The SexualityResource interview:
What to do when size obsession gets out of hand
May 11, 2011
Men’s Health Magazine writer Tori Rodriguez interviewed me in 2011 an article, “The Obsession with Size,” in reaction to a British Journal of Urology report that found most men who had penis enlargement surgery had normally sized penises. Ms. Rodriguez and the editors of Men’s Health Magazine kindly granted me permission to publish our original interview on which the article was based.
You can read the interview here:
/the-sexualityresource-interview-what-to-do-when-size-obsession-gets-out-of-hand/
We discussed the entity known informally as “Penile Dysmorphic Disorder” or “Penile Body Dysmorphic Disorder” — a kind of Body Dysmorphic Disorder affecting a man’s perceptions of his penis size.
Penile Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a common presenting condition in my Manhattan office. Its prevalence among men is unknown. Most men with the condition who seek help for it go online to penis enlargement websites (this is generally a bad idea), or to doctors who perform penis enlargement surgery. Very few come for sex therapy or psychotherapy for the condition — which is a shame, since Penile Dysmorphic Disorder is quite treatable.
Photo credit: pedrosimoes7 via Creative Commons.
It’s a rare sex therapist though who knows how to treat Penile Dysmorphic Disorder. The key to treatment is to identify compulsive behaviors (such as repeatedly checking the length of one’s erection with a ruler) and avoidance behaviors (such as avoiding showering at the gym), since these two kinds of behaviors make the condition worse.