Just as breast augmentation surgery has grown routine, the penis enhancement sector is booming, says Dr Jayson Oates, the primary cosmetic surgeon and medical director of Academy Face and Body in Perth, Australia. The best enlargement method, it seems, is the simplest, with stretching working for most men and hundreds of stretching devices available. According to the surgeon, the benefit of stretching has been proved by medical studies — an Italian study found a penis extender increased flaccid length by almost a third.
Anecdotal evidence strengthens the case for stretching. This begs the question: is it the surgery that is making the increase in length, or is it just the stretching device? The surgeon says committed clients spend a fortune on the surgical procedure, then wear the stretching device and get the gain they may have obtained anyway without surgery. Worse still, a potential surgical complication is that the penis will contract back into the scar.
This raises the issue of risk acceptance. Those considering surgery must ask themselves what level of risk they want to assume, because the more invasive a procedure, the greater the risk, Oates explains. Often the surgeon takes a strip of skin and fat from the lower abdomen, wraps it around the penis and stitches it under the skin. The technique can permanently increase girth, but there can be complications, such as nerve damage and infections.
Fillers have existed for 20 years; surgeons have been injecting filler into penises for five years, Oates says. It takes about half an hour. The main no-nos, the surgeon says, are pills, potions and creams.
And do not take rhino horn or tiger penis for the purpose. In countries such as the Philippines, a dubious technique is used in which Vaseline is injected through a syringe into the penis, which can yield permanent augmentation.
