From the cave paintings to graffiti . From Michelangelo’s David to any teenager’s notebook. The penis is probably the most represented human organ in history.
More than an appendix, it has become a symbol. The only other organ that’s been depicted as often is the heart, which has become a representation of love and affection. Perhaps, reflects urologist Blanca Madurga Patuel, 65, the penis is depicted so often because it is also a symbol, one representing manhood and virility.
This is seen beyond art. In language, too, many expressions refer to the male sexual organ. Conversations often revolve around it.
Men talk a lot about their penis, but not often in a medical context. While women go to the gynecologist regularly from the age of 20, men do not go to the andrologist until they have a problem and typically don’t start seeing a urologist until they are over 50. While there is a lack of medical knowledge, biased and false information abounds on the internet, further muddying a difficult conversation, full of myths, taboos and ignorance .
With 30 years of experience, Madurga knows this well. The urologist works as a professor at the Hospital del Mar, in the Spanish city of Cádiz, and is an associate professor at Cádiz University. She has just published the book Todo lo que necesitas saber sobre el pene y nunca te atreviste a preguntar (in English: Everything you need to know about the penis and never dared to ask), which draws on the meta-analysis Worldwide Tempor.