Avoiding Penile Injury

Safe sex is not only limited to the use of condoms to avoid disease, but safety in using the penis to avoid painful fractures.

Even though the penis has no bones, an erection can still be bent or broken. During arousal, spongy tubes in the shaft fill with blood and swell against a stretchy surrounding layer, the tunica albuginea. As the penis becomes erect, the elastic tunica albuginea expands and becomes thinner. If the tunica albuginea stretches too far, the layers can tear, resulting in injury.

Doctors refer to this injury as a penile fracture. When the injury occurs, it is generally accompanied by a popping sound, followed by swelling and bruising of the penis. In most cases, the erection fades away, and some men may also have difficulty urinating.

Penile injuries are treated with surgery to repair the torn lining of the tunica albuginea. When treated immediately following injury, the penis will heal without any irregularities or dysfunction.

Younger men are at a higher risk level for penile fractures because of the stiffness of erections and athletic sexual activity. The woman-on-top position is potentially dangerous if the woman bends too far forward or backward. Rear-entry, or doggy-style, intercourse can also be hazardous because the base of the penis could bend too far. According to the British Journal of Urology, rear-entry vaginal intercourse accounted for 50% of penile fractures treated by New York’s Brookdale University Hospital between 2003 and 2007.

Occasionally, male enhancement drugs are associated with penile injury. Sometimes Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications can protect from injury, while they can cause injury in other men. With men who experience softer erections, these medications can increase penis hardness and reduce risks of bending or twisting. Most cases of penile fractures related to enhancement drugs happen in men who are using the drug for recreational purposes coupled with curious and prolonged sexual activity.

Penile fractures can also occur from careless entry, when an erect penis is jammed against a partner’s pubic bone. Stranger causes of the injury do exist, like folding an erect penis into tight pants or rolling onto one’s stomach with a nocturnal erection. Other documented cases have found animal bites and other senseless activity to be responsible for injury.