Millions of men in the US reportedly suffer from a curved penis, but are too embarrassed to seek help due to societal stigma, a Texas urologist has cautioned.
The scientist dropped the wince-worthy bombshell during a recent appearance on the Peter Attia Drive Podcast.
“This population, I call the population that suffers in silence,” Dr. Mohit Khera of the Baylor College of Medicine told Attia of the affliction, per the Daily Mail. “They never talk about it.”
He was specifically referring to those who suffer from Peyronie’s disease, a “noncancerous condition resulting from fibrous scar tissue that develops on the penis and causes curved, painful erections,” per the Mayo Clinic.
For the uninitiated, “each side of the penis contains a spongelike tube (corpus cavernosum) that contains many tiny blood vessels,” they write.
When one becomes “sexually aroused,” the blood flow to these chambers increases, causing the penis to straighten when stiff.
However, in the case of Peyronie’s disease, the scarred area doesn’t stretch when the penis becomes erect, causing the member to become disfigured and possibly painful, per the site.
Khera estimates that “up to 7% to 9% of men in the US” have this unfortunate curvature of the phallus. However, statistics indicate that this number is only around 1 in 100 as many men refuse to report the condition due to the humiliation factor.
While the causes of PD aren’t completely understood, these winding winkies are generally caused by repeated injury to the member during sex, masturbation, sports or a freak accident.
In some cases, this askew penis develops gradually over time and the disease is more common as people age — with the average age of onset clocking in at 57, per Khera’s website.
Either way, this causes the penis to bend up to 180 degrees when erect or flaccid, leading to a host of complications. These include extreme pain, erectile dysfunction and an inability to have intercourse.
(Dr. Mohit Khera, Daily Mail, LLB)