Having more sex can make a penis bigger, study reveals – but there’s a twist…
The University of Exeter have done the numbers and the results are in.
HAVING lots of sex could give you a bigger penis.
This is just one of the findings in the University of Exeter’s latest study.
Their paper, published in the Evolution journal, shows that having sex can cause males to grow bigger reproductive organs.
The bad news is, the study was conducted with burying beetles as opposed to humans.
The results showed that the more sex the beetles had, the bigger the male’s genitals became.
The female beetles also developed larger ‘claw-like’ growths on their genitals.
The changes occurred because as one sex’s genitals change the other’s evolve with it.
Author of the study, Dr Megan Head, said: “It takes two to tango, so when changes in shape in one sex leads to corresponding changes in the other sex this is known as co-evolution.”
The test was done across two sets of beetles – one which had lots of sex, and one which had minimal amounts of sex.
It was found that the ones who had lots of sex developed their reproductive organs at a quicker pace than the ones who didn’t have sex.
The study was conducted over ten generations and showed that the more sex the animals were having the bigger their genitals became.
Dr Paul Hopwood, of the University of Exeter, said: “Although we don’t know the ins and outs of how these genital structures relate to the reproductive success of each sex, our results show that sexual conflict over mating can lead to co-evolutionary changes in the shape of the genitals of burying beetles.”
“Our research demonstrates the general importance of conflicts of interest between males and females in helping to generate some of the biodiversity that we see in the natural world.
"It’s fascinating how genital evolution can happen so fast – in ten generations – showing how rapidly evolutionary changes can occur.”