This size-minded study can certainly be categorized as “hard” news.
Spanish urologists have conducted new research on the size differences between flaccid and erect penises to determine whether most men are “growers” or “showers,” according to findings presented Sunday at the European Association of Urology Congress in Milan, Italy.
In slang terms, a “grower” refers to a man with a penis that drastically increases in size when it becomes erect.
A “shower,” on the other hand, pertains to a man with a member that does not become substantially larger during a state of arousal.
While the two categories may be considered crude superficialities, researchers say it’s crucial for urologists to be aware of size fluctuations if they’re performing a penile procedure.
“It is important to be able to predict if a patient is a grower or a shower as when we see them, they are usually in a flaccid state,” lead researcher Dr. Manuel Alonso-Isa said in a statement. “If they grow a lot when they get an erection, it might mean they need a different surgical approach compared to someone who doesn’t grow much.”
For the study, Alonso-Isa and urologists based at three hospitals and a clinic in Madrid conducted ultrasound scans on 225 men in both flaccid and then erect states.
According to the results, the average penis is 42% larger when erect than it is when it’s flaccid.
Males whose members grow more than 56% from flaccid to erect were categorized by researchers as “growers,” while men whose penis size increased by less than 31% when hard were designated as “showers.”
The ultrasound scans concluded that 24% of men are growers while 25% are showers.
Most men in the study (51%) fell into a “gray zone” between the grower and shower categories.
Alonso-Isa — who works at the HM Puerta del Sur in Madrid — stated that the study “found no correlations between age, weight, smoking status or other co-morbidities, and penis growth.”
However, men who were showers tended to have longer penises when flaccid, measuring in at an average of 11.3 centimeters or 4.44 inches.
Growers, on the other hand, had smaller flaccid penises at 8.8 cm or 3.46 inches.
Growers and showers had similarly sized penises when erect.
Meanwhile, Professor Maarten Albersen, a urologist at the University of Leuven, Belgium, said there was likely no medical consequence to being either a shower or a grower.
However, he admitted it was something that had a psychological impact on many men.
“This is a frequent area of concern for our patients,” the doctor declared in the press release, insisting that men should only become concerned about potential erectile dysfunction, not the size of a specific hard-on.
The new study comes after recent Stanford University research uncovered that the average penis size had grown a staggering 24% in the past three decades.
Experts fear the phallic inflation is due to unhealthy habits, like binging junk food or being mostly sedentary, or even pollution.
“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.”
Published in the World Journal of Men’s Health, the Stanford study analyzed data from 75 studies with over 55,000 men from 1992 to 2021.
“Erect penile length is getting longer, from an average of 4.8 inches to 6 inches, over the past 29 years,” Eisenberg said.
While more research is needed to confirm the findings and “determine the cause” of the changes, this research’s conclusions are hard for experts to swallow.
Chemical exposure from pesticides or hygiene products, Eisenberg continued, could be one of the various factors causing the quick growth. Such chemicals can disrupt the endocrine system, which regulates hormones.
— Additional reporting by Brooke Kato.
