Fellas, put away the rulers. British researchers who conducted an international review that measured the length of 15,000 penises say they’ve figured out the average penis length and circumference in men.
So what are the magic numbers? The average length of an erect penis is 13 centimetres (five inches) while a flaccid penis was nine centimetres (3.6 inches). When it comes to girth, an average erect penis’ circumference is almost 12 centimetres (4.6 inches) in circumference while the width of a flaccid penis clocked in at 9.31 centimetres (3.7 inches).
“We believe these graphs will help doctors reassure the large majority of men that the size of their penis is in the normal range. We will also use these graphs to examine the discrepancy between what a man believes to be their position on the graph and their actual position or what they think they should be,” Dr. David Veale, lead researcher and King’s College London professor, said in a news release.
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The scientists suggest that men are concerned about the size of their member – to the point of being “preoccupied and severely distressed.” They even refer to body dysmorphic disorder, which is when people fixate on their real or perceived flaws for hours daily.
There were no formal systematic reviews of penile size measurements so they decided to figure out the average. The researchers combed through 17 studies that had 15,521 men who underwent penis size measurements by doctors during a standard procedure. The men are from all ages and races.
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The researchers note some findings that’ll also assuage the majority of men: only 2.28 per cent of the male population have abnormally small penises. About the same amount are on the other end of the spectrum with larger than average hardware to work with.
Turns out, there appeared to be no link between penis size and race. The men in the study came from Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.
And the scientists dispelled another common theory: they couldn’t find a strong link between foot size and penis size.
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But the researchers concede, their findings are based on men who volunteered for the studies – they very well could be confident in their manhood more than their peers so that could have affected results.
They’re hoping their findings will lessen “penis anxiety” and even help men find the right condom size.
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Their full findings were published Tuesday morning in the BJU International journal of urology. Read the study here.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
Follow @Carmen_Chai
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