A man who is believed to have the ‘world’s smallest penis’ has revealed the main challenge he faces in his daily life.
Michael Phillips, from North Carolina, has long claimed to have the smallest manhood.
He said he realized that he was ‘smaller than average’ in childhood, but it wasn’t until many years later that he decided to get it checked out.
Last year, the then 36-year-old, whose penis apparently measures in at just under an inch, was diagnosed with a rare medical condition, most commonly known as having a micropenis.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a micropenis is an ‘atypically small penis that’s discovered in infancy or early childhood’.
Despite the confirmation, Michael says he’s struggled to grapple with the diagnosis. That, and there’s one major hiccup he says he faces day to day.
A micropenis is one that measures in below 3 inches (Getty)
“The biggest challenges I’ve faced [are] having a sexual relationship and still being a virgin and being able to talk about it openly because of how embarrassing of a topic it is,” Michael explained, as per IGV.
The man said he was deterred from dating or pursuing romantic, sexual relationships after a girl in school saw his penis and laughed at him.
The medical condition, caused by a deficiency of fetal testosterone, is usually diagnosed in people who measure under three inches, with the Cleveland Clinic further stating that it affects around 1.5 in 100,000 people in the US, though it is pretty rare at around 0.6 per cent of the worldwide population.
For some, early hormonal treatment can help stimulate growth ‘toward a more normal length,’ which the Clinic defines as around 5.25 inches with a stretched penile length of 3.67 inches or less, indicating a micropenis.
“I think the biggest misconception is that if a guy has a small penis, he just has a small penis, and not that there may be a medical thing going on,” Michael continued. “More people need to be aware that there is a medical condition called micro penis.”
Speaking to The Sun at the time, he said he didn’t realize there was a medical term or even a condition about the size of his manhood.
He says one of the biggest challenges of the condition is having a sexual relationship (Getty)
“I was always aware it had been small, but wasn’t aware there was a condition for it,” he told the outlet. “The main reason I went to the doctor was because my penis is actually too small to have sex at all.”
Michael added: “I have had a couple experiences of having sex and wasn’t able to get it in and everything. From there I just stopped trying to date and lost interest in it.”
Since his diagnosis, Michael has been raising awareness of the condition, though he’s struggled to come to terms with it himself.
“I’m still not sure that I have yet fully come to terms with having a micro penis,” he continued, though he said it has got some positives.
“It wasn’t until joking about being a Guinness World Record holder that I realised I might actually have the world’s smallest.”
“If I could go for it, I would – I think it could help bring more awareness,” Michael said.
“There really isn’t very much representation for small sizes in media and almost zero mention of micro penis being portrayed as being a real medical condition and not a slang joke term.”
