IT costs pounds 5,000 and many men believe it will change their lives. But, according to surgeons, not by much. Just one inch, in fact.
Hundreds of men are queuing up for plastic surgery to enlarge their penises. But a leading surgeon warned last night: "Expectations are too great."
Brent Tanner added: "Despite what some people claim, the reality is that the operation can only add one inch, and pounds 5,000 for an inch is expensive. They could use the money to better effect as a down payment on a sports car."
Penis augmentation, or cosmetic phalloplasty or penoplasty, involves loosening a ligament that secures the organ to the pubic bone under the skin. Releasing it allows the whole assembly to move forward.
In reality, the organ stays the same length - it's just that more of it is outside the body.
The problem is that the augmentation is limited to the length of the ligament, which is rarely more than one inch.
"The market for the surgery is big, but the problem is that the operation doesn't really work," said Mr Tanner.
"Some surgeons say they can give you four inches extra, but in fact everyone gets an inch - because that's how long the ligament is.
"We did once appear to achieve two and a quarter inches but that was because we took fat out of the tummy too so the patient could actually see the beginning of it."
Mr Tanner is publishing research in the New Year which shows that one in three patients who have the operation suffer from what he calls "locker room syndrome".
"These men never play squash or rugby because in a communal showers afterwards they would be frightened of other men seeing them. It is not because they are small - they are not - but because they wrongly perceive themselves to be inadequate.
"Most of them are normal. And in fact most men are the same.
"'The locker room men are often married with children and will occasionally come for a consultation with their wife who will say something like, 'He's been on about it for years, just make it longer and give me some peace'.
"But after I've talked to them about it, most of them decide to stick with what they've got.
"After all, if you only get an inch, is it worth it?"
