Monday, February 2, 2009

The Penis Has A Mind of It's Own

Most men usually wonder why the penis often seems to have a mind of its own. Like the arms and legs, the penis responds to the autonomic nervous system which regulates heart rate and blood pressure and is not always under conscious control.

During sexual arousal, the conscious mind is usually in compliance with it. However, a lot of sexual arousal goes on in the sympathetic nervous system. During the REM phase of sleep, impulses from the brain may also cause erections. It doesn't matter if you're dream has anything to do with sex or not. Even straining to have a bowel movement or lifting heavy weights can also produce an erection.

In the same way that penis grows without your consent, it also shrinks on its own. According to Drogo Montague, MD, a urologist at the Cleveland Clinic, a man may have different sizes of its penis in flaccid state. Exposure to cold water or air makes your penis shrink. That's a function of the sympathetic nervous system. And since psychological stress affects the sympathetic nervous system, the flaccid penis looks bigger than when you're stressed out.

There is really no permanent relationship between the size of the flaccid penis and its full erect length. Based on a research study involving 80 men, it was found that increases from falccid to erect lengths ranged from less than a quarter inch to 3.5 inches longer.

It can mean that a guy with a big limp penis doesn't necessarily gets much bigger with an erection. Likewise, a man whose penis looks small could surprise you with a big erection. Sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said in his analysis of more than thousand penis measurements, shorter flaccid penises tend to gain about twice as much length as longer flaccid penises.

It is interesting to know that a penis that doesn't gain much length with an erection is called a “show-er” while a penis that gains a lot is said to be a “grow-er.” Statistics have shown that about 12% of penises gained one-third or less of their total length with an erection, and about 7% doubled in length when erect.

Resource Box : Monch Bravante is a freelance writer and an advertising practitioner with special interest in public health issues.

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