Guys, how does the penis grow when you get hard?

[Anonymous]

Where was it before? Does it live inside your body the rest of the time? And why does it go up and how?

I am genuinely asking.

[MrOracle]

The penis has two long, spongy "balloons" that "inflate" with blood when aroused and become rigid - there's a valve that closes and reduces the flow of blood OUT of the penis - and much like a long, skinny "balloon animal" balloon, it grows in both width and length when it is inflated.

The base of the penis is a couple of inches inside the man's body, but (at least in most cases) at least a couple of inches hang on the outside when he's not aroused. But like that balloon, when filled with blood, it grows, and the growth can't move any further internally, so when it expands, some of what normally lives inside the body will slide to the outside, adding some length to the part that's normally outside.

When soft/un-aroused, it's still on the outside and, while smaller, is still there to be dealt with. Of course, there are also testicles - which exist in a sac because they actually need to be kept somewhat cooler than the body itself in order for sperm to survive. When it's hot, testicles hang further down, to keep them cool, and when it's cold, the sack kind of shrivels and draws the testicles closer to the body to keep them warm. But the testicles are much more sensitive and more easily damaged, so they often need some support - similar to how a bra supports boobs - so that they don't bounce around during exercise or work, which is why briefs/boxer briefs and jock straps exist. Regular boxers don't provide any support, so things just hang freely similar to not wearing underwear at all.

[Asker]

thankyou for the explination. that helped a lot!

[Asker]

Just wondering. Why does it go up?

[es20490446e]

The upper side is way shorter than the lower side. So the only way for it to grow is up, towards the mountains.

[MrOracle]

Like any body part, there are substantial variations. Not every dick is straight when hard - some curve, and the direction they curve aren't all the same - some curve up, some down, and some to one side. And when hard, some guys dicks point straight out, some point slightly up, some slightly down, and some to one side or the other. Still, if we look at an average guy whose dick is straight, the angle just depends on how his dick is attached internally - the angle will vary slightly, and like any lever, small changes in angle on one end can make large differences on the other end.

[Asker]

Oh okay. So some men when they get hard it points down?

[MrOracle]

Not necessarily straight down, but out-and-down to some degree. Again, it can vary.

[Asker]

alright, thanks for sharing! you watch family guy?:)

[MrOracle]

Giggity!

[Asker]

😁😁😁👍🏻

[TadCurious]

The penis doesn't live inside the body when it's soft, at least not the visible part. Just like the clitoris, part of the penis is internal and is called the bulb.
When a guy is turned on and/or has his penis stimulated more blood flows into it which causes it to become hard and erect. That can happen really fast and it makes the penis stand up and point away from the body. And the process of getting an erection feels good.

[Asker]

okay thanks for explaining!

[TadCurious]

I just checked on Google and the internal part of the penis is called the root.

[Asker]

oh okay... its the "root" of the tree

[TadCurious]

Yeah, I guess you can think of it that way.

[Asker]

okay.. but why does it choose to stand up and not down?

[TadCurious]

Lol I've never thought of why that is. When it's soft it does hang down. But when it fills with blood the increased pressure makes it grow and causes it to stand up.

[Asker]

okay but wouldn't it just fall back down, why does it stay up? The brain tells it to stand up?

[TadCurious]

It stands up until the guy has an orgasm or when the turned on feeling goes away. And the brain plays a big part in getting aroused or unaroused. That's why there's kind of a joke about trying to think of something else (like a math problem, lol) when an erection happens at an awkward time.

[Asker]

alright then it has to be mental? Thanks for explaining

[TadCurious]

You're welcome. This is what GaG is for. It's perfectly fine to be curious about these things.

[Asker]

😊👍🏻

[TadCurious]

@Asker I was thinking about your question about why the penis stands up instead of hanging down when it's hard. I think the function of it standing up is to make it easier to enter the vagina. That would be difficult to do if it pointed down when it was hard.

[Asker]

Yeah so I guess it has to be automatic responce from human nature to stand up..

[TadCurious]

Yeah. And one of the interesting things about erections is that while they're mostly an involuntary reaction to mental and physical stimulation, I can try to think of something nonsexual to help it go back down some if it's an awkward situation.

[Asker]

Thats intressting! So its mostly mental then

[TadCurious]

I'd say it's a mix of mental/physical that's 50-50. I had to be examined by a female doctor once and she had to examine my penis. (I caught a yeast infection on my penis from my girlfriend.) I wasn't thinking any sexual thoughts about the doctor but she had to touch my penis and rub it with a cotton swab and that caused me to get hard. I was embarrassed but the doctor wasn't. She told me it was a normal reaction.

[Asker]

Oh okay i see. Thanks for telling me

[TadCurious]

Thank you for MHO.

[Asker]

You deserved it:)

[PizzaDaddyo]

Interesting. I can understand what makes you think how it lives in the body.


Human and apes alike have the penis showing (flaccid) yet will grow/ enlarge when stimulated or aroused. Off the top of my head you must me thinking of a dog, a horse. Most other animals that aren’t humans or apes have an “internal” flaccid penis and is hidden most of the time until it’s aroused then, shing! Omg we gotta a penis on the loose!

That God for evolution! We’ve came a long way as we came along the way. He he


It’s definitely an evolutionary advantage for sex if you think about it for many reasons. It safe to say that humans are more intelligent and are able to experience more fine tuned feelings than other animals. I’m not saying romance doesn’t exist in other animals but, besides a small few of intelligent animals like dolphins, bonobos, sex is just “reproducing” for the business to procreate offspring. What I’m trying to say about this is that it is better that the penis is already somewhat out to show making it vastly easier to arouse. I could imagine how hard it would be (pun intended) to even have a penis that is hidden inside of me until arousal. I’m actually really starting to think about this now if we did have the “internal penis“, once we were “hard“ that would kind of be 100% hardness only assuming because it had to come out of its “shell“. I’m also starting to think that because, our penises are external us men have a little more wiggle room for us to be not 100% hard and is still able to achieve a climax. What I mean by that is that there have been times many times when my ejaculation came out of a not fully flared yet kind of flared penis. So basically what I’m saying is I can stick it in not being hard or barely hard at all and eventually it will work out. I’m assuming animals with internal penises basically need to bone as soon as the penis is out, it’s fully out. And they just Gotta do what they gotta do. As human men can basically start having sex before having a fully aroused penis.

[Red_Arrow]

So you think it stays inside him and when he pees the pee stays indie him?

[Mystery1900]

When flaccid my penis hangs limp from my groin. The penis contains two tubes of spongy tissue called the corpus cavernous. When I’m sexually aroused these fill with blood and become engorged, at the same time the blood flow out of my penis is restricted. This makes it become engorged with blood. Penis starts by getting thicker and longer, the glans engorges.

When I’m fully erect my penis stands straight up. My erect penis is about 2-3 times the size when flaccid, and looks redder. The foreskin retracts leaving the glans fully exposed. The glans is engorged with blood and bulges prominently.

I usually get erections in the morning, when I want to have sex, or after exercise.

[Justaguyagain]

As far as i know, the penis is like a sponge inside, and when the time comes, it gets filled with blood (i think that's how it works). However i don't know why are you asking this instead of researching online

[Asker]

i dont know either, i didn't think of searching.. should have just done that

[Justaguyagain]

I didn't wanted to be rude though, is definitely funnier this way

[Asker]

ok haha i guess

[Truthatanycost]

It lives inside her body...

[Bricealan]

I'm sure you will get 100 + replies from guys getting a hard-on

[Asker]

i am really wondering as a medical question. i didn't think i would get this many answers😂😭

[Bricealan]

Sometimes it is very difficult to know if a question is an 'honest' question, or just intended to 'bait' guy to answer... Sorry if I offended you.

[Asker]

no you didn't. i was dumb i should have just searched on google i dont know why i asked here.. i didn't evan think people would care to answer

[Bricealan]

You might look at Wikipedia, and search for "flaccid vs erect penis" as they do post like that there. As an add on, I had a woman friend on one job I had who had the same curiosity, as to "wanting to see a penis go from soft to hard" She said: "They are always hard by the time I get to them" !

[Bricealan]

Wikipedia is your best source for that kind of information... probably not GOOGLE.

[Asker]

haha yeah I feel your friend.. kinda Yeah I guess Wikipedia can be good sometimes

[glennos89]

Its kinda like a balloon. Blow air in the balloon and it grows in size. A penis is the same only instead of using air a penis needs blood pumped into it in order to grow

[Asker]

That makes sense! Thanks for explaining

[glennos89]

Your welcome happy to help you anytime 😊

[FilmGuy93]

It just hangs there when it’s soft.

[Asker]

Whattttt? So informative! Thanks.

[megabamse]

Hahahaha 🤣😂 ok imagine this, it's strange. But when its soft there is some muscles that is tighten so the blodflow to the penis is Limited. And when we get hard these muscles get loser and allow more blood to the penis. And its the blood that sort of makes it harder and other sets of muscles get tigheter In the penis to also make it harder and bigger. It's just sort of a muscle that flexes and at the same time function as a water balloon sort of (the blood)

[Asker]

Am so glad I'm anonymous lol. Okay thankyou for explaining

[Googlemyahoo]

Someone needs to pay more attention in sexual education class

[Asker]

That wasent discussed there