Introduction: The medical literature suggests there is benefit to penile stretching and traction therapy in Peyronie’s disease, after prostatectomy to prevent shortening, erectile dysfunction prior to placement of an inflatable prosthesis, and for men concerned about penile length. We seek to present the historical practices regarding penile stretching and traction therapies.
Methods: Literature review via PubMed, Google scholar, and archive.org for books, journal articles, texts, and historical discussion detailing the practice of penile stretching and traction practices throughout history.
Results: Margaret Mead in her studies of Polynesian males described a woven device of plant fiber that was used to help men to stretch their penises. Working in a similar fashion to a Chinese finger trap, the penis is inserted into one end of the device while a weighted object is hung from the other end. The Cholomec tribe from Peru and some African tribes have used the direct hanging of weights on to their penises in attempts to increase penile length. This method of traction does not increase girth. Direct use of weights hanging from the penis has been shown to decrease girth and cause tissue damage. Certain Holy Men from the Sadhu tribes in India have practiced penile stretching via hanging stones from their penises using grass or lianas. Egyptian pharaohs as well may have used weights to increase penile length. The most prominently featured technique of penile stretching is the Arabic jelqing method. Jelqing is still practiced by some to this day, and it involves a regimented milking or massaging of the semi-erect penis from base to tip repeatedly. The man then stops jelqing prior to ejaculation so that the process can be restarted. Jelqing has not been rigorously studied in the medical literature, however one British physician reported on use of jelqing for penile length gain in the 1970s. Richards' study reported on 30 men, who followed a regular program of jelqing three months. According to Richards, 87 percent of the participants experienced increases in penile length with an average 1 inch increase in the length of their penises and a 1 inch increase in girth. A similar milking and exercise method has been used by Sudanese practioners to achieve increased penile size.
Conclusions: There is a long-standing use of penile stretching and traction practices across many cultures and historical time points. Only recently has the medical literature begun to elucidate best practices and objective benefits that men have been seeking for many years.
Source of Funding: John Sigalos has received funding from H H LEE Research Program via LB Research and Education Foundation in support of this work.
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