As you get older, you’ll probably either pack on weight or shrivel up like a dried-out green bean. Either way, your dick is gonna get smaller. Death is inevitable, and the bodily processes leading up to it will undoubtedly have an effect on your penis. There are, however, ways to prevent those effects from being worse than they need to be.
Aging happens on a cellular level. Your penis, being made of cells, is obviously not immune. More specifically, though, your penis consists of spongy tissue and blood vessels. Over time, the cells in your body lose the ability to multiply and function. Often, they lose mass, as well. Fewer, less-full cells in the penis can therefore translate to a less-full appearing penis. Further, that spongy tissue is a finite resource. Like the cells in your body overall, your tissue mass depletes with age. In some cases, the tissue of the penis can also become rigid from years of use, further translating to a lack of original plumpness.
All of this, of course, is perfectly normal. The changes may well be noticeable, but it’s not going to translate to inches of loss. However, there are certain semi-avoidable comorbidities of aging that can make a more significant difference. Given that the penis contains blood vessels and your erections are dictated by blood flow, your cardiovascular health has a major impact on both your penis function and size.
Inevitably, fatty deposits develop on the arteries with age and impede blood flow to the penis. However, high cholesterol and diets high in saturated and trans fats can worsen this process. Untreated heart and blood pressure issues can have a similar effect. Reduced blood flow to the penis not only makes achieving an erection more difficult, but also produces smaller erections by not fully engorging the penis.
Unfortunately, though our cells generally lose mass with age, fat cells are another thing entirely. Despite the desperate cries of many, you cannot gain fat in your penis. Instead, gaining fat elsewhere, like your stomach, will actually only make your penis look smaller. Not only does having a bigger stomach cause your penis to appear smaller in comparison, but the weight of your gut can cause the penis to become partially sucked into the body. In extreme cases, it can transform the penis into an innie penis.
As Brian Steixner, the director of the Institute of Men’s Health for the Jersey Urology Group, told Men’s Health, losing 30 pounds can effectively add about half an inch to one’s penis. Of course, that half an inch will have to have already existed, but still. Considering many people gain weight with age, this further contributes to the phenomenon of penis shrinkage, but at least it’s avoidable and reversible.
You can’t fight getting older. Your cells are going to do what they’re going to do. Your penis is going to get a tiny bit smaller as part of that, and honestly, nobody but you cares. There are a variety of promising but not-proven-effective treatments out there you could try to regain some of that mass, like the P-Shot. The best thing to do, though, is to maintain your heart health and weight to avoid any further shrinkage beyond that which comes from this slow crawl of mortality.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
