When our older son was born—and let's call him Zach to protect the innocent—he had a skin tag on his foreskin. Skin tags are those small, extra, mutant pieces of skin that suddenly appear on your body one day, unannounced and unwelcomed. They are annoying, but for the most part they are no big deal. We were planning his bris, and I become obsessed with the possibility that the skin tag would somehow complicate the circumcision, or worse, cause the mohel to cut too deeply. There were no physical problems, but there were psychic ones.
Penis size is genetic, but you'll never know who's entirely responsible for the endowment.
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By Dawn Cliffwood Feb 16, Photo: iStockphoto. She meant it as a compliment, obviously. I was offended that she would objectify my newborn this way—and force me to ponder his future sexual encounters. I was a bit chuffed. What can I say? I live in the same world the nurse does. For like five minutes. And then I actually forgot about the comment for many years.
Knowing When or When Not to Be Concerned
Adolescence is a time for growth spurts and other changes spurred by the onset of puberty. For boys faced with these changes, it can be a time of great uncertainty as some will inevitably fall behind others in their development. Among the key changes in the sexual maturation , boys will undergo as the testicles get larger and the scrotum begins to thin and redden. In tandem with these changes is the growth of the penis which can develop at different rates for different boys. As sexual awareness increases, concerns about penis size may deepen, particularly if all other signs of puberty including height, body hair, and changes in voice are robust. Knowing what to expect—and what an "average" penis size really means—can help alleviate a lot of the stress. The good news is that penis size is rarely a sign of a medical problem. With that being said, there are few answers about "normal" penis size that will satisfy an emotionally impatient teen. Between the ages of 10 and 14, when most of the growth spurts occur, boys will often feel the need to "size up" with their peers, believing themselves to fall short if they are anything less than average.
Penis size is very much a product of genetics. But where those genes come from — and how much the environment plays a part — are not entirely straightforward. For the first seven weeks of development in the womb, nobody has a penis. After that, a fetus will either start developing male or female genitalia. For those given a Y chromosome, that means a penis. If size was entirely from the Y chromosome, men with the same father would all have essentially the same penis.
