Men worried about 'size' issue told: help is at hand
If you are bothered by the thought that your penis is too small - you are not alone. A visiting expert from the UK claims that as many as three to four men in 10 feel exactly the same.
But if your concerns get so bad they bar you from, for example, going swimming, engaging in intimate relationships or socialising, the advice from Dr Kevan R Wylie, a consultant in Sexual Medicine and Psychosexual Therapy from Sheffield, was "come forward for professional help". In layman's terms, this psychiatric condition is called "small penis syndrome", whereas medical experts like Wylie, who is also a lecturer at the University of Sheffield, know it better as "genital body dysmorphophobia". Dysmorphophobia has been described for more than a century, said Wylie, who was speaking at the 9th Asia Oceania Congress of Sexology in Bangkok. Also termed "body dysmorphic disorder" (BDD), the condition is marked by a fixation on an imaginary flaw in the physical appearance and in this case, what causes patients to suffer badly was dissatisfaction with the size of their penises, he said. In cases in which a minor defect truly exists, the individual with BDD exhibits an inordinate amount of anguish, he said, adding that people with dysmorphophobia frequently develop major depressive episodes and are at risk of suicide. "One of my patients was referred to me after he was hospitalised from jumping off a rail - meaning to take his life. He suffered depression from having too small a penis," he said. The medical treatment for those who really need it ranged from counselling and surgery to enlarge the penis, Wylie said. But up to about 60 per cent of people with this condition actually misunderstood the importance of the size of the penis and only education could help them live a more normal life. Another 30 per cent of males could be reassured by some form of psychotherapy. "To men, the penis is central to identity and symbolically 'bigger is better'," said Wylie, adding that the media, including pornography and even funny cartoons, was largely to blame and caused men to overestimate the importance of penis size. That explains why people with small penis syndrome tended to believe firmly that a marked change in their perceived body defect is a prerequisite to their happiness and well-being. But the majority of men who have penis enlargement ended up dissatisfied with the results, warned Wylie, quoting a recent study. Arthit Khwankhom The Nation
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