15 Things You Never Knew About Penises

Willy, weiner, dong and parsnip.

You've likely heard all the names for penises, but here are 15 facts about them that will knock your socks off.

1. Sorry to break this to you, but you can totally break a penis

There are no bones in it but the tubes that fill with blood during an erection can burst if the penis is violently twisted, causing blood to pour out of the tubes inside the penis, leading to a very painful swelling. But don’t freak out: reported cases of penile fractures are rare.

2. Waking up with an erection in the morning is totally normal

In fact, it's the second or third erection a man's had since he fell asleep. Doctors agree that dream-time erections are a sign that everything is in good working order.

3. There is no link between shoe size and penis length

Sorry about that, Bobby Big Boots.

4. Small penises make for big erections

When flaccid, penises vary in size by about 3.1cm. However, when erect, the difference is reduced to about 1.7cm, meaning that smaller penises increase in size more. Go Team Small!

5. The average size of a penis is 7.5 – 10cm when flaccid...

...and 15 – 18cm when erect.

6. However big you think the penis is, it's twice that

Half the length of the penis is inside the man's body. When viewed in an MRI picture, an erect penis is shaped like a boomerang.

7. The penis is not a muscle

It's actually more like a sponge that fills up with blood when a man is sexually excited. 

8. There are two cylinder-shaped chambers inside the penis where blood builds

When they're swollen, the veins that would normally pump blood away from the penis are blocked. When the erection subsides, the blood drains away.

9. The average penis will produce 14 gallons of ejaculate in its lifetime

Blimey.

10. It's totally normal for one testicle to hang a little lower than the other

It's to prevent them striking each other when the man is walking.

11. About 30% of men across the world are circumcised

According to a report from the World Health Organisation, nearly all Jewish and Muslim males in the world are circumcised, accounting for about 70 per cent of the circumcised men on the planet.

12. Each penis started life as a clitoris in the womb

Hormones then sex the brain of the soon-to-be male and from the clitoris a little penis is born. And after this has happened...

13. Foetuses can get erections

You heard. In fact, male foetuses can get erections from about 16 weeks old, and baby boys can even be born with erections.

14. The largest penis ever to be medically verified was 34cm long and 16cm in circumference

To put this in perspective, the average vagina is 7.5 – 10cm deep.

15. There is a rare condition known as diphallia where a person can have two functional penises, and one known as koro which is the irrational fear on one's penis disappearing

Seems totally reasonable to us. 

- By Georgina Terry