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Page 2 of 3 The Penis: Half Muscle I was rather dumbfounded when I learned that the penis truly is a muscle -- not completely muscle, and not a normal muscle -- but approximately 50 percent smooth muscle. In February in 2004, the Journal of Urology reported the amount of penile smooth muscle in the article, Sildenafil preserves intracorporeal smooth muscle after radical retropubic prostatectomy. Here is a segment of the authors' findings:
The important role of corpora cavernosal smooth muscle in potency has been known since Goldstein et al reported the first examination of erectile tissue. Normal smooth muscle content and function are necessary for the initiation and maintenance of erection. Published reports suggest that the average penis smooth muscle percent is between 40% and 50%. Our unpublished data confirm this rate with the finding of an incidence of smooth muscle of about 49% in normal potent males in the general population. In contrast, patients with veno-occlusive dysfunction show a much lower percent on microscopic examination. A prior study suggested that these patients have a smooth muscle percent of 10% to 36%. | The article above confirms that the penis is in fact part muscle. For more confirmation, see the references located at the end of this article. But what exactly is smooth muscle? And more importantly, what's its role in the penis? Well, there are three types of muscle: skeletal muscle, which is the muscles you exercise when you go to the gym; cardiac muscle, which is your heart; and smooth muscle, which is found in organs and blood vessels. All muscle contains actin and myosin, which are important for muscle relaxation and growth. The penis largely consists of smooth muscle (as a side note, the base of the penis also consists of skeletal muscles known as your pelvic floor muscles). Healthy Smooth Muscle is Essential for Healthy Erections Smooth muscle is extremely important for vital erections. As noted in the Journal of Urology article above, "Normal smooth muscle content and function are necessary for the initiation and maintenance of erection." To that end, the health of your penis muscle literally defines the health of your erections! This is well documented in another article by Dr. George J. Christ, which was published in The Urologic Clinics of North America: The penis as a vascular organ: The importance of corporal smooth muscle tone in the control of erection. Here is what Dr. Christ had to say about the penis's smooth muscle:
Complete smooth muscle relaxation is both necessary and sufficient to elicit an erection. |
In his article, Christ went over (in detail, down to the chemistry) the smooth muscle's role in the penis. The bottom line: smooth muscle is very, very important for proper erections. The smooth muscle causes an erection (which is set off through chemical reactions) by completely relaxing. An erection cannot take place if the smooth muscle cannot completely relax. . . . Accordingly, the smooth muscle is not only important for an erection; it is the erection!
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