COVID-19 not only causes acute respiratory illness symptoms, but it can also leave many sequelae long after the patient has recovered from the disease. Scientists call it the post-COVID or persistent COVID condition.
A symptom is considered post-COVID if it appears more than 4 weeks after the patient has recovered from the illness. Common conditions include: shortness of breath, fatigue, trouble thinking or concentrating, headaches, joint pain, changes in taste, menstrual cycles.
But there are also weirder and rarer post-COVID symptoms. For example, the case of a man in his 30s in the US recently. He said he contracted COVID-19 last July and recovered. Everything on his body has returned to normal except for one problem:
“My penis has shrunk. Before I got sick, my penis size was above average. It’s not huge, but it’s definitely a bit bigger than a normal person. Now my penis has shortened by 1.5 inches (equivalent to 3.8 cm), so it is below average“, the man wrote in the letter, referring to “How to do it”, an American sex counseling podcast.
“My doctors thought it could be permanent damage. It shouldn’t be that important, but it has greatly affected my confidence in my sleeping abilities“.
Why is the penis shorter?
To advise this confused man, “How to do it” host invited to show urologist Ashley Winter, currently the Dean of Men’s Health at the College of Medicine. Albany.
She explains penis shrinkage after contracting COVID-19 as a domino effect of erectile dysfunction:
“It is true that erectile dysfunction leads to a shortening of the penis. During the time when the penis does not stretch on its own, blood is not pumped there and this can lead to scarring of the penis causing it to shorten.“, said Winter.
A study in the journal Endocrinological Investigation late last year found that men with COVID-19 were about three times more likely to develop erectile dysfunction than they were before they got the disease.
Some studies have suggested that this risk could be nearly six times higher, but other estimates suggest a lower risk as post-COVID-19 ED affects only about 20% of men. .
Additionally, a large study in the medical journal Lancet surveyed patients recovering from COVID-19 in 56 countries about their persistence of symptoms. Results showed that 15% of men had sexual dysfunction and 5% had decreased testicle or penis size.
All of this evidence shows that “covid dick” – a slang term used to call the effect of COVID-19 on the penis is real.
There are several theories as to why that happens. Last year, a study by the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine analyzed the penile tissue of four men with COVID-19 — two who had undergone prosthetic surgery to treat erectile dysfunction. and 2 people don’t.
The results showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in these penile tissue samples several months after the patient had recovered from the disease. Publishing the results in the World Journal of Men’s Health, the scientists concluded that the virus can restrict blood supply to the genitals, making it difficult for patients to achieve an erection.
SARS-CoV-2 virus particles were found in the penile tissue of people infected with COVID-19.
The risk of damage to blood vessels in the penis is higher in patients with pre-existing medical conditions like COVID-19, such as diabetes, which can also restrict blood flow.
In addition, some indirect effects from the immune system can also cause inflammation, affecting erectile function and subsequently penis size. Stress, anxiety, and fatigue, common post-COVID syndromes, will also add to the problem, exacerbating the problem.
Use a penis extender
Returning to the man who was bewildered by the shrinking boy, Dr. Winter gave him some advice. “REMOVEYour first wish would be to try a low daily dose of Viagra, or something similar.”, she said.
Then, if the man is interested, he can try a mechanical penile dilation therapy. Dr. Winter said: “There is a machine called RestoreX, the actual data shows that it does quite well in lengthening and maintaining the length of the penis for the user.”
How the RestoreX machine works
There are also some machines that work under the vacuum mechanism. Accordingly, the doctors will take a tube that fits the patient’s penis and then suck the air out. The goal is to apply pressure to the area, causing more blood to flow to the area, increasing its size and restoring the disorder there.
However, the doctor also gave the man one last piece of advice: “Penis length doesn’t define who you are. Most people are not satisfied with their penis length because they think so, not because of complaints from their partners..
So a man should first be glad he’s recovered from COVID-19, then he can learn to get used to “little boyhis new “.
Refer to Gizmodo, Euronews
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