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A micropenis or microphallus is an unusually small Human penis. A common criterion is a dorsal (measured on top) penile length of at least 2.5 standard deviations smaller than the mean human penis size for age. A micropenis is stretched penile length equal to or less than 1.9 Centimetre (0.75 Inch) in term Infant, and 9.3 cm (3.67 in) in adults. The condition is usually recognized shortly after Childbirth. The term is most often used medically when the rest of the penis, scrotum, and perineum are without ambiguity, such as hypospadias. Traditionally, a microphallus describes a micropenis with hypospadias. Micropenis incidence is about 1.5 in 10,000 male newborns in North America.ScienceDaily.com (2004). " Surgeons Pinch More Than An Inch From The Arm To Rebuild A Micropenis," 6 Dec. 2004, retrieved 2 April 2012.
In addition, Uterus exposure to some estrogen-based fertility drugs like diethylstilbestrol (DES) has been linked to genital abnormalities or a smaller than normal penis.
After evaluation to detect any of the conditions described above, micropenis can often be treated in infancy with injections of various , such as human chorionic gonadotropin and testosterone.
Regardless of the cause of micropenis, if it is recognized in infancy, a brief course of testosterone is often prescribed (usually no more than three months). This usually induces a small amount of growth, confirming the likelihood of further growth at puberty, but rarely achieves normal size. No additional testosterone is given during childhood, to avoid unwanted virilization and bone maturation. There is also some evidence that premature administration of testosterone can lead to reduced penis size in the adult.
Testosterone treatment is resumed in adolescence only for boys with hypogonadism. Penile growth is completed at the end of puberty, similar to the completion of Human height, and provision of extra testosterone to post-pubertal adults produces little or no further growth.
In extreme cases of micropenis, there is barely any shaft, and the glans appears to sit almost on the pubic skin. From the 1960s until the late 1970s, it was common for sex reassignment and surgery to be recommended. This was especially likely if evidence suggested that response to additional testosterone and pubertal testosterone would be poor. With parental acceptance, the boy would be reassigned and renamed as a girl, and surgery performed to remove the testes and construct an artificial vagina (vaginoplasty). This was based on the now-questioned idea that gender identity was shaped entirely from socialization, and that a man with a small penis can find no acceptable place in society.
Johns Hopkins Hospital, the center most known for this approach, performed twelve such reassignments from 1960 to 1980, most notably that of David Reimer (whose penis was destroyed by a circumcision accident), overseen by John Money. By the mid-1990s, reassignment was less often offered, and all three premises had been challenged. Former subjects of such surgery, vocal about their dissatisfaction with the adult outcome, played a large part in discouraging this practice. Sexual reassignment is rarely performed today for severe micropenis (although the question of raising the boy as a girl is sometimes still discussed).
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