Introduction
Penile Exercise
Supplements
Penis Stretching Devices
Surgical Methods
Penis Pumps
Top 3 - Key Facts
Further Resources

The Science of Penis Enlargement: How Growth Occurs

Whilst there’s no doubt that natural penile enlargement techniques can be enormously effective, one thing that isn’t always so easy to explain are the physiological processes that are responsible for those positive results.

The rudimentary principle...

On a basic level it’s simple enough to explain how penile growth occurs – it’s just a case of tissue adaptation to physical stimulus: the physical stresses applied to the penile tissues causes hypertrophy (cell enlargement) and hyperplasia (cell division) within those tissues – two pretty universal physical responses that are employed throughout the body in order to help various tissue types better deal with the physical demands placed on them.

It’s just like how a callous develops from constant friction on skin, how skin can expand to accommodate a beer belly or how skeletal muscle can be forced to grow through a combination of resistance training and good nutrition.

The complexity of the penis...

But the problem with the penis is that it’s quite a complex little organ that contains a mass of different tissues – and so the analogies with skin and muscle tissue are a little bit superficial. Additionally, you’ll no doubt have come across the statement that the ‘penis isn’t a muscle…and won’t respond to physical stress like a muscle’…a common (if inaccurate) argument that is often employed to dismiss natural enlargement techniques; and which therefore needs further clarification.

Because of the above complexities and confusion, below you’ll find an outline of how natural techniques such as penile traction and exercise probably work. I use the word ‘probably’ because the fact of the matter is that it’s an enigma that’s still open to conjecture. But whatever the underlying physiological processes, one thing’s for certain – they do produce pronounced improvements in penile size, as well as the stronger and healthier erections.

---

The penis is not a muscle…or is it?

As I mentioned above, the number one argument that’s often hurled against the feasibility of natural penis enlargement is that the penis is not a muscle and therefore can’t be exercised or stimulated into growth in a similar fashion.

Despite the basic absurdity of suggesting that only muscle has the capability to respond and adapt to the stimulus of physical stress (even bone can be elongated through traction) this statement has another fundamental flaw…because a significant percentage of the penile shaft does in fact consists of muscle – and the development of this penile muscle tissue may well account for some of the improvements achieved through natural enlargement techniques.

Trabecular smooth muscle...

This muscle tissue, known as trabecular smooth muscle, is a major component of erectile tissue (which as you probably know is the spongy like tissue that engorges with blood to cause an erection). In fact, clinical studies show that a healthy penis with normal erectile function consists of between 40 – 50 percent of trabecular smooth muscle.

In light of the above statement the two questions you’re probably asking yourself now are 1). Does this ‘smooth’ muscle respond to physical stimulus in a similar way to how skeletal muscle (such as your pectorals, biceps and quads) responds to resistance training? and 2). Will an increase in the volume of this tissue lead to a visible increase in penile size?

To answer the above questions objectively yourself consider the following: the smooth muscle of the penis and the skeletal muscle of your pecs share the same basic building blocks – they both consist of actin and myosin protein molecules. The only differences between the two muscle types are the arrangement and ratios of these protein molecules (skeletal muscle consists of a ratio of 2:1 actin / myosin, whilst smooth muscle has a ratio of 12:1).

With this in mind, shouldn’t the smooth muscle tissue of the penis be equally susceptible to growth? Obviously you can’t ‘flex’ the smooth muscle in your penis as you can your pecs or use weights to provide the physical stimulus for growth, but the inescapable truth is, using the correct stimulus of penile exercise or traction, this smooth muscle tissue should by its natural attributes be equally capable of growth.

As for the second part of the question – does an increase in trabecular smooth muscle lead to an increase in penile size? Consider a scenario when the opposite happens and the smooth muscle tissues within the penile shaft atrophy (shrinks). A medical paper published by the Department of Urology, New York University School of Medicine in 2008 surmised that such atrophy could well cause a loss of both penile length and circumference. So the converse (an increase in penile smooth muscle tissue) should clearly have the opposite effect – an increase in penile size.

Smooth muscle growth = Extra girth...

In practice, increases in the density and / or quantity of penile smooth muscle tissue seem to primarily improve penile girth – helping to ‘bulk out’ the penis like an over developed shot putter.

And those of us who’ve tried to specifically target this tissue type have found that it responds particularly well to penile exercise – in particular, the various Jelqing exercises that provide the necessary stimulus for growth from the ‘inside out’ by utilising the pressure of penile blood flow.

In fact, if girth gains are important to you, don’t expect to achieve them through any other means. Traction for example, whilst incredibly effective in promoting penile length gains, just doesn’t provide the required smooth muscle stimulus to produce pronounced girth improvements.

It’s for this reason that optimum improvements in both penile length and girth tend to be most successfully achieved through a combination of penile traction and a limited penile exercise regime – as this approach helps to target the multiple tissue types that are believed to have a bearing on penile size – as discussed below.

---

Increasing the capacity of the tunica albuginea…

The tunica albuginea is a tough sheath of connective tissue (up to 2mm thick and made of collagen and elastin proteins) which completely encloses the erectile chambers. The erectile chambers of course are the cylindrical chambers that run the length of your penis and contain the spongy smooth muscle based erectile tissue that increases in size during erection.

Why you’d want to enlarge it: Stretching the tyre...

To fully appreciate the significant restraining effect that the tunica albuginea has on penile size, it’s helpful to use the analogy of a tyre – where the air pumped into the tyre represents the erectile chambers and the tyre represents the tunica albuginea. Using this analogy hopefully you can visualise how this enclosing sheath of tissue acts like the tyre wall - providing rigidity to your erections, but also setting a predefined limit to the expansion of the erectile chambers.

Of course, there’s only so much you can inflate a tyre - and the same is true of the tunica albuginea. In other words, the tunica albuginea acts as a ‘container’ that sets the limit for the size of your erections.

However, unlike a tyre that only has the capacity to marginally overinflate before the inevitable happened (and therefore, wouldn’t notably increase in physical volume) the tunica is susceptible to gradual stretching – both through Jelqing exercises that can increase its circumferential volume and penile stretching (either through a traction device or manual stretching techniques) that can increase its longitudinal capacity.

Put simply, given the right stimulus, the containing boundaries of the most important part of your penis (from a size perspective at least) can be gradually stretched, enabling the erectile chambers (consisting of the constantly developing smooth muscle tissue we talked about previously) to expand further in both length and width.

This over development of the tunica albuginea doesn’t just equate to erect gains either – the enlargement of the actual membrane that controls the size and shape of your penis, leads to improvements in flaccid size as well.

Medical observations of the stretching capacity of the tunica albuginea…

The principle mentioned above i.e. that the surface area of the tunica albuginea can be increased and will consequentially produce a permanent increase in penile size, has been reported in real world medical cases. Of great significance is the fact that these medical cases weren’t concerned about proving or disproving the possibility of natural penile enlargement techniques, they were simply reporting the side effects of another medical condition – therefore, we can be pretty sure of the objectivity of their findings:

Doctors from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York published a report in the medical journal Urology in 2000, in which they had observed a side effect of ‘painless Megalophallus…with significant penile enlargement’ in a man who’d suffered from severe bouts of ‘priapism’ almost a decade earlier.

Priapism is the medical term for involuntary erections that result from a physiological abnormality as opposed to sexual arousal, and often require medical intervention to alleviate. In this patient’s case, his bouts of priapism had been caused by a rare genetic blood disorder called sickle cell anaemia.

Through MRI imaging of the man’s enlarged penis, the physicians surmised that this case of permanent ‘Megalophallus’ had resulted from the internal stretching of the tunica albuginea during the experienced periods of uncontrollable erections. They went as far to state that such penile enlargement seemed to be a harmless potential side effect of priapism that had shown to have no adverse effect on normal erectile function.

Pretty conclusive medical evidence therefore, that not only can the tunica albuginea be stretched - but that such stretching causes significant, permanent and entirely harmless penile size increases.

Priapism as an effective method of penis enlargement?

I know why that light bulb above your head is shining…because it shined for me and just about every other bloke I’ve ever told that story to.

If a bout of priapism can produce permanent increases in penile size as a harmless side-effect, then why don’t I just overdose on Viagra for a week and watch in awe as the little fella miraculously sprouts extra inches?

Well…the blunt answer is this: Whilst permanent penile enlargement might be a harmless side effect of Priapism – priapism itself can be quite the opposite.

You see, during erection, the penis traps blood but doesn’t let any escape – which in effect, stops the supply of freshly oxygenated blood to the penile tissues. Whilst this doesn’t cause a problem under normal circumstances (where sexual arousal might keep you erect for a few tens of minutes at most) - if you multiply the effects of that oxygen starvation by a few hours you’ll be heading towards the territory of permanent penile nerve and tissue damage quicker than a greyhound with a backside full of dynamite. In extreme cases, the resulting tissue damage caused by priapism can necessitate a male fate worse than death – total penile amputation.

It’s because of the potential for causing irreversible tissue damage that doctors consider any hard-on that lasts for more than four hours to be a medical emergency!

So an easy route to a bigger penis priapism may initially seem…but it’s a perilous route - involving hours of suffering from sore, aching and blue swollen erections…that ultimately have the potential to leave you with a penis with all the functionality of a frankfurter sausage.

The safe way...

As you’ll no doubt have gathered, one fundamentally important aspect of natural penile enlargement is to induce growth in a safe and controlled manner. And fortunately, through consistent penile exercise and / or traction, the same harmless, positive changes to the structure of the tunica albuginea can be achieved – but you’ll be pleased to hear, without the perilous potential side effects of permanent nerve damage and tissue death.

---

Stretching the Suspensory Ligament…

Up to this point we’ve looked specifically at the physiological changes that can produce an actual increase in the bulk of the penile shaft (i.e. through smooth muscle tissue development and an increase in the surface area of the tunica albuginea).

However, penile length increases in particular, can also be accomplished by stretching what’s known as the ‘suspensory ligament’ – a ligament that joins the penile shaft to the pubic bone.

You may have read of the suspensory ligament previously in the context of penis lengthening surgery - because surgery achieves its results specifically by cutting this ligament.

How the suspensory ligament affects penile length…

The remarkable penile lengthening properties of the suspensory ligament are all due to its effects on internal penile anatomy:

Just behind the pubic bone, the ligament forces the penile shaft to arch internally upwards like a suspension bridge before it then drops down again and roots itself in the pelvic floor (you can feel the internal ‘root’ of your penile shaft running through your scrotum).

The birth of penis lengthening surgery resulted from the realisation that by cutting the suspensory ligament the internal path of the penile shaft could be altered from that of a ‘wasteful’ arch to a length optimising straight line – and in so doing, inches of penile shaft could be liberated from behind the pubic wall.

In a nutshell therefore, the suspensory ligament naturally tries to reign in the penis like a lead straining against a provoked Rottweiler. But remove the lead (the suspensory ligament) and watch Kujo lurch forward.

Surgically lengthening the suspensory ligament…

Similar to how priapism can initially seem like a smart way to increase the volume of the tunica albuginea, surgery can often seem like a logical way to overcome the restraining effects of the suspensory ligament.

The problem however, is that the healing process following surgery often undoes much of the promising work:

Scar tissue inevitably develops after surgery - which depending on severity can act like a ‘false’ ligament - dragging the penis backwards to its original position - like Kujo’s owner regaining control of the lead. In fact, a study into penis lengthening surgery published in the medical journal European Urology in 2008 warned that this effect can be so severe that in some cases it can lead to ‘paradoxical penile shortening’.

Naturally lengthening the suspensory ligament…

Fortunately, studies into penile traction are finally proving a fact that those of us who’ve enlarged are penises through non-surgical means have known all along – that naturally stretching the suspensory ligament is an effective alternative.

Independent research published in the British Journal of Urology in 2009 for example, found that 15 test subjects who employed a four hour daily traction routine over a period of 6 months achieved quite impressive average penile length increases of 0.9 inches.

To put these finding into perspective, it’s worth comparing these results to the length gains typically achieved through surgery. A 2006 study published in the journal European Urology, which exemplifies the typical results achieved, found that 42 men who’d undergone penis lengthening surgery saw an average improvement of just 0.5 inches in length – aptly highlighting the counteractive effect of scar tissue mentioned previously.

These studies confirm a couple of important theories: 1) the suspensory ligament is undoubtedly susceptible to stretching (either through traction and / or manual exercise) – and 2) naturally stretching the ligament does more to improve penile length than severing it through surgery.

---

Multi-faceted penile enlargement…

What you should take away from this article is that the penis consists of multiple tissue types and in order to enlarge the little fella to his full potential you really need to target them all.

Of course, this will require that you target each of the important ‘component’ parts of your penis (the smooth muscle, tunica albuginea and suspensory ligament) individually using techniques specific to each one. As a general guideline, keep in mind the following reasons why and how each of the specific tissue types effect penile size, as well as the corresponding techniques that you can use to prompt them into growth:

 

 

 

---

Related articles...

Choosing a safe, reliable and effective penile traction device - Do all those devices you've seen advertised such as the Pro Extender and SizeGenetics look uncannily similar? Find out why...and discover how smart shopping can save you a bundle.

Penile exercise guides - What seperates a good guide from a bad one? Find out here and discover the ones that properly exploit your penis' innate physiological capacity for growth.

 

 

Copyright © 2002 - 2011 Penis Enlargement Options All rights reserved.