Some want them dotted, ribbed or flavoured while others look for durability so they don’t tear mid-act. But as many as 18 to 20% of condoms fail because of slippage and tears or just because they are not the right size. While the latex protection available in the market is about 150mm to 180mm in length and 44 to 56mm in width, men in India are just not that large...
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted a survey to arrive at a standard penis size. The first phase that began in 2002 ended in 2006; the second in May this year.
Consolidated figures for the two phases which surveyed 2,800 men visiting family planning centres in 11 hospitals including KEM in Parel, Patna Civil Hospital, AIIMS in Delhi, PGI in Chandigarh and Hubli Civil Hospital. Data from the 11 centres has shown that 60% of the participants measured 126 to 156mm in length and 30% between 100 and 125mm, which is 5mm shorter than the Caucasian standard used by condom manufacturers. Even in width 60% measured between 100-109mm while 30% between 75-95 mm.
Dr R S Sharma, Deputy Director General of ICMR, admitted the difficulty in generalising. “Ethnicity, race and other heredity all come into play here,” he explained.
Renowned sexologist Dr MC Watsa told DNA that he welcomed the idea of a study looking at making condoms more safe and acceptable. “During my practice I’ve come upon people complaining that the condom feels really loose. Once we have the perfect-fit, this problem will get addressed.”
The figures, authorities too hope, will help deciding a right size for condoms in India.
There are the nay-sayers though. A marketing manager with a condom brand known for provocative ads, told DNA that he saw no merits in the study. “The condom is only rolled out as much as desired so that takes the length issue out of the debate.”
According to him uninformed and improper usage could have more to do with the 18-20% failure rate. “The authorities should stop barking up the wrong tree.”
The methodology for the study involved measuring the length and width of each erect penis twice, followed by a digital photograph. In KEM Hospital, it was the departments of preventive and social medicine (PSM) which conducted the exercise. The group was a mix of urban and rural people who were in the age group of 18-50.
Dr Rajendra Shinde, head of the PSM department at KEM, said, “We had to work closely with our community outreach programmes where youth groups were taken into confidence and explained the rationale and methodology for the study. Only those who had undergone such counselling were selected for the study.” IIT Kharagpur had created special measuring devices to measure erectile penal length but KEM thought it was not a cost effective tool and instead used conventional scales and callipers.
“While it is anatomically well established that different races have different penile length and thickness, this generally deals with flaccid length. There were considerable challenges in getting the subjects of the study excited for perfect size measures,” said Dr Shinde. It was easier to work with youth. “Once we gave them some exciting literature, they would then masturbate and attain good sustained erections for measurements.”
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