Penis envy can be deadly.
Many men are going to any lengths to augment the size of their private parts — and some are left with a lifetime of pain and regret.
At best, the procedures can increase girth and the flaccid length of the penis; at worst, they can disfigure, and in rare cases, kill.
Two men, who asked for anonymity, told The Post of botched penis-enhancement surgeries that ruined their lives.
For John, 42, from Austin, Texas, the desire to augment his phallus started around six years ago.
“I am like 6-5 and was really athletic and muscular, but I didn’t really have the other part to match the enormous size of my body,” said John, a music producer for TV shows.
While no woman indicated she was “disappointed” with him in the sack, he was self-conscious about his penis size: 4.5 inches in length when flaccid, and 6.25 inches long when erect.
His unease came despite the fact that his size trumped the average: 3.5 inches flaccid and 5.1 inches erect, according to Medical News Today.
For the first year following insertion of $12,000 silicone penile implant, John was happy. Women he slept with responded with “wow” or “oh my gosh” — which made him feel “like a million dollars,” he said.
But the implant became detached — it would “slide it around a little bit.”
He got the penile prosthesis replaced in 2018, and ended up losing some length and gaining a “very pronounced pubic mound.” Then the implant folded on itself and his penis became disfigured. Still, he proposed to his then-girlfriend in 2019.
A third surgery to fix his penis in 2022, with a different doctor this time, left John with a deformed, 3-inch member.
Sex became painful, and it took an emotional toll on teh relationship. The day after his fiance walked out, one of the edges of the implant pierced through his skin.
He went under the knife again, this time to remove the implant. Horrifically, his lost his penis altogether.
It “went completely inside my body,” John said. “The only thing I could see was the very tip of the head of my penis. Essentially I have a vagina right now.”
John has a corrective surgery scheduled for December involving a penis shaft transplant and skin grafts. He is contemplating filing a malpractice lawsuit.
“It is kind of ironic” that now he wishes he could just have his original penis, which was the source of his “greatest insecurity.”
“It’s like, ‘can I just get back to what I had before any of this started?’ Actually, I never will.”
Sean, in his 30s and from North Florida, wanted to gain more sensation in his penis, nearly two decades after lengthening surgery left him numb in the genitals. In addition he had some small-penis anxiety, although he boasted a tallywacker 3.8 inches long when flaccid, and 6 inches long when erect.
In 2022, he received injections of what he was told was a collagen-producing agent, but it ended up being silicone. As a result, his penis became deformed.
He has gone through a few procedures to fix it and has now been injected with enough silicone to fill a breast implant.
“It almost looks like an hourglass at times,” Sean said. “It looks really absurd.”
Then things took a dangerous turn.
Sean was diagnosed with a life-threatening bacterial infection in November, and 50% to 60% of the skin around his penis “completely died,” he said. The following month an abscess formed, leading to multiple ER visits and many rounds of antibiotics.
Today Sean is healing, following a penis-saving surgery involving a penis-shaft transplant and skin grafts.
“My happiness has been kind of stripped,” Sean said.
More than 8,000 men worldwide undergo penis-enlargement procedures annually, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Dr. Kenneth Carney, an Atlanta urologic and cosmetic surgeon who is treating both John and Sean, said he performs about 300 penis enlargements per year. Of those, about 30% to 40% are to correct other doctors’ mistakes.
“I think the main reason these botched cosmetic urology procedures happen is because they’re being performed by general practitioners or dermatologists, not by urologists or cosmetic surgeons,” Carney said.
In 2017, a “healthy” young Swedish man died during penis enlargement surgery, when fat was injected into the penis shaft, according to Journal of Forensic Sciences.
New York City plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer, who augments penises with filler that have “an antidote to ‘melt’ the product if needed,” said he has performed more than 7,000 girth-enhancing procedures in the last seven years, mostly without a hitch.
Done properly, penis enlargement surgery can work, Shafer said.
“Men thinking of having the procedure should do their homework and make sure they are being treated by a board-certified doctor with extensive experience in plastic surgery and injectable treatments,” he advised.
