What Does An Erection Look Like
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What Does An Erection Look Like
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Verywell Health's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Ⓒ 2022 Dotdash Media, Inc. — All rights reserved
Verywell Health is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.
Kelly Burch is a freelance journalist who has covered health topics for more than 10 years. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and more.
Matthew Wosnitzer, MD, is board-certified in urology. He is an attending physician at Yale New Haven Health System, Northeast Medical Group and teaches at the Frank Netter School of Medicine.
For many people, erections are a part of day-to-day life. Erections happen when the penis gets hard and usually stands outward or upward. This happens most often in response to sexual arousal, but sometimes it can happen for no reason at all, particularly during puberty and during the teen years. Erections can go away after ejaculation or on their own.
Although many people experience erections, there’s a lot most people don’t understand. The ability to get and maintain an erection can cause stress for some people.
Here’s what you should know about how erections work, including how hard an erection should be, erectile problems, and tips for better erections.
An erection occurs when blood flows into the penis faster than it flows out. This causes the tissue in the penis to swell up and become hard. To understand how this happens, it’s helpful to know a bit more about the anatomy of the penis .
The shaft of the penis has two different types of tissue that change when you get an erection:
The tunica albuginea is a band of fiber near the base of the penis that constricts during an erection, compressing the veins that would normally allow blood to flow out of the penis. As sexual arousal passes, the tunica albuginea relaxes, allowing blood to flow out of the penis. As this happens, the penis becomes flaccid again. 1
Many people with penises are familiar with the ways that an erection progresses. Most people start with a flaccid—or soft—penis, which gradually grows swollen before becoming fully erect.
Scientifically, there are five stages to an erection. They are: 2
After having an erection and climaxing, many people have a refractory period , during which they can’t get another erection even if they’re stimulated. This can be as short as 15 minutes, or as long as a day or more.
An erection that is hard enough to allow for penetrative sex is considered a normal, healthy erection. 3 This usually occurs at the erection and rigidity stages listed above.
Scientists have a more precise answer: in most men, the pressure in the penis during an erection reaches 100 mmHg, a measurement of pressure. 1 However, when it comes to evaluating your own erection, don’t worry about the numbers: if your penis is hard enough to penetrate a partner and reach orgasm, your erection is considered normal and healthy.
Erections are a normal and common bodily process, but in many ways they are out of the control of the person experiencing them. Having too many or too few erections can be embarrassing and take a mental toll.
During puberty, it’s normal for people to experience erections for seemingly no reason at all. 4 It’s very common during male puberty to get involuntary erections, that can happen at what seems like the worst time.
Unfortunately, there’s little that boys can do to avoid this, other than waiting for their hormones to settle down with time.
The more common concern after puberty is erectile problems. Erectile dysfunction is generally diagnosed when a person consistently has trouble getting or maintaining an erection long enough to have penetrative sex and climax. 3
Even without erectile dysfunction, it’s entirely normal for people to experience occasional trouble with erections. This often has nothing to do with them or their partner but can be caused by : 3
If you or your partner are unsatisfied with your erections, start by asking yourself what you would like to change. If you are having trouble getting or maintaining an erection that is hard enough for penetrative sex, you should speak with your doctor. Although erectile dysfunction is very common, only 10% of men who experience it seek medical treatment.
If you want a more firm erection or a longer-lasting erection, experiment with different sexual activities. More foreplay, or switching positions, might help with any issues that you’re encountering.
Overall, practicing good health can help you get and maintain strong erections. This includes: 3
Erections are common, but can also cause strife. If you’re getting erections too often or not often enough, you might wonder if something is wrong with you.
However, in most cases, your erection is entirely healthy. If you can maintain an erection that is hard enough for penetrative sex, you are likely experiencing a “normal” erection. If you regularly have trouble getting or maintaining an erection, speak with a doctor, who can help you treat the problem.
Remember, that sexual health is part of overall health. Keeping yourself physically, mentally and emotionally healthy will help ensure that you get an erection that ou and your partner are both satisfied with.
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Panchatsharam, Pranau K. Erection physiology .
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Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.
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For the first time, a group of researchers from UCLA and the University of New Mexico have used 3-D-printed phalluses to ascertain women's penis size preferences. Previous studies on the subject have asked women to state a length in centimeters or to select "small, medium, [or] large," as if they were ordering a side of French fries. Other experiments have presented women with 2-D drawings, but what is a penis, really, without the third dimension?
Men, it's time to chill about worrying that your penis isn't as long as an actual anaconda and as thick as a stack of paperbacks (or whatever). According to a study published today in peer-reviewed science journal PLOS One , women don't really prefer enormous penises. In fact, they like penises that are only slightly larger than average, and that preference can differ slightly depending on relationship context.
In the study, sexual psychophysiologist Dr. Nicole Prause and a team of researchers presented 75 women with pictures of 100 different erect penises (Overwhelming!) and the ladies narrowed their penis preferences to 33 disembodied members. Then, they 3-D-printed out those dongs (on blue plastic to "to minimize racial skin-color cues") and the women then put the penises into two categories: ones they'd prefer on a long-term partner and ones they'd prefer hanging from the bodies of a one-night stand. Man, I love science.
OK, since you are clearly dying for the results, here they are. For a LTR, women ideally want a length of 6.3 inches and circumference of 4.8 inches. For a one-night stand, they want 6.4 inches long and 5 inches around.
The takeaway is interesting, but it's important to keep in mind that (almost) all women prefer all sorts of different penis sizes and also the character of the penis-haver is about 50 million times more important than the width of the wang.
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