What Makes A Man?

The Anatomy Of The Penis

The skin of the penis is hairless, thin, elastic and very sensitive, particularly so on the upper- and undersides. In uncircumcised men it fits loosely over the shaft and slips back and forth during sexual activity. When it is pulled back it reveals the glans or tip of the penis, which is generally cone-shaped, at the base of which there is a ridge known as the corona. The glans is the most sensitive part of the phallus, richly endowed with nerve-endings, and it is highly responsive to stimulation during sexual foreplay.

At birth the glans of the penis is covered by a foreskin, which in some societies is routinely removed by circumcision. Some people believe that circumcision enhances sexual pleasure, but in fact there is no evidence that there is a difference in sensitivity between the circumcised and the uncircumcised penis. The only possible disadvantage of non-circumcision might be that as the foreskin traps dirt, uncircumcised men should be particularly scrupulous about their genital hygiene. They should regularly push the foreskin back and wash the glans and corona with warm water.

After the penis, the testicles are the main focus of male anxiety and misplaced pride. The testicles are extremely vulnerable and sensitive, in fact too much so to be organs of pleasure. The author of The Sensuous Woman (1970) urges her readers to give their men a wonderful thrill by gently taking a testicle into the mouth like an egg. This is a practice we would recommend only if you trust your partner, otherwise any thrill conferred by the novelty of the experience may be cancelled out by the reflex anxiety it induced.

The testicles are sex glands whose function is to manufacture sperm. They vary in size, but any exceptionally large one usually has more fluid. Testicle size is not related to the number of sperm produced. It is normal for one testicle to be a little smaller than the other, and it is also normal for one (usually the left) to hang lower than the other, two common factors that still cause anxiety. Men are sometimes alarmed, too, to find that they appear to have only one testicle, when in fact what has happened is that one has retreated into the canal that leads to the abdomen. This canal serves as a kind of refuge for the very vulnerable glands. They get drawn up toward it, for example, when a man wades into cold water, or when any kind of danger threatens, and also during sexual arousal. A very small number of males have an undescended testicle, one that has not descended to the scrotum but remained in the abdominal canal. This condition can be corrected surgically, preferably at an early age.

The reason why the testicles are outside the body is that they need to be a little below body temperature in order to produce sperm efficiently. This is also why the sac that encloses them, the scrotum, is made of deeply wrinkled skin. When the temperature is too high, the wrinkles smooth out in order to lose heat, and if it gets too cold they close up. This is why the scrotum becomes tight and shriveled if one plunges into cold water.

When sperm cells have been manufactured in the testes they pass up two long narrow canals known as the vas deferens to the prostate gland, where the seminal fluid is produced. Seminal fluid forms the greater part of the fluid ejaculated by the man during his orgasm in sexual intercourse, and its purpose is to preserve and nourish the sperm, and provide a fluid medium in which they can move. The prostate lies just behind the bladder, and ducts lead from both these points into the urethra, or urinary passage. Although this passage is used for passing urine as well as semen, the two functions are never confused because a man cannot urinate when he has an erection.

In the forward part of the urethra there are some small glands known as Cowper's glands which secrete a thick slippery substance during sexual arousal. This substance has the dual purpose of counteracting the acidity of any residue of urine present in the urethra since this could be harmful to sperm, and at the same time providing a lubricant to facilitate sexual intercourse. Many men who notice its appearance on the glans of the penis during sexual arousal mistake it for a premature seepage of semen. Interestingly, this secretion occurs as a result of emotional or mental as opposed to mechanical sexual stimulation. It may not occur at all during an act of masturbation, but a man who is mentally aroused, may find that his Cowper's glands have been busily secreting even though his penis has only just begun to stiffen.

[ Anatomy of the penis continued ] [ Your penis doesn't get erect - Erectile dysfunction - diagnosis and treatment ] [ Penis won't become erect - what you can do ] [ Surgery on the penis for erectile dysfunction ] [ Peyronies' penis and erectile problems ] [ Prostate cancer and the PSA test ]

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