Calgary Herald
> Thursday, April 24, 2003
> Page: C1 / FRONT
> Section: Vitality
> Byline: Kim Heinrich Gray
> Source: Calgary Herald
>
> Men are notorious for their competitive nature. You know the guys, the
> ones that always have to have the faster car, the more powerful stereo,
> the most advanced hand-held personal digital assistant. These objects are
> inextricably linked to their egos, and the bigger the better.
>
> There's one area, though, in which it appears some men have an enduring
> insecurity, and it's not something they can solve with a quick visit to
> Future Shop. We're referring, of course, to the most intimate of their
> anatomy.
>
> "It's a cruel world out there. Even your best friend will use a slight
> physical defect as leverage," says Dr. Robert Stubbs, a Toronto plastic
> surgeon, one of two doctors who make a living out of enhancing imperfect
> penises.
>
> This is hardly a 21st-century western phenomenon. Indeed, the angst over
> penile prominence dates back through history.
>
> Tribes in Peru called the Sadhus and Cholomecs used to hang weights on
> their sexual organs, stretching them to between 30 and 40 centimetres in
> length, regrettably often at the cost of sexual potency.
>
> Males in the Topinama tribe in Brazil used to seek out the bite of a
> poisonous snake that caused their penis to inflate, believing it would
> increase their cachet with the women.
>
> Today, the mythology of the male organ has mutated into a new generation
> of hucksters on the Internet who have launched full-scale spamming
> campaigns.
>
> Perhaps you've received one of these e-mails? They are often alarming, and
> occasionally pornographic with subject headings such as "Live Large with a
> Great Big Manhood."
>
> So, what gives? Everything from herbs to exercise to penis pumps are
> pitched as the ideal approach to "more muscular members."
>
> Are the advertised procedures legitimate? What lengths, exactly, are men
> willing to take? And why?
>
> Stubbs, who performs penis lengthening operations, advises would-be
> customers to delete those e-mail pitches.
>
> "It's malarkey. If these creams and those herbs worked, urologists and
> family doctors and plastic surgeons would be telling people to go out and
> buy them," he says.
>
> "For example, we do tell people to use Viagra, but it is because it
> works."
>
> Stubbs insists penis lengthening surgery is the only sure way to a larger
> sexual organ for men. He charges $6,000 per operation and has performed,
> by his estimate, 550 of them.
>
> The magic of the surgery lies in a trick of physiology. As much as 30 per
> cent of the length of a man's penis is inside his body.
>
> Penis lengthening surgery externalizes a portion of this "internal penis,"
> through snipping the suspensory ligament.
>
> Stubbs says men who undergo the surgery can expect to grow in length from
> between 1.25 to five centimetres.
>
> Patients recover within four to six weeks. But they are also required, for
> up to six months, to undergo daily therapy which involves wearing
> self-adhesive 1.4-kilogram lead weights on their penises to help stretch
> new tissue as it naturally replaces old tissue.
>
> Stubbs says 25 per cent of his practice is men looking to adjust their
> appearance.
>
> "I get people from around the world. From as far away as Fiji."
>
> Stubbs studied the procedure in China under a physician by the name of Dr.
> Dao Chow Long.
>
> In 1997, Stubbs published a study in the Canadian Journal of Plastic
> Surgery reviewing 300 patients who underwent penile surgery.
>
> Twenty-seven per cent of the men in the study said their female partners
> had criticized the size of their organs.
>
> But curiously, the majority of patients "expressed anxiety about being
> undressed in front of other men," best summarized as locker-room phobia.
>
> "Or the 'My sword is bigger than your sword' mentality."
>
> Although penis lengthening seems to be a popular choice among Stubbs'
> patients, more requests are being made for penis "thickening" which
> involves the transplant of a patient's own fat (taken from their abdomen
> or their buttocks) to the penis.
>
> "It can go lumpy, but when it works, it is quite good."
>
> Surgeries have a high success rate, the doctor says.
>
> "No one has lost feeling. We did have some erectile difficulties, but they
> turned out to be psychological. The same men were still having normal
> erections in their sleep."
>
> John (not his real name), a former patient of Stubbs, underwent both penis
> extension and penis thickening surgery.
>
> John, who works as an independent consultant, says he had the operation to
> improve "his look."
>
> He says he feels more confident since the surgery, and he's heading a
> little more "southbound" than before the operation. (By about half an
> inch, he reports.)
>
> "Look, I know a lot of women who have breast implants and lifts. The ones
> who get them to turn on men are making a mistake," he says.
>
> "But if they're getting them to make themselves feel good, to give their
> body better contouring, then that's different. These things have to be
> done on a personal level. Men think bigger is better."
>
> He says he didn't tell his wife about the procedure and managed to conceal
> any evidence by working long hours during his four-week recovery period.
>
> "I didn't know how she would take it. I think she would have thought I was
> being silly to get it done," says John. "It wasn't really to satisfy her."
>
> Asked if his wife has detected a change, he says: "I think she's kind of
> noticed," adding she may be too uncomfortable to ask.
>
> Dr. Wayne Perron -- the Calgary-based president of the Canadian Society
> for Cosmetic Surgery -- says the surgery is not yet accepted and many
> people see the procedure as frivolous.
>
> "There are reasons men do this. I don't think we should criticize them for
> exploring plastic surgery. It is out there for people who want to consider
> it, but it is a very specialized procedure, obviously. You definitely want
> to see a surgeon who is well established.
>
> "I guess the only thing I could say is that it may parallel women with
> their insecurities. Men have their insecurities, too."
>
> Stubbs reiterates that there is no fast, cheap, painless way to get a
> bigger penis.
>
> "When people get something that is inexpensive and quick, it usually
> doesn't work."
>
> Indeed, he says modern- day penis enhancement surgery requires close
> medical followup. "I have to be there for the healing."
>
> Chuckling, Stubbs adds, "I tell my clients to hang in there."
>
> Dr. Robert Stubbs profiles his plastic surgery business at www.psurg.com
>
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