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The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

propublica.org

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Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#2

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

Back when I was a regular listener to talk radio, the ads for PE snake oil were absolutely ubiquitous. They aired more than any other product I can remember (except maybe Bose Wave radio).

I never knew how to feel for this target audience. It sucks people are vulnerable to obvious snake oil ads. It also sucks that PE is a thing that's important to people.

Male body shaming is weird and oogy.

Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#3

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

The summary actually does it’s job:

> Kevin said that he had undergone five surgeries with Elist, including two upgrades, a revision and a removal, and his penis no longer functioned.

Still, Kevin had always found the surgeon to be caring, if a little preoccupied. “He reminded me of Doctor Franken­stein — the intensity of him wanting this thing to come to life,” Kevin told me. It sounded strange, he acknowledged, but before each operation he’d been filled with excitement. “You just feel relieved that you’re fixing something,” he said.

At an appointment earlier this year, Kevin said, Elist promised to fix him again with a sixth procedure, but one of the surgeon’s assistants discreetly advised against it. Kevin thought he could spot “the other experiments” in the clinic from their loose-­fitting sweatpants and the awkward way they walked. There were so many men waiting to see the doctor that they spilled into the hallway.

…

I think I’m of the ideal height, with the ideal penis size… so there’s a requisite for this entire article that I just won’t understand. But that last paragraph would scare the hell out of me if this was something I was interested in.

Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#6

Post by JKCalhoun »

whimsicalism wrote: post #4

This is so sad. I think there is an underdiscussed crisis with some segments of men.

It was hard to read. I'm here (wincing in imagined pain) shouting, "No! What if it is irreversible?! What if your dick gets screwed up?!"

I confess that after reading it I began to feel that it is even unethical to be in the penis-enlargement field.

Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#7

Post by zug_zug »

tl; dr:

Starts with some absolute horror stories (e.g. complete loss of function), continues to talk about the technology improving, but still includes horror stories.

It's not clear if the average outcome is horrible, but it sounds like people are getting paid to advocate or sued for sharing horror stories, so it's hard to trust anything.

Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#8

Post by 29athrowaway »

From the article:

> Some implants got infected or detached. Others buckled at the corners. Occasionally these protrusions broke through the skin, forming holes that would fester. The hole of the health­-spa vice ­president was so tiny that he originally mistook its fermented odor for an STD.

> Later, doctors unaffiliated with the Pe­numa would compare such penises to “a torpedo,” “a penguin,” “a pig in a blanket,” “a beer can with a mushroom sticking out on the top” and “the tipped-­down nose of the Concorde.”

Re: The Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

#9

Post by pengaru »

penumba!

  > Elist sat behind an imposing desk in a borrowed office and spoke about his
  > forthcoming book, a collection of parables for spiritually minded surgeons
  > titled "Operating with God." His ghost­writer had rendered his voice so
  > skillfully, he said, that he'd found himself moved to tears while reading
  > it. Beside a gilt statue of a jaguar in the corner of the room, someone had
  > propped a mirror with an image of Jesus etched at its center. As Elist
  > recounted passages from his book, his merry face, crowned by a hair­net,
  > hovered next to Christ's.
The above reads like a Tales From the Crypt movie script, in the leadup to Elist slicing into yet another victim's Johnson.
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