Facts About the Penis

The National Health Service in UK has a great website covering all sorts of health issues. They have a couple of pages covering the penis and masturbation which may be of interest:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/penis-health/Pages/Five-penis-facts.aspx

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodsex/Pages/masturbation.aspx

The following articles are lifted directly from their webpage, I hope that you find them informative. Let me know if you learn anything!

Five Penis Facts

You’ve grown up together and shared many experiences, but how well do you really know your penis? Here are five penis facts you probably didn’t know.

You can break your penis
If the penis is violently twisted when erect, it can break. There are no bones in the penis, but the tubes that fill with blood during an erection can burst. Blood pours out of them inside the penis and causes a very painful swelling. Reported cases of penile fracture are rare, but it's thought that some men are too embarrassed to report it to their doctor. Damage during sex, where a partner is on top, is responsible for about one-third of all cases. The breakage usually occurs when a man's penis slips out of his partner and is violently bent.

Men have several night-time erections
On average, a healthy man has three to five erections during a full night’s sleep, with each erection lasting 25-35 minutes. It's common for men to wake up with an erection, informally called "morning glory". This is in fact the last in the series of night-time erections. The cause of night-time erections isn’t fully understood. However, studies suggest they are closely associated with the phase of sleep known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is when dreaming is most common. Whatever their cause, most doctors agree that night-time erections are a sign that everything is in working order.

Penis length is not linked to foot size
The idea that the size of your penis is in proportion to your shoe size is a myth, according to a study published in the British Journal of Urology International. Researchers at University College London measured the penises of 104 men, including teenagers and pensioners. The average penis length in this group was 13cm (5.1 inches) when soft and gently stretched and the average British shoe size was nine (43 European size). However, researchers found no link between shoe size and penis length.

Small penises make big erections
Shorter penises increase more in length when they become erect than longer ones. Research based on the penis measurements of 2,770 men found that shorter penises increased by 86% when erect, nearly twice that of longer penises (47%). In the 1988 study published in the Journal of Sex Research, researchers also found that the difference in length between a short penis and a longer one was a lot less obvious when erect than when flaccid. For example, the flaccid penises varied in length by 3.1cm (1.2 inches), whereas the average erect lengths differed by only 1.7cm (0.67 inches).

The penis is not a muscle
Contrary to popular belief, the so-called love muscle doesn’t contain any muscles. That’s why you can’t move it very much when it's erect. The penis is a kind of sponge that fills with blood when a man is sexually excited. Blood builds up inside two cylinder-shaped chambers, causing the penis to swell and stiffen. The swelling blocks off the veins that normally take blood away from the penis. As an erection disappears, the arteries in the two chambers narrow again, allowing blood to drain away from the penis.

Masturbation Q & A

There are many bizarre claims about masturbation, for example that it causes blindness, insanity, acne and even hair growth.

We sort fact from myth and answer your questions on what is arguably one of the most commonly practised sexual activities on the planet.

What is masturbation?
Masturbation involves sexually arousing yourself by touching your genitals. Both men and women can masturbate, and you can masturbate yourself or someone else.

Is it normal?
Yes. Apart from the pleasure it gives, masturbating can help you learn what you like and don't like sexually. Men can also use masturbation to learn how to control their orgasms, while women can find out what helps them to achieve an orgasm. Many couples masturbate together and find it a very enjoyable part of their relationship. Other people don't and that's fine: it's a personal choice.

How do you masturbate?
There’s no right or wrong way to masturbate. Men usually do it by rubbing their penis. Women usually touch and stroke their clitoris and the area around the vagina. The clitoris is a small soft bump in front of the entrance to the vagina. It's very sensitive, and touching and stimulating it can give strong feelings of sexual pleasure. Most women need the clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm during sex or masturbation.

What is ejaculation?
Ejaculation is when semen shoots out from the penis when a man has an orgasm. There is usually about 5ml of liquid, but there may be more, especially if a man hasn’t ejaculated for some time. Women can also ejaculate fluid, but this is far less common than men.

Is masturbation safe?
Yes. For the record, masturbating doesn’t cause blindness, insanity, acne and won’t make hair grow on your palms. Joking aside, there’s no risk of pregnancy or catching a sexually transmitted infection (STI) from masturbating, although there is a risk of infection if you touch someone else’s genitals and then touch your own. This is because STIs can be passed on through infected semen or vaginal fluid.

There is a risk of infection if you use sex toys during masturbation and someone else with an STI has used them before you. Any object used in sex can be called a sex toy, whether it's designed for this use or not. It's important to keep sex toys clean. If you’re sharing sex toys, wash them between users and put a new condom on them each time.

Can you injure yourself when masturbating?
You're unlikely to do yourself any harm, although there is a risk of soreness, cuts or bruising if you masturbate too roughly or too hard, or use an object that could hurt you or cause damage. Men sometimes worry about whether they could break the penis. This is rare and only happens when an erect penis is violently twisted, usually by somebody else.

Does masturbation affect sperm count?
Masturbating will not affect a man's ability to produce sperm. Men will not run out of sperm, as they produce it continuously. After a man has ejaculated, it will take some time before he can ejaculate again. This is normal and doesn't mean there is anything wrong with his sperm.

Can you masturbate too much?
Masturbation is harmless, but if you do it a lot your genitals may feel sore. If men do it a lot in a short space of time, they can get a slightly alarming looking swelling of the penis, called oedema, caused by fluid in the tissues. However, the swelling disappears within a day or two.