Things are looking up for men.
Recent studies have shown that the average penis is growing — but there’s a lot more than that in store for the male sex organ, experts told Daily Mail. Stronger swimmers, automated implants, built-in contraception and other features could soon grace the male reproductive anatomy in the not-too-distant future, they reported.
“If there is enough demand, driven by fashion or societal trends, for tweaking bits of the body then we’re probably not that far away from being able to genetically do that,” said Simon Underdown, professor of biological anthropology at Oxford Brookes University.
“That’s what makes humans really interesting — we’re close to the point at which we can mess about with biological processes because we want to rather than there being a strong biological selective pressure.”
The human penis has grown at an “alarming rate” in just 30 years, according to a 2023 Stanford University study that found the average erect penis jumped 25% in length between 1992 and 2021, from 4.8 to 6 inches.
This momentum could see the average length push past 8.5 inches by 2100.
Researchers hypothesize that environmental factors — not evolution — may have catalyzed rapid growth, such as pollution or certain lifestyle habits.
“If we’re seeing this fast of a change, it means that something powerful is happening to our bodies,” said Stanford’s Michael Eisenberg, lead author of the study.
However, sizing up could spell problems for the female anatomy, which may not be able to accommodate the change in men — creating a new hurdle to pregnancy.
“That would definitely have a negative impact on reproductive success,” said Kris Kovarovic, a researcher at Durham University’s Department of Anthropology, “and smaller penises would likely be selected for.”
Another area ripe for improvement is semen motility. Bioengineers might look to enhance sperm movement or shape to make them more efficient and likely to penetrate the egg’s cell membrane.
For those seeking the opposite effect, scientists are also looking at nano-technology to create a built-in contraceptive system that could turn off and on at will.
Canadian bioethicist George Dvorsky speculated that robots no bigger than a red blood cell could be designed to block the passage of sperm via the vas deferens.
“Or, the nanobots could be on the hunt for sperm-specific proteins, and take evasive action,” he predicted for Gizmodo readers back in 2015.
Penile advancements are not all for the sake of procreation, however. Dvorsky theorized that wireless internet technology could make pleasure more accessible with a Bluetooth-enabled penis, for example, or trigger the brain to receive more sensory information from the penis.
Rich Lee is the CEO of a company called Cyborgasmics and self-proclaimed “Elon Musk of sex tech.” The biohacking proponent promised a pubic implant, called the Lovetron 9000, that would make the penis vibrate — like a sex toy — on demand.
Lee previously promised to turn himself into a cyborg, enhancing how he experiences the world and has already implanted himself with several experimental devices, according to a 2017 interview with New Atlas.
Lee argued that the idea of robotic penile implants isn’t as farfetched as it may seem. “There are people with tattoos and body modifications that look very extreme; their bodies are very extreme.”
