How to Measure Your Penis Size

Curious About How You Stack Up Down There? Here’s How to Measure It

Curious About How You Stack Up Down There? Here’s How to Measure It

If there’s one thing men are obsessed with when it comes to sex, it’s penis size.

That’s hardly an exaggeration — one, because men are genuinely very focused on how big they are, how their size compares to other guys’, and how, if at all, they can increase it — and the fact that, by and large, women don’t care nearly as much.

You read that right — studies and surveys show that women care far less about penis size than men do.

But that doesn’t mean that being curious about your size is a completely toxic or fruitless endeavor.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know more about your body and how it compares to the average — so long as you recognize that penis size isn’t that meaningful, in the end, and you don’t become obsessed with yours or other people’s.

How to Measure Your Penis Size

If you’re curious about measuring the size of your penis, you might wonder — should I measure it while it’s flaccid, or while it’s hard and erect?

Flaccid vs. Erect

Though most attempts to quantify penis size are looking for length while erect, and most of the time when you see a number (say, of inches) described, either for a particular penis size or an average, it’s describing the length while erect, many scientific studies of penis size also include measurements for the length of the penis while flaccid.

The tricky aspect of this is that the size of an erect penis is typically impacted by the intensity of the subject’s state of arousal. Meaning, it’s most likely to be its largest, hardest, fullest self in the heat of the moment — not when you or anyone else is stopping to measure it.

However, getting yourself to what feels like peak size and then immediately measuring will still be able to give you a fairly accurate number.

On the flipside, it’s possible that touching your penis in order to measure it while flaccid might cause you to become very slightly erect, thereby altering that number as well. As you can see, penis measurement is not exactly a straightforward science.

How to Measure Your Penis Length

Length is typically measured from the base of the penis — where it meets the stomach, on the inside, as opposed to where it meets the scrotum, on the outside — to the very tip at the end of the glans (head).

This is likely because determining where the stomach ends and the penis begins is simpler than determining where the shaft ends and the scrotum begins.

Measuring your penis can be accomplished using a variety of measuring tools. A ruler or tape measure can do the trick; flexible measuring tape (or sewing tape measure) is also a good option, and its flexibility will also allow you to measure your girth, if that interests you.

If you’re more technologically inclined, or simply don’t have any analog measuring tools at your disposal, you can use a digital method: iPhones have a native app called “Measure” that allows you to measure the length of objects.

While it can be somewhat tricky to use while trying to achieve or maintain an erection if you’re not familiar with it, the Measure app can provide a relatively close estimate — but for the most accurate measurement, using one of the aforementioned analog options is your best best.

Finally, if you don’t have easy access to a measuring device — or don’t want to use a tool that other people might use in a non-sexual capacity to touch your genitals with — another option is using something like a piece of paper or string.

Holding it at the base of your penis, you can mark where on the paper or string the tip of your penis lands, and then measure the length of paper or string separately. Alternatively, if using a piece of paper, you can mark size increments, such as inches or centimeters, on it beforehand.

How to Measure Your Penis Girth

If you don’t have flexible measuring tape, the paper/string approach is also a particularly useful one when it comes to measuring your girth, where a ruler or non-flexible measuring tape won’t be useful, and where the iPhone method won’t help you either.

Using an analog measuring tool like a ruler, you can mark those size increments on your piece of paper (doing it on a piece of string would be a bit trickier, but still possible). Then, you wrap it around your penis at its thickest point, marking where it meets the end in order to get a measurement.

Or you can wrap a piece of string or paper around your penis, mark (or hold it) where it meets the end, and then measure that length of string or paper using a ruler afterward.

What You Should Know About Your Penis Size

Once you have your measurement — or measurements — there are a few things to keep in mind.

For starters, the average penis length when erect is, depending on the studies you trust, somewhere in the range of 5.25 inches (roughly 13.3 centimeters) — much smaller than most guys seem to expect. Secondly, even then, the percentage of people who have sex with men who consider penis size to be extremely important is pretty small. 

As numerous studies have indicated, most women care much less about it than men, in no small part because their pleasure derives primarily from clitoral stimulation, not penetration.

From the perspective of people who enjoy being penetrated by penises during sex, “too big” may be as much of or more of an issue than “too small,” as being penetrated by a very large penis can lead to pain, internal tearing and bleeding, or simply not being able to fit it inside without plenty of lube and lots of preparation.

A penis on the smaller side might not have the “wow factor” associated with big penises by porn and pop culture, but it is also less inconvenient in these and other ways.

Ultimately, the length and girth measurements of your penis are significantly less important to your desirability as a partner than how you behave towards the people you have sex with.

Of course there are some people who will dismiss guys with below-average size, and likely many people would find a micropenis somewhat disappointing or unattractive. If you’re on the smaller side, that can be tough for your self-esteem.

The world will always contain people with different tastes, appetites and aesthetic prejudices — it’s likely that you, too, would reject people whose bodies did not line up with your understandings of what’s attractive.

The important thing to remember is that having a penis that doesn’t perfectly conform to average does not make you unworthy of love or otherwise not sexually desirable. There are billions and billions of people in the world who are all looking for slightly different things sexually, and committing yourself to being a giving and talented lover in other ways can make you a hot commodity in ways that simply having a big penis won’t.

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Source: AskMen