Do Penises Shrink with Age?

You’re getting wrinkles. The candles on your birthday cake barely fit. Old age sucks. But it gets even worse. Your penis will begin to shrink – or does it? We’ve all heard that things start to get smaller with age, but is this true?

We’ll see.

Can Your Penis Get Smaller with Age?

A person’s body goes through changes as it ages. You’ll start to notice phases in your life when things start to change. Puberty is the first major change in a person’s life. The process of puberty is a result of the pituitary gland releasing testosterone.

Testosterone is responsible for the hair growth you’ll go through, penis growth and teste growth. But there comes a point, often in your late teens or early twenties, when these testosterone levels peak.

Minimal changes in testosterone are experienced in your late 20s through your 40s. Your body will create SHBG, or the sex hormone binding globulin that lowers the testosterone in your body because SHBG sticks to the bloodstream’s testosterone.

This sticking causes less available testosterone in the body which results in several changes in the body, but in terms of your penis, you’ll start to notice:

• Hair. The body’s hair will change. Thinning will occur. Hairs will lose their vibrant color and often turn gray. And I’m not just talking about the hair on your head or chest. You’ll also notice these changes in your pubic hair.
• Size. Penis size may seem like it has changed, but it’s not likely. What happens is that a person often has more fat, especially on the pubic bone, which leads to the penis looking smaller.
• Shape. Some men, luckily it’s a small number, will get Peyronie’s disease. The disease can impact your penis’ function, length and girth. Physical trauma is the cause, and as the shaft heals, it leads to scar tissue that can’t fill up with blood properly.
• Testes. Less testosterone leads to a decline in sperm production leading to the testicles shrinking over time as less sperm is produced.

Penis shrinkage is often not a problem for most men, but scrotum changes will occur. The scrotum will begin to sag due to the smooth muscle in the penis relaxing and contracting.

And when you start to age, you may start to notice that you start losing your sensitivity. A penis that is less sensitive will have trouble getting erect. You may also have a more difficult time reaching orgasm.

The body often can’t hold on to the blood in the penis, so you might be able to get erect, yet you’ll lose your erection quickly.

Penis shrinkage is often the result of a man getting heavier. As the fat around the groin grows, it will push more of the penis under the skin leading to a penis being slightly smaller. The good news is that you can lose weight.

Does Your Penis Size Get Smaller As You Get Older?

Yes, slightly. Aside from fat gain, men that reach 60 and 70 will start to lose overall erection size. In many cases, the size loss is minimal. There’s a few factors that go into this equation, and this includes more of the penile length hiding under the skin.

A person may lose:

• As little as ½ inch in size
• As much as 1 inch in size

Length and thickness can both be lost.

Aging vs Turtling

You may hear the term “turtling,” and this isn’t descriptive in nature – at all. But what this term means is that the penis retracts, or shrinks. A man may experience this shrinking when they work on their penis or workout.

The retraction can be counteracted with the use of an all day stretch.

But turtling is often a result of working the penis out. You may notice turtling after penile exercises, but the good news is that this is common for a person just starting out. Turtling that lasts for a month or longer is usually an indicator that you’re doing something wrong.

Applying too much force to the penis can cause turtling to occur.

There’s also a group of people that claim turtling is a result of exhausting the penis.

You really can’t compare penis turtling to aging because the two are very different. Turtling occurs when you overwork the penis, but losing penis size because of aging will occur whether or not you’re working your penis.

Penile exercises and maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help combat “penis shrinkage.”

Penis Size by Age

Further proof that penis shrinkage is a myth, or well at least overblown, is given through a set of studies conducted in Saudi Arabia.

The study looked at men between the ages of 20 and 82, and researchers found that there was no or a slight difference in size as the person aged.

The study warns that there may be “limited concern” for aging men, but when looking at the data, the difference in penis size between a 20-year-old and a 70-year-old was less than a centimeter.

So, in general, penis shrinkage is either very limited or not much of a concern for men.

When a penis’ size seems to be smaller, it may be a slight change with age, but it’s far more likely that you’re gaining weight or may have another medical issue. The fat on the pubic bone will cause more of the penis to hide inside of the skin leading to a reduction in penile visibility.

You may also want to combat testosterone loss which will stop your scrotum from shrinking and lead to better muscle retention. Environmental factors that you can control to limit the loss of testosterone are:

• Quit smoking
• Kick stress out of your life
• Sleep 7 to 8 hours
• Eat healthy
• Limit alcohol consumption
• Exercise

You should be doing all of these things as you age to stay healthy, but in case you’re not, it’s time to start.

Men that have concerns that their penis is shrinking can use penis extenders, jelqing and stretching exercises to maximize and maintain their penis size.

But if you’re concerned that aging is causing you to shrink, the good news is that it’s highly unlikely unless your penis faced some form of physical trauma.