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Project launched in India to measure the size of men’s penises

Rohit Sharma Mumbai

Indian medical researchers are to conduct a study of the size and shape of penises of men in India because they are worried about the country’s 15% failure rate in condoms.

The researchers wonder whether the failure rate could be due to the fact that there is just one standard size of condom yet many sizes of penis in the population.

"This is one of the hypothesis we are going to test since we have a large variation in our population," said Nirakar Chandra Saxena, head of reproductive biology at the Indian Council of Medical Research, which is launching the project soon.

The researchers will be photographing the erect penises—without photographing the person, to protect confidentiality—using a digital camera, said Sujoy Kumar Guha, professor at the department of biomedical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

The measurements of the organ’s length and width will be obtained automatically on computer after digital imaging using special software.

A senior scientist from the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that the World Health Organization's specification is currently used for condoms. "The condom is not optimised for India," said Professor Guha. "There is a tendency for the condom to rupture or for spillage to occur if it is too tight or too loose when the size is not appropriate and is uncomfortable," he added.

"The idea is to have two to three optimal sizes and shapes of condoms which could cover the population," said Professor Guha.

The research council is now identifying institutions all over India with some 300 volunteers each, for the 1.1 million rupee (£15 500; $23 000) project.
 
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