127 respondents completed the survey. Of those 71% were men and 29% were wives answering for their husbands. The respondents were primarily in the 25-44 year old age group (74%) with 6% being younger than 25 and the remaining 20% older than 44.
86% of respondents are circumcised. Interestingly, the circumcision rate in the US has been falling steadily over the years, with only 56% of baby boys now circumcised in the US overall (although this varies widely by state, with 2007 data showing 15 states with rates over 75% and 5 states with rates below 25%). In Europe the rate is now below 10% and in Africa it is over 70%.
91% of respondents said that the natural angle of their fully erect penis is between 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock. Of these, 64% are above the horizontal (22% are at one o' clock and 42% at 2 o'clock) and 27% stand horizontal at 3 o'clock.
Of the 9% below the horizontal, 4% point at four o'clock, 2% five o'clock and 4% six o' clock when erect.
As Paul Byerly of TMB pointed out in his comment posted on the original blog, this angle is genetically determined "The angle is determined by how the root of the penis (the almost half of the total that is inside the body) is situated. This cannot be changed, it is what it is."
In response to the question as to whether the natural angle has declined with age, a large majority of respondents indicated that this is not the case. Those that had experienced a drop mostly pointed out that this was due to factors such as injury, surgery, erectile dysfunction or lifestyle illnesses such as obesity or heart disease that impact their ability to achieve a fully firm erection anymore. One respondent indicated that since he had started treatment for his ED with Viagra, his original angle was fully restored.
As to the angle that the erect penis can comfortably bend down to, to comfortably accommodate various positions for intercourse, there is quite a wide and evenly distributed range. 81% can comfortably go below horizontal to four o' clock or lower. Many of the 19% (me included) that indicated that 3 o' clock or less was their maximum angle without discomfit noted that this does to some degree limit the positions that they can comfortably use for intercourse. Positions that were noted as being problematic include reverse cowgirl, scissors, side by side and oral sex.
For those that have greater flexibility, there was a fairly normal distribution, with 26% going down to four o' clock, 25% to five o' clock and 20% to six o'clock. A full 10% can bend down beyond the vertical to beyond six o'clock. Not surprisingly, none of the more flexible respondents indicated any problems with various lovemaking positions.
Some respondents did however indicate that penis size is a limiting factor in their choice of positions, with deep entry positions being uncomfortable and even painful for wives of those on the large side and spooning and rear entry being potentially problematic for smaller men.
Curvature returned some interesting data with less than half of the respondents (47%) having a straight erection. 20% are concave (upward sloping), 19% curve to the left slightly, 12% curve slightly to the right. 4% have a pronounced left hook, but interestingly none have a pronounced right hook (probably just an anomaly brought on by the relatively small sample size). 4% are convex (downward sloping).
Finally, 97% consider themselves to be 'growers' (smaller when flaccid and increase proportionately more in length as they become erect) with only 3% considering themselves to be 'showers' (proportionately larger when flaccid and increase less in length as they become erect). While the other stats above in this survey fairly reasonably mirror what I have found in the research available on the Internet, this stat is somewhat off. Other research indicates that around 80% of men are growers and around 20% are showers. The accepted definition is apparently a ratio of greater or less than 1.7 : 1, ie the ratio of the erect to flaccid penis length, so someone who is 3 inches flaccid and 6 inches erect would have a ratio of 2:1 and be a 'grower', while someone 4 inches flaccid and 6 inches erect would have a ratio of 1.5 : 1 and be classified as a 'shower'. (Sex Ed should explain all this to teenage boys, thus preventing years of angst for millions of boys brought on by comparing their flaccid selves to the 'shower' that they likely share the locker room with!)
The takeaway for me of all the above is that there is really no normal or ideal penis - they vary quite widely across all metrics and on the whole all still manage to get the job done!
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