Studies of men from around the world show that the length of the erect penis has grown 24% over the last 30 years.
In a study published this week in The World Journal of Men’s Health, researchers studied the data from 75 studies, conducted between 1942 and 2021, that discussed the penile length of 55,761 men.
The research showed that the average erect penis length increased by 24% over 29 years, a trend they saw around the world.
The average length of the erect penis across all regions and decades was about 5.5 inches, the study found.
The decline in sperm quality and testosterone levels over the last few decades, prompted Dr Michael Eisenberg, a professor of urology at Stanford Medicine, to take up the study.
Eisenberg said that the increase in penile length may be an indicator that environmental exposures — such as environmental pollutants or increasing sedentary lifestyles — are causing reproductive-related changes.
Penile length may not be directly related to fertility, Eisenberg said, but anything that changes the reproductive system is fundamental to human existence and ‘something we should pay attention to and try to understand why’.
Eisenberg thinks the change in length might be explained by earlier puberty. Boys, like girls, have been reaching puberty earlier in recent years, probably giving their bodies a longer time to grow overall.
‘If we’re seeing this fast of a change, it means that something powerful is happening to our bodies. We should try to confirm these findings and if confirmed, we must determine the cause of these changes,’ said Eisenberg.
There could be a number of factors at play, such as chemical exposure to pesticides or hygiene products, disrupting our hormonal systems.
Chemical exposure has also been posited as a cause for boys and girls going into puberty earlier, which can affect genital development.
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