Adam Taylor
23.05.25
Education
'Jelqing' is the latest in a long line of dubious penis enlargement hacks
Professor Adam Taylor takes a closer look at jelqing and other techniques that stretch back millenia.
Can I stretch my penis to make it bigger?
Advice about a penis-enlargement method called jelqing (also “jelquing”) was widely shared online last year. Posts advise that stretching a semi-erect penis could add up to an inch in length and girth by exploiting the body’s repair mechanisms. Jelqing is just the latest in a long line of dubious penis enlargement techniques stretching (sorry) back millennia.
The ancient Greek method of lengthening the foreskin with a kynodesme (dog leash) seems
positively mild compared with ancient Indian methods. A Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery,
called the Sushruta Samhita, advises rubbing the penis with bristled insects, then oils and then more bristled insects, which probably caused short-term enlargement due to infection or in
flammation. Then there are the men of the Brazilian Topinamá tribe who, in the 16th century,
allowed poisonous snakes to bite their penises to increase size.
These days, pills are more likely to be proffered as a method of penis enlargement. They are far less painful than bristled insects and poisonous snakes, but equally as ineffective. Most penis-
enlargement pills are probably nothing more than vitamins. Although there are drugs, such as
Viagra that enhance the stiffness of the penis, they treat erectile dysfunction.
Penis pumps are also used for erectile dysfunction, but unlike some online claims, they
don’t lengthen the penis. And persistent or incorrect use of these devices can lead to
bruising, bleeding or penile tissue death. Penis stretching devices require significant daily time investment over prolonged periods. There are small studies that show some improvement, but these are over ten years old and haven’t led to larger studies or a revolution in treatments.
What about surgery, injectables and implants?
Penoplasty or phalloplasty surgeries are most effective for lengthening the penis. They are typicallyused for men with a decreased penis length following prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland)or other conditions where the length of the penis is affected by structural factors, such as beingburied by skin.
Fillers are increasing in popularity, particularly hyaluronic acid (HA) injections. HA is popular becauseit is doesn’t generate an immune response. Injections with this substance increase penis volume anddraw water in. Some trials have shown “significant enhancement of girth”.
However, HA is broken down over several months and requires top-ups. And incorrect administrationcan have serious side-effects, from infection to preventing urination.
Surgery to cut the suspensory ligament anchoring the penis is the most widely accepted surgicalelongation method. This surgery alters the angle that the penis hangs from the body, increasing theappearance of length. It can also be combined with liposuction to reduce pubic fat, but thesesurgeries have poor satisfaction rates.
Fat transplantation from another region can enhance girth, with some success. However, about 30%of the fat is lost in the first two months, and scar tissue and infections are common, which can causelonger-term complications and, occasionally, even death when the fat breaks free and causes anembolism.
Implants, which come as inflatable and non-inflatable, are used to treat erectile dysfunction. But theyare also used cosmetically for penis enlargement. The results, though, are not great. There have beenvarious reports of lack of satisfaction for the patient and their partner, infection, damage to internalorgans, complications such as “floppy glans syndrome” and, in some cases, death.
Not needed in most cases
A recent review concluded that evidence for supporting surgical procedures for penis enlargementis weak and the complications are under-reported. Penis enlargement surgery is the second mostsought after cosmetic surgery in men. But only men with a micropenis may need treatment.
A micropenis, usually diagnosed at birth, is where the penis is 2.5 standard deviations less than theaverage stretched penis length (2.3 to 2.5cm depending on ethnicity). It is typically caused by adeficiency or imbalance of hormones such as testosterone or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG),or genetics.
Micropenis usually responds to hormone therapy in childhood, bringing size to the normal range.The average male penis is between 5.1 and 5.5 inches in length, with a recent study showing thelatter value is a 24% increase on three decades ago. The female vagina is on average 2.5 to 3.8 inchesdeep, but lengthens during sexual arousal to accommodate a penis longer than this.
Research studies also show that penile girth is a more important characteristic than length for sexualsatisfaction and there is no definite consensus on length correlating with sexual satisfaction – at leastfor heterosexual couples. The female genitalia have multiple erogenous structures that can result inorgasm, so penile length isn’t the key characteristic.
A closer look at jelqing
The penis consists of three cylindrical structures. Two corpus cavernosum and a corpusspongiosum. The top two consist of numerous spaces that are surrounded by smooth muscle, whichkeeps most blood out of the spaces.
During an erection, the muscles relax allowing blood to flow in, filling these spaces, and enlargingpenile volume. This enables penetration to occur. Among and around these structures are variousbundles of connective tissue, primarily collagen.
Jelqing appears to try and exploit the body’s repair mechanisms to heal micro-tears in the peniletissues, in the same way microfractures in bone and microtears in skeletal muscle heal bigger andstronger.
While the theory sounds good, smooth muscle cells in the penis don’t respond in the same wayskeletal muscle does. Smooth muscle increase in size is usually due to disease or damage, and moreimportantly, when the penis is erect, the smooth muscle cells are actually relaxed and not working,so are not going to increase in size.
Jelqing also increases the risk of developing Peyronie disease where scar tissue formation under theskin of the penis causes excessively curved erections and pain, particularly in the acute phase wherethe scar is still growing.
Scar tissues are weaker and not well aligned, jeopardising normal function. Penile scar tissue reducespenile blood flow causing inability to get or maintain an erection. Developing this condition will alsoresult in a shortening of the penis.
If jelqing, or any other trend, was really that effective, we would have seen evidence of it in medicaljournals, and the sale of extra-large underwear would be making the headlines.
Adam Taylor (he/him) is a Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre at Lancaster University. He has a passion for understanding how the human body functions and his teaching focuses on the relationship between the body and our day to day experience. His piece first appeared on The Conversation.