This site is about a condition that many men have but few actually discuss. The name of this condition is "micropenis" and it affects about 0,6 % of the total male population, or something more than 1 in every 200 males. Rarily, the term “microphallus” is also used to describe the condition.
As suggested by the term's first prefix (micro), patients with a micropenis have... well a very small penis. Typically, the term is used when the patients’ penis has no other genital abnormalities like hypospadias, anorchia, epispadias etc.
If you are wondering how small a micropenis is, wikipedia claims that an adult's penis with a dorsal erect penile length of 8 cm (3 inches), or less, is a micropenis. As for infants, there is not much info available on the internet. This micro penis website claims that "any baby with a length of less than 2.0 cm should be evaluated for micropenis".
Problems caused by the condition
- The micropenis condition is not dangerous and has no lethal side effects. Still, it can cause many problems including: Difficulty during urination, with some patients being unable to urinate while standing
- Difficulty to have proper intercourse. Some patients are actually unable to have any kind of intercourse due to their "small stature". In turn, this may cause infertility as the semen must be placed inside the vagina. Minor or major psychological problems.
- Many men with micropenis have trouble talking to women, have low self-esteem and a few report suicidal tendencies!
What causes the condition ?
At the moment, little is known about the exact causes of micropenis. It is known however that the condition occurs sometime during the first and/or second trimester of pregnancy, while the causes are believed to be hormonal in nature. Specifically, most researchers believe that the causes are linked to inadequate production of the main male hormone (testosterone).
According to a study by Japanese researchers, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, some genetic mutations on the SRD5A2 gene may have the potential to cause micropenis. Scientists have also discovered that the condition may be triggered by certain chemicals, like pesticides.
Micropenis treatments in the past
During the period between the 70s and 80s, doctors had no effective treatment for the condition. This was why many of them advised parents with male newborns with micropenis to sexually reassign them into girls. The reassignment was performed by removing the penis (creating an artificial vagina), giving the infant female hormones until it reached adulthood and finally raising it as a girl. The John Hopkins University Medical Centre in Baltimore, was the most popular Centre back then, performing these operations.
Fortunately, this practice has long stopped, with the main reasons being:
- The development of new treatments
- The outcome of the operation wasn’t always very good. For instance, in 2004, a girl decided to take “her” own life after learning the truth that she was born initially as a boy.
Current treatments for micropenis
Today, doctors have two “weapons” to treat a patient with micropenis. If the patient has not reached puberty they use testosterone treatment. In most cases, this means intra-muscular injections containing testosterone (1 per month, on a three month protocol). Most children treated with this treatment reach an “average” penis length in their adulthood, of 9 to 12 cm
The other treatment is phalloplasty, a surgical procedure used to enlarge the patient’s penis using autogous skin flaps from the patient’s forearm, an inflatable penile prosthesis (to achieve erection) and/or other means.
Doctors who advocate this procedure say that the operation has a high success ratio with many patients being able to have sexual intercourse and urinate without sitting for the first time in their lives. The medical literature is full of many cases that confirm the aforementioned claim.
