How Big is Yours?

Penis size doesn't matter much to her. So stop worrying and start pleasuring her
Don't Think Small Longing for more size? It's all in your head.

Obsessing over penis size can turn you into a lousy lover. Men who think they have small penises may think they can't satisfy their partners. This can make it difficult to maintain an erection, in what is known as psychogenic erectile dysfunction, says Rany Shamloul, M.D., a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada. The irony: His new research on men who complained of having small penises showed most were not as small as they thought.

Here are more of his findings, published in the journal Adult Urology:

• 94% of men overestimated normal flaccid penis size.
  
• 5.1" average guess as to flaccid penis size
  
• 3 to 4" actual normal length of a flaccid penis
  
• 4.7 to 5.1" normal length of a stretched penis (It's roughly the same as erect-penis length but is considered a more accurate way to measure.) 45% had a stretched-penis length of 5.1" or greater.
  
• 0% had an "abnormal" measurement (less than 2.75 inches).
  
• 59% traced their short-penis complexes to childhood, when they began comparing their penises to those of friends.
  
• 41% said their problems started in adolescence, when they began viewing erotic films and magazines.
  
• 86% said their size worries vanished after they were educated about average penis size and informed of their own measurements.
  
  Sounds horrifying, right?
  If you're anxiously reading this article, you may already have it.
  Oh, relax. It’s not a johnson-shrinking virus. "Small penis syndrome" is a psychological condition in which a man thinks his manhood is too small, even though he's really on par with the rest of mankind.
  
  Does size matter? (To her, that is.)
  
  That age-old question was addressed by British researchers in a scholarly article this week in BJU International.
  
  Their findings, in a nutshell (or two): 63 percent of men complained of having inferior hardware -- but none of them was smaller than normal! (Normal is between 5.5 and 6.2 inches long when erect and 4.7 to 5.1 inches around -- and don’t even think about measuring at your desk.)
  
  To make those fears all the more pointless, 85 percent of women are happy with their partner’s size.
  
  Okay, British researchers are one thing. But what do real women think?
  
  That's where Men's Health comes in. We asked two of our favorite women: Nicole Beland, our "Girl Next Door," and Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., our "Bedroom Confidential" columnist.
  
  "Yes, we care about the size of a man's penis," Nicole says. "But when it comes to sexual satisfaction, it's pretty far down on our list of priorities."
  
  And having a big wood certainly doesn't guarantee her orgasm, which is more important than penis size, Debby says. "Women find it difficult to orgasm, and oral sex and hand stimulation are often more effective, as are vibrators," she says. "It's not personal -- it's just how some women's bodies work."