Study: Average penis smaller than 60 years back

The average size of the penis has reduced over the last 60 years, according to research conducted by the Italian University of Padua. More than 2,000 18 year old men took part in the unusual study, which yielded results that may offend today's men.

In 1948, the average size of a non-erect penis was 9,7 centimeters. By 2012, this had reduced to 8,9 centimeters, while the average arm- and leg length of men had increased. Why? According the the research team, environmental and lifestyle changes are to blame. The cocktail of reproductive hormones may have changed over time, and high-fat diets and poor environmental conditions may be the culprits.

The findings are not strictly Italian other studies from other countries also showed that the average non-erect penis is now 9 centimeters long, on average. It's not clear what the average erect length would be.

What else is going on with penises this week? Here's the weeks round-up, just for you: A court in Lagos, Nigeria, agreed to divorce a couple after the wife, Janet Uduak, cut her husband's penis off! The wife said her husband wanted to have sexual relations against her will, after which she resorted to violence. In Shenzhen, China, a mentally-sick father demanded that his six year-old son bite his penis off. When he refused, the father did it for him. The boy is currently in hospital. In Paris, France, a man told a court that he cut off his girlfriend's lover's penis in a fit of anger, and then flushed it down a toilet. In Bucharest, Romania, a 44 year-old man cut his penis off with his knife, because he got divorced last year and moved in with his elderly father in the countryside. He got depressed, and thought "he wouldn't need his penis anymore".

And some old news from January the child of Sonny and Cher, born with a vagina, is saving up to get himself a penis from some world-renowned sex-change doctors from Serbia.

The conclusion? The guys in the Padua study probably shouldn't be too upset over having a non-erect penis of "only" nine centimeters :).