Researchers had actually expected a decline in penile length.
The average penis length has increased over the past 30 years, a new study has found.
However, experts aren't celebrating as they say the discovery is "concerning".
“Any overall change in development is concerning because our reproductive system is one of the most important pieces of human biology,” Dr Michael Eisenberg, the study’s author, told
Stanford Medicine’s blog Scope.
“If we’re seeing this fast of a change, it means that something powerful is happening to our bodies.”
The Stanford University study, published in the
World Journal of Men’s Health, analysed data from 75 studies with 55,761 men from 1992 to 2021 and focused on the length of an erect penis.
Researchers discovered the average penis size had increased 24%.
“Erect penile length is getting longer, from an average of 4.8 inches to 6 inches, over the past 29 years,” Dr. Eisenberg said.
While further studies are needed to confirm the development and determine the cause, experts are surprised.
Dr Eisenberg had actually expected to see a decrease in the length of penises.
“Given the trends we’d seen in other measures of men’s reproductive health, we thought there could be a decline in penile length due to the same environmental exposures,” he said.
“What we found was quite different from trends in other areas of male fertility and health."
Dr Eisenberg suggested that chemical exposure from pesticides or hygiene products could be one of the various factors fuelling penis growth.
This is as they can disrupt the endocrine system, which regulates hormones.
Meanwhile, past studies have claimed pollution is shrinking the penis, the
New York Post noted.
You can read The Stanford University study in the World Journal of Men's Health
right here.
