Why does it have a mind of its own
JUST what is a penis? Maybe you have asked that question several times to no avail. Now medical experts explain interesting facts men and women will find educative.
By Fred Ouma
JUST what is a penis? Maybe you have asked that question several times to no avail. Now medical experts explain interesting facts men and women will find educative.
Has a mind of its own
You have probably noticed that your penis often does its own things. Sometimes it is completely inappropriate to have an erection and yet you cannot wish it away. It is true that you have less command over your penis than other body parts.
Dr. Vincent Karuhanga of Friends Poly Clinic says because the penis answers to a part of the nervous system which is not always under your conscience, it is hard for you to control it. The autonomic nervous system also regulates the heart rate and blood pressure.
Sexual arousal is usually not voluntary. Karuhanga says the conscious mind is complicit in it, but a lot of sexual arousal goes on in the sympathetic nervous system.
In addition, impulses from the brain during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep, — marked by extensive physiological changes such as accelerated respiration, increased brain activity, eye movement, and muscle relaxation — cause erections, whether you are dreaming about sex or about a test you forgot to study for.
Heavy lifting or straining to have a bowel movement can also produce an erection. Just as the penis grows without your consent, sometimes it shrinks. “The flaccid penis varies in size considerably within a given man.
Exposure to cold water or air makes your penis shrink. That is a function of the sympathetic nervous system,†says Karuhanga. He says psychological stress also involves the sympathetic nervous system and stress has the same effect as a cold shower.
When you are relaxed and feeling well, your flaccid penis looks bigger than when you are stressed out.
The penis is “kind of a barometer of the sympathetic nervous system,†he notes. So the greeting: “How’s it hanging?†is more apt than you might have realised.
Can break
There is no “penis bone,†but it can break all the same. Stephen Watya, a senior consultant surgeon at Mulago Hospital, says this is called penile fracture, and it is not a subtle injury. “When it happens, there is “an audible pop,†he says.
“Then the penis turns black and blue. And there is terrible pain.†Penile fracture is rare, and it typically happens to younger men because their erections tend to be quite rigid.
To avoid penile fracture, Watya advises men not to use their penis too roughly. “A common way that penile fracture happens is when a man is thrusting too hard and fast during sex, and rans into his partner’s pubic bone.
Also, vigorous sex can break a man’s penis,†he says. Peyronie’s syndrome is a related condition that tends to show up more in older men, he says.
An older man’s erection may not be as rigid, but still is hard enough for sex. Over time, if the penis bends too much a certain way during sex, small tears in the tissue can form scars, and the accumulated scar tissue gives the penis an abnormally curved shape.
However, not all penises get curvature problems. “What is normal varies a lot,†Watya says.
A grower or a shower
Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length. In one study of 80 men, researchers found that increases from flaccid to erect lengths ranged widely, from less than a quarter inch to 3.5 inches longer.
An analysis of more than 1,000 measurements taken by sex researcher Alfred Kinsey shows that shorter flaccid penises tend to gain about twice as much length as longer flaccid penises.
A penis that does not gain much length with an erection is called a “shower,†and a penis that gains a lot is said to be a “grower.†These are not medical terms. Kinsey’s data suggest that most penises are not extreme showers or growers.
A boomerang shape
Penises are shaped like a boomerang. You do not see the root of your penis tucked up inside your pelvis and attached to the pubic bone. Under the scanner, the penis looks boomerang-like, as noted by a French researcher who studied men and women having sex inside a magnetic imaging scanner.
One method of surgical “penis enlargement,†explains Karuhanga, is to cut the ligament that holds the root of the penis up inside the pelvis. This operation has side-effects. Watya warns that, lack of sturdiness can lead to injury.
Keep in Mind that...
Sexual arousal usually is not voluntary
Heavy lifting or straining to have a bowel movement can also produce an erection
The penis has no bones but it can break all the same.
Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length
JUST what is a penis? Maybe you have asked that question several times to no avail. Now medical experts explain interesting facts men and women will find educative.
Has a mind of its own
You have probably noticed that your penis often does its own things. Sometimes it is completely inappropriate to have an erection and yet you cannot wish it away. It is true that you have less command over your penis than other body parts.
Dr. Vincent Karuhanga of Friends Poly Clinic says because the penis answers to a part of the nervous system which is not always under your conscience, it is hard for you to control it. The autonomic nervous system also regulates the heart rate and blood pressure.
Sexual arousal is usually not voluntary. Karuhanga says the conscious mind is complicit in it, but a lot of sexual arousal goes on in the sympathetic nervous system.
In addition, impulses from the brain during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep, — marked by extensive physiological changes such as accelerated respiration, increased brain activity, eye movement, and muscle relaxation — cause erections, whether you are dreaming about sex or about a test you forgot to study for.
Heavy lifting or straining to have a bowel movement can also produce an erection. Just as the penis grows without your consent, sometimes it shrinks. “The flaccid penis varies in size considerably within a given man.
Exposure to cold water or air makes your penis shrink. That is a function of the sympathetic nervous system,†says Karuhanga. He says psychological stress also involves the sympathetic nervous system and stress has the same effect as a cold shower.
When you are relaxed and feeling well, your flaccid penis looks bigger than when you are stressed out.
The penis is “kind of a barometer of the sympathetic nervous system,†he notes. So the greeting: “How’s it hanging?†is more apt than you might have realised.
Can break
There is no “penis bone,†but it can break all the same. Stephen Watya, a senior consultant surgeon at Mulago Hospital, says this is called penile fracture, and it is not a subtle injury. “When it happens, there is “an audible pop,†he says.
“Then the penis turns black and blue. And there is terrible pain.†Penile fracture is rare, and it typically happens to younger men because their erections tend to be quite rigid.
To avoid penile fracture, Watya advises men not to use their penis too roughly. “A common way that penile fracture happens is when a man is thrusting too hard and fast during sex, and rans into his partner’s pubic bone.
Also, vigorous sex can break a man’s penis,†he says. Peyronie’s syndrome is a related condition that tends to show up more in older men, he says.
An older man’s erection may not be as rigid, but still is hard enough for sex. Over time, if the penis bends too much a certain way during sex, small tears in the tissue can form scars, and the accumulated scar tissue gives the penis an abnormally curved shape.
However, not all penises get curvature problems. “What is normal varies a lot,†Watya says.
A grower or a shower
Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length. In one study of 80 men, researchers found that increases from flaccid to erect lengths ranged widely, from less than a quarter inch to 3.5 inches longer.
An analysis of more than 1,000 measurements taken by sex researcher Alfred Kinsey shows that shorter flaccid penises tend to gain about twice as much length as longer flaccid penises.
A penis that does not gain much length with an erection is called a “shower,†and a penis that gains a lot is said to be a “grower.†These are not medical terms. Kinsey’s data suggest that most penises are not extreme showers or growers.
A boomerang shape
Penises are shaped like a boomerang. You do not see the root of your penis tucked up inside your pelvis and attached to the pubic bone. Under the scanner, the penis looks boomerang-like, as noted by a French researcher who studied men and women having sex inside a magnetic imaging scanner.
One method of surgical “penis enlargement,†explains Karuhanga, is to cut the ligament that holds the root of the penis up inside the pelvis. This operation has side-effects. Watya warns that, lack of sturdiness can lead to injury.
Keep in Mind that...
Sexual arousal usually is not voluntary
Heavy lifting or straining to have a bowel movement can also produce an erection
The penis has no bones but it can break all the same.
Among men, there is no consistent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length