Jelqing

Having a presence on Facebook means that every few days I get an unexpected message from gentlemen in a variety of places such as Lebanon, Pakistan, Sudan, and Malaysia. The questions are often bluntly sincere but demonstrate a poor understanding of sex and an ignorance of female desire. One question was “Hello. Know hw to enlarg penis?” Forgiving the spelling, I decided to educate.

I’ve discovered that they are all sorts of myths out in the world about how to enlarge a man’s penis. This gentleman was looking for foods which would increase his length and girth. Despite what he’d been told, tuna and sweet potatoes do not work. I also informed him that over-the-counter pills such as Vigrx, Extenze, Enzyte may enhance libido and erections, they will not change the size of the penis. The only method that has proven to work* is mechanical enlargement—whether it be surgery, penis pumps, or jelqing. And in almost every case, I highly discourage all of it.

Surgery involves cutting a ligament above the penis to allow it to swing out and down a little more. It’s not really larger, just allowed to move a bit, and this comes with big downsides. Fat can also be implanted from another part of the body to give the penis more girth, but that risks losing sensitivity and rarely looks cosmetically pleasing. Penis pumps can give a temporarily enlargement while the elastic ring is tight around the base, but once the ring is released, the engorged blood leaves the penis and it returns to its natural size.

The only method that has shown any prolonged benefit is jelqing. *And by benefit, I mean maybe a half inch in length. Jelqing involves a series of daily stretching exercises that slowly break down the tissues and rebuilds them in a way that is longer, similar to how weight-lifting in the gym breaks down the muscle fibers and then rebuilding them larger. Jelqing is a long, slow process with very little benefit and significant risks if done wrong. But in some situations, it does work, a little.

When discussing penis enlargement with a man, I quickly move on to, “why would you want to?” I have yet to hear a good enough reason for me to prescribe jelqing or any possible enlargement technique. I start by reminding them that the average penis size is much smaller than what they may have seen in porn and that a woman’s sexual satisfaction has very little to do with her partner’s penis size. In addition to whatever phallic attributes he brings to the bed, he has 10 fingers, a mouth, and other creative body parts and toys. This should all be supplemented by a mindset which may include arousing words, kind acts, generous gifts, patient listening,