In order to understand the sexual experiences of his or her fellow — humans a urologist must be a man or woman of the world: broad­minded and with sufficient powers of imagination. Even when you think you possess these qualities, you can occasionally come across a case like the following, which remains baffling. A 50-year-old […]

A chronically enlarged prostate can lead to bladder stones, in the past much more frequently than now. The great religious reformer Calvin was a sufferer. ‘When he could no longer endure the pain,’ writes the Italian essayist Guido Ceronetti, ‘the old Calvin [in 1563 he was 54, which in those days counted as old] mounted […]

For years the significance of the so-called rectal toucher (rt) in rela­tion to urinary ailments has been controversial. In this procedure the doctor puts a finger up the anus and feels the prostate and the mucous membrane of the rectum. The gravity of urinary complaints is rarely if ever related to the size of the […]

Only a small percentage of the total volume of an ejaculate is made up of sperm cells. In older medical literature, as previously mentioned, a distinction was made between the sperm-cell portion or ‘nobler part’, ‘the aqueous elements’ from the seminal glands and the ‘oleagenous’ portion from the prostate. The prostate is about the size […]

Some women have endless trouble with their womb: for decades they endure the discomfort of painful periods, and then, just as hormonal retirement beckons, on come the hot flushes, to say nothing of other afflictions. Women sometimes feel that life has been unfair to them in this respect; that isn’t so. Men have their own […]

Down the ages men have tried to make their penises longer. The most primitive method is to hang stones from it. This does work, but also causes impotence. Then there was the Polynesian stretching method using a movable weighted tube, the Arab jelq treatment (massage), and the penicure based on it: in the United States […]

From an early age one hears the complaint, sometimes disguised, about being under-endowed. According to the American sexologist Barry McCarthy, two out of three men think their penis is too small. He attri­butes their worries about the length of their penises to various factors. In the first place little boys see their father’s penis for […]

Some men are incapable of giving themselves sexually. They act tough, but really they’re wimps: their penis goes limp when they try to man­oeuvre it into the vagina. This is not true impotence, but is caused by the deep-seated fear of losing their beloved organ, fear of the vagina dentata, the sharp-toothed vagina, with which […]

In only a few men (a mere 8%) is the erect penis completely vertical. In between 15 and 20 per cent the angle of erection is approximately 45 per cent above horizontal, though on average it is above the horizon­tal. The penis is suspended on bands, in such a way that when erect it pulls […]

First, a few misunderstandings need clearing up: one, that the penis is a highly sensitive organ. That is totally untrue: the number of free nerve endings, compared, for example, with the lips, is extremely small. Only underneath the glans are there a relatively large number of free nerve endings. The second misunderstanding is that the […]