You may know what a penis looks like and what it feels like, but how much do you really know about this interesting male organ? To educate yourself, take a look at these 10 lesser-known facts about the penis.
1. Fetuses can get erections.
It's pretty strange to think that your bun in the oven could be getting excited down there, but if it's a boy, it's true! Ultrasound scans have proven it.
2. You can't make assumptions about size.
There's no consistent relationship between the size of a flaccid penis and its full, erect length. You might think that a guy with a big penis when it's flaccid will have a gigantic penis once it's erect, but that may not be true. A penis that doesn't gain much length with an erection is known as a "show-er," and a penis that gains a lot of length with an erection is called a "grower." Most penises aren't extreme show-ers or growers.
3. The underside is the most sensitive.
Most men rate the underside of the glans (head) of the penis and the underside of the shaft to be the most sensitive areas to sexual pleasure. That might be enough incentive to change up your oral or manual strategy!
4. Shrinkage is real.
Penises really can shrink—for several reasons. Smoking is one way: It can shorten a penis by as much as a centimeter because of calcified blood vessels that reduce erectile circulation. Also, penile tissue can become less elastic if a guy doesn't get regular erections, meaning his penis could shrink by a centimeter or two if he doesn't use it enough.
5. Penises can break.
He probably won't want to know this, but a penis can actually break, despite not being made of bone. Vigorous intercourse or masturbation—or even falling on an erect penis—can cause a penile fracture. It's a bending injury that occurs when a membrane called the tunica albuginea tears. The tunica albuginea is what surrounds the corpora cavernosa, which is the spongy tissue inside the penis that fills up with blood during an erection. When the membrane tears, the blood that's normally confined to this space leaks out into other tissues, causing bruising and swelling. Recovering from a fracture usually involves stitches.
Semen is made of about 96 percent water, 2 percent sperm, fructose (which nourishes sperm), vitamin C (which helps keep sperm healthy), sodium bicarbonate (which protects sperm from the acidic environment of avagina), various proteins and enzymes, and minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc.
7. The average male orgasm lasts 6 seconds.
It doesn't take very long for a guy to finish his orgasm. Women, on the other hand, have orgasms that last for an average of 23 seconds.
8. Penises used to have spines.
This is true, but they were lost before Neanderthals and modern humans diverged. Scientists believe that the spines helped make erections faster and promoted more promiscuity. Penises with spines are common in promiscuous species like cats.
9. Most men aren't circumcised.
Believe it or not, only about 30 percent of men age 15 and older are circumcised worldwide. In the United States, more than half of newborn boys are circumcised in the hospital—about 58 percent.
10. There's more to it than you think.
A guy's penis size is double the length you actually see. The rest is tucked up inside the pelvis and attached to his pubic bone.
1. It cleans itself. That's what vaginal discharge is for, after all. Having a clear or white-ish discharge is perfectly healthy, and it flushes out bacteria and old cells to prevent any unwanted pathogens from entering the uterus. So there's no need for you to come at your vagina with scented soaps—only baby shampoo, please—as you don't want to upset its pH balance. And for the love of all things healthy, don't douche. You'll only regret it.
2. It can change color. Everyone knows that va-jay-jays come in all shapes and sizes, thanks to genetics, but just because it starts as one color doesn't mean it'll stay that way. "During sexual arousal or pregnancy, blood flow to the genitals changes and that can result in a color change," usually making it a deeper, darker color, saysMichael Krychman, M.D., gynecologist and executive director of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health. Then there's menopause to consider—Dr. Krychman says the loss of estrogen during this stage of a woman's life can also cause the vagina to change color, usually a lighter or more dull shade than before. While its chameleon-like capabilities are amazing, the color versatility is normal and nothing to be concerned about.
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. – Khalil Gibran
True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi connects automatically. – Author Unknown (Internet, probably)
True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
The language of friendship is not words but meanings. – Henry David Thoreau
Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. – Woodrow T. Wilson
Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. — Albert Camus
True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. – David Tyson Gentry
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one. ― C.S. Lewis
Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives. – Alexander Dumas
Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant. – Socrates
Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. – Samuel Butler
A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. – William Shakespeare
Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success. – Oscar Wilde
I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. – Plutarch
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. – Aristotle
A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling. – Arthur Brisbane
There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. ― Linda Grayson
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. – Oprah Winfrey
A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. – Elbert Hubbard
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? – Abraham Lincoln
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust
An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind. – Buddha
It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. – Marlene Dietrich
My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. – Henry Ford
Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything. – Muhammad Ali
Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over. – Octavia Butler
There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you. – Paramahansa Yogananda
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. – C.S. Lewis
I think if I’ve learned anything about friendship, it’s to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don’t walk away, don’t be distracted, don’t be too busy or tired, don’t take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff. – Jon Katz
The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. – Barbara Kingsolver
I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. – Robert Brault
Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart. – Washington Irving
How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em. – Shel Silverstein
Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that. – Ally Condie
Friends are the family you choose – Jess C. Scott
We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. – Ray Bradbury
Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life–and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next. – Dean Koontz
Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected. – Charles Lamb
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A friendship that can end never really began – Publilius Syrus
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. – Alice Walker
In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. – John Churton Collins
You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job. – Laurence J. Peter
Every friendship travels at sometime through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of your affection. You lose the attraction and the magic. Your sense of each other darkens and your presence is sore. If you can come through this time, it can purify with your love, and falsity and need will fall away. It will bring you onto new ground where affection can grow again. – John O’Donohue
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. – Dale Carnegie
Some people go to priests, others to poetry, I to my friends. – Virginia Woolf
The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple? – Eugene Kennedy
Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Do not save your loving speeches For your friends till they are dead; Do not write them on their tombstones, Speak them rather now instead. – Anna Cummins
1. Fetuses can get erections.
