As reported by Gizmodo on Friday, a study published in the journal Sexual Medicine Reviews recently concluded what most people already assume: Penis enlargement surgery is a scam. Rather than leaving aspirational Big Swinging Dicks with the swollen Johnsons they so covet, the study of 21 types of operations found the procedures led to decidedly flaccid results. Of the nearly 1,200 men in the study, negative side effects ranged from “painful nocturnal erections” to “unnatural hair growth proximal to the penile stump” to arguably the worst-case outcome of dick-lengthening surgery: “shrinkage and penile retraction.” In a particularly harrowing case, a 48-year-old man who had fat injected into his penis was left with something resembling a potato, which had to be sliced below the head and peeled back to remove the fat.
Having witnessed, first hand, a man go under the knife in pursuit of a bigger dick last year — and wind up with an increase of two-and-a-half inches in length and nearly the same in girth — I was curious how the man behind that new dick, Beverly Hills surgeon James J. Elist, would respond to the damning study.
It turns out, he agrees with it 100 percent.
That’s because, he tells me, the two most common types of procedures in the study were suspensory ligament incision (which separates and elongates the ligament holding the penis to the pelvic bone) and dermal filler injections (which increase girth via injection of hyaluronic acid, fat or other liquids into the soft tissue under the skin of the shaft). Elist does neither. Rather, he implants an FDA-approved “Penuma” silicone sheath (which he patented in 2004) under the penis that sits 270 degrees around the shaft, leaving room for the urethra.
While I witnessed a seemingly successful outcome, numerous cautionary tales from dissatisfied patients abound online. For example, as Sun1 reports on PhalloBoards, an online community created to discuss phalloplasty, he experienced “numbness,” “inability to climax” and a wife “complaining about sharp edges” at the top of his penis following his procedure with Elist. And yet, compared to the 80 percent of patients dissatisfied in the Sexual Medicine Reviews study, a 2018 report in the Journal of Sexual Medicine revealed an equal percentage of subjects reporting “high” or “very high” levels of satisfaction with Elist’s Penuma implant.
The release of discouraging studies are challenging, Elist says, as were news reports earlier this year of a billionaire’s fatally botched boner-job resulting from fat injected directly into the artery of his penis. “As soon as people see something negative about penile enhancement, they just assume that it applies to everything,” Elist explains, before clarifying exactly why the other procedures are so troublesome.
“When you cut the suspensory ligament to stretch the penis, it’s like a spring and retracts, forming scar tissue and actually makes the penis shorter,” he says. As for the injections, Elist explains that deformities in the penis occur when gravity pools the injected material behind its head. “Water absorbs and becomes nodules so it looks like they have marbles under the penis.” (The American Urological Association and the Society of Sexual Medicine have both released statements calling out suspensory ligament incision and dermal filler injections as being unsafe.)
Elist’s procedure, on the other hand, involves a soft silicone — like what’s been used in breast, chin, cheek and calf implants for the last 40 years — which is exactly the shape of the penis. “It’s not like fat, gel or other materials that absorb over time,” he explains. “It’s fixed under the penis and moves with direction; so when a patient has erection, the implant moves forward. Aesthetically it looks very natural — exactly the same as the patient’s penis, but bigger.”
And this bigger, unlike the men in the Sexual Medicine Reviews study, he swears is better.
C. Brian Smith
C. Brian Smith writes hard-hitting gonzo features for MEL, whether it be training with a masturbation coach, receiving psycho corporal treatment from a spank therapist, or embarking on a week-long pleasure cruise with 75 Santa Clauses following their busy season.
