[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Paul B. at 05 Nov 2001 13:32:12: Shrinking Willy
As an answer to: adult circumcision written by peter papworth at 04 Nov 2001 22:52:09:
> I was circumcised at 52; erect penis now five and a half, previously six and a half inches.
You omit the most important detail - how old are you now? I'm glad you specified erect size, as flaccid size is entirely non-specific other than always being smaller, at least slightly, than erect.
> Isn't this inevitable; less skin to stretch?
It has nothing to do with the circumcision. Well, almost nothing. It has a lot to do with age, either your corpora cavernosa (erectile bodies in the penis) are becoming fibrosed (hardening) with age, or you are not getting the full blood pressure in to pump them up, or of course, a bit of both.
You need to know, and it should be self-evident, that the skin on the penis is stretchable to some extent and as "halfclip" has pointed out, the penis will if necessary, draw up skin from the scrotum and abdominal wall during erection. Not so (stretchable) the tunica, or outer casing of the cavernosa, which is more similar to the ligaments in your knee which will not stretch at all unless stressed to the point of rupture.
Now you may not realise, and may not have a partner nice enough to tell you, but the majority of erections you have are whilst you are asleep, and these are strong enough and often enough to make sure the skin stretches to accommodate an erection, however it has to move to do this. A proper erection is easily firm enough to pull the skin to any degree needed and over time cause it to stretch, though only this far and no more.
The only reason then for your penis being shorter is that it is not getting a full erection and perhaps for this reason, the skin may just be tight enough to hold this back where it would not with a full erection, or some disease may have shrunk the cavernosae, unrelated to the foreskin.