Success and failure all in one
41 year old here. A tiny bit of back story.
When I was a teen I could get an erection that was about 5.5 inches long. I never measured my girth then, but any girl I was with basically had the reaction of “man that’s a soup can” (as one said) meaning.. Not too long but girthy. During a long stretch with no girlfriends, I masturbated a ton, and I would call the end result a reverse jelq. It slowly but surely squeezed my penis down to an erect length of 4.5 inches, and not nearly as fat as it once was.
So I decided to try a penis pump. I got the Paloqueth model that comes with a fleshlight type insert or can take normal constriction rings- but doesn’t have a pressure gauge (more on that in a bit).
The first few months were quite nice. I saw my girth return to normal, and my length was back up to 5.1 inches. I measured my girth in a normal erection with a seamstress’s tape measure and found at the thickest point it was 6 inches in circumference. Above average by a nice bit (but hardly a soup can either). The pump seemed to be undoing what years of chronic masturbation had squeezed down. Good stuff.
Remember that line from Lord of the Rings, “The Dwarves dug too greedily, and too deeply?” Well with no pressure gauge on the thing I decided, “I’m going to to for some LENGTH!”
I did not max out what the battery powered pump could do, but first went until it felt like my skin was pinching.. And after and for about a day found my penis was sensitive and tingly.. But hey everything was working fine so.? I gave it a few days rest and went back at it and pumped it out to about 6.5 inches. For a reminder: about 1 inch longer than my historic longest “normal”erection and 1.4” longer than I had been getting recently.
I have no idea what the pressure was but it was too much. Lots of tingling for a few days, and a few open sores on the glans and foreskin remnant (circumcised). Still: I could pee fine and still could get an erection fine, so no permanent damage done.
This remains true. But the sores turned into blisters, and then ulcers. That was a month ago. 2 weeks ago I broke down and went to the doc who noted that the sores were healing fine. But the foreskin remnant and a few spots on the glans are still red, after neosporin (doc recommended as she saw no signs of yeast or anything but it would be a good preventative measure). There is some minor scarring I can see; and the red areas are prone to producing smegma.. But it all gets a little less red every day. There are still some white lines and cracks in the foreskin and between it and the glans. It’s just dry skin from the scabs falling off; I followed up with a dermatologist who said “Just keep it clean, it is healing fine, you may have a slight scar here or there”.
I have avoided masturbating of course; I still get morning wood (harder than in years given no masturbation) and yes, everything works, so no permanent damage internally. Eventually, the skin will clear and I will invest in a pump with a pressure gauge.
The moral here is, from a pumping newbie: whether you get a pump with a pressure gauge or not, if it feels like it is pinching you are on the verge of tearing skin. That takes time to heal, hurts at the outset, and is unpleasant all around. Back off.
This all said.. The length, girth, and firmness of erection remains quite good compared to before beginning pumping, so I am not turned off just.. Wiser and more careful for the future.
