Penis Pumps – Effective? Safe? Scary?

As Dr. Debby reflected on the increase in questions about anal sex (which also happened at our presentation last night, although it focused more on stimulation of the prostate rather than anal sex itself), I’d like to chat about another topic that came up more than I expected: penis pumps.

To be fair, we also talked about vagina pumps but penis pumps are slightly more common and well-known.

Penis Pumps: The Basics

Maybe a few basics about penis pumps are in order. According to the Wikipedia page on “penis enlargement” a penis pump is:

a cylinder that is fitted over the penis, with a manual or motorized pump to create suction. As the apparatus creates a vacuum around the penis, blood is drawn into the penis, helping it to become engorged. As vacuum increases, the difference between the inner blood-pressure and the pump pressure increases as well; excessive pressure causes vascular damage rather than a harder penis.

Some information from this site (which might have one of the best domain names ever) indicates that penis pumps make the penis “harder, faster” and gives an “informative” explanation of four types of penis pumps. I’m not sure how “simple physics” of forcing blood flow into the penis can make it faster, but these guys are obviously focused on selling their products, so it works for me. The site isn’t totally irresponsible, offering this warning:

Keep in mind that over pumping be dangerous. In some cases, the pumped up tissues can take a week or more to return to normal. And extreme or prolonged pumping can result in permanent damage to blood vessels in the penis and the penile tissues.

So, they get points for that. That’s one point that we talked about last night during our presentation. While penis pumps might give the illusion of making the penis bigger, they’re really just creating some suction which then increases blood flow to the area. Perhaps a worthwhile treatment for erectile dysfunction, but not worth the cost or potential risk in my opinion.

Other articles have pointed out that endorsements from the American Urological Association give the penis pump slightly more legitimacy, saying that a penis pump or vacuum constriction device (VCD) might be useful for men with erectile dysfunction who did not experience success with PDE5-inhibitor drugs drugs like Viagra.

Penis Pump Safety

Other respectable medical establishments like the Mayo Clinic also have webpages about the uses of penis pumps, with appropriate warnings and side effects listed. However, the research on penis pump safety and effectiveness is lacking, as with most pleasure-oriented scientific research around sexuality and sex toys.

You can read a reader question about them answered by Dr. Debby in her In & Out column to see what people want to know about penis pumps, which mostly boil down to two questions: “Do they make my penis bigger?” and “Are they safe?” I think the jury is still out on the last question and the links and information included here make certain that the first question is answered with a resounding “No!”

I love that my job includes typing in the phrase “penis pump” into both Google and academic search engines.