A Cross-sectional Study of Stretched Penile Length in Boys from West Bengal, India

Short penile length is a commonly encountered problem in clinical practice. Detection of abnormal stretched penile length (SPL) warrants appropriate endocrine evaluation. Ethnicity-specific SPL data are required to detect these abnormalities. There is a dearth of such data in India. This study aims to establish normative values of SPL in boys from West Bengal.

This is a cross-sectional study. SPL, testicular volume (TV), height/length, and weight were measured in 460 boys aged 1 to 13 years from the schools located at urban, suburban, and rural areas in the state of West Bengal, India. Similar data were collected from 36 healthy neonates within 1-3 days of full-term delivery at IPGME and R and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

The 5^th percentile, median, and 95^th percentile of SPL were 1.7, 2.0, and 2.7 cm for neonates; 3.5, 4.4, and 6.4 cm for the children aged 1 Y-2 Y 11 M; 4.0, 5.5, and 7.0 cm for the age group 3 Y-4 Y 11 M; 4.2, 6.0, and 7.2 cm for the age group 5 Y-6 Y 11 M; 4.3, 6.0, and 7.6 cm for the age group 7 Y-8 Y 11 M; 4.4, 6.5, and 9.0 cm for the age group 9 Y-10 Y 11 M; and 4.8, 7.0, and 11.0 cm for the age group 11 Y-12 Y 11 M, respectively. SPL showed significant positive correlation with TV [r = 0.365, P < 0.0005] and height of the children [r = 0.516, P < 0.0005], but not with BMI.

Our study provides normative data of SPL in neonate and children aged 1 to 13 years from the eastern part of India. SPL value correlated positively with TV and height of children.