.

Sex therapists are a little more specific, rating them on a scale of 1-10 (10 is as hard as your penis gets).

It’s useful in a diagnostic sense but also helps clients move from the ‘all or nothing/success or failure’ model to a sensible, ‘I have a six today. Excellent!’ way of thinking.

An erection that’s a six does the job. There is such a thing as a ‘good enough’ erection.

It’s normal for erections to go up and down in the same sex session.

Most erections move from a range of 6-10 during the course of a normal sex session. The more direct stimulation it gets, the harder it remains.

It’s OK, by the way, if you need physical stimulation of your penis before you get an erection. Some guys get one simply by looking at something sexy, others need to be touched.

It’s also possible to be aroused, but not have an erection. They aren’t the same thing. You can actually orgasm without any erection at all!

QUICK FIXES

You want your penis to look bigger tonight:

Trim or shave your pubic hair and you’ll look instantly bigger – pubic hair hides some of it. Another great way to make your penis look bigger is to lose weight around your tummy. Granted that won’t happen before 7pm tonight but it’s an idea for long-term.

You want the condom to stop falling off:

If you lose your erection with condoms, try wearing larger and thinner condoms and add a penis ring or vibrating penis ring to hold it in place.

You want to make sure you last:

Pop on a condom to reduce sensation or masturbate just before the session.

You want quicker, stronger erections:

Dr Barbara Keesling is a Canadian sex therapist who gives this advice:

For quicker erections:

There’s evidence that slowly massaging the base of the penis and squeezing the shaft, with lube or in the shower for five minutes a day, works. (Use the opposite hand that you usually use on yourself and you’ll be less likely to get aroused. You’re massaging not masturbating.) The idea is to relax your PC muscles: the more relaxed they are, the more easily the base of your penis will fill with blood. You should see results in about three weeks and notice it takes less time to get aroused.

For stronger erections:

Most men tighten their PC muscle when they feel an erection about to happen. This works momentarily but after that, it does the opposite and constricts the blood flow. The next time you feel your penis start to fill with blood, consciously relax the muscle. It takes practise because tensing is instinctual but you can retrain yourself.