THE MALE SEX ORGANS: HOW THEY ARE MADE?

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The man’s sex organs are essentially his penis and testicles. The head of the penis, called the glans, is the most sensitive part. It contains a great many nerve endings which transmit a pleasurable sensation, a pre-orgasm, when stimulated by the fingers, mouth or tongue, or by the walls of the vagina during intercourse. The skin of the glans is extremely delicate.

The glans is covered by a fold of skin, the foreskin, held on the underside by the frenum. In small boys the foreskin is very firmly closed around the glans; this makes it difficult to clean the secretions that accumulate in the fold where the glans meets the shaft of the penis, and can lead to unpleasant smells and irritation.

In the adult, the foreskin generally frees the glans spontaneously during erection, or at least while the penis is being touched during foreplay. The foreskin is sometimes surgically removed; this is circumcision, a systematic practice in the Jewish community, and also sometimes practised, though less commonly, for medical reasons.

The shaft of the penis is covered by a sheath of skin that merges into the foreskin. This skin slides up and down the shaft, facilitating the to-and-fro movements of masturbation and intercourse.

Inside the penis there are two corpora spongiosa (or “spongy bodies”) and a corpus cavernosum (or “hollow body”) surrounded by fibrous tissue. When the man is sexually aroused, there is a rush of blood into the corpora spongiosa, swelling, stiffening and lengthening the penis and making it stand up. As long as the cause of the arousal remains, the blood is unable to recede. After ejaculation, it generally recedes quickly and the penis shrinks and goes limp; there is a variable lapse of time before a further erection is possible.