Dermal Fillers for Penile Enlargement

This blog discusses the use of fillers in penis enlargement, what they are, why they are used, and why I spend a large amount of time treating men who are unhappy with them.

It’s important to understand that all fillers are not alike.  There are fillers that are temporary and there are fillers that are permanent. Approval for the use of fillers varies by country, so some fillers available in Europe are not legal in the United States.  Fillers are designed to add volume to soft tissue, in a layer of the skin known as the dermis.

Human skin has several layers when seen under the microscope.  The top layer is the epidermis. Beneath that is the dermis.  This layer has skin elements such as hair follicles and sweat glands.  The thickness of the dermal layer varies throughout the body. The dermal layer in the penis is very thin and is too thin to accept a filler.

Soft tissue fillers were initially developed to correct signs of facial aging and, in the US, that is what they are approved for.  So their use in the penis is known as an off label use. More importantly, facial skin has a thick dermis while penile skin has a very thin dermis.  You can prove this to yourself by pinching the skin in both areas.  In fact, because the dermis of the penis is so thin, these fillers are placed deep to the skin in the layer known as the Dartos.

This is a thin layer that is next to an even looser layer of tissue and is the layer in which fillers are placed when injected into the penis.  This is also the most common layer that other surgeons place dermal grafts.

When placed in this layer, fillers can migrate throughout the penis and scrotum, so the result can be uneven.  

The temporary fillers will often, but not always dissolve with time.  The permanent fillers will never dissolve.

The most common temporary filler is hyaluronic acid.  This is a gel that is similar to fluid in our joints. Another temporary filler has the brand name Sculptra.

The permanent fillers are silicone and PMMA.  Sculptra acts more like a permanent filler.  The permanent fillers cause a reaction in the body that stimulates collagen production.  Silicone and PMMA also cause something called a granuloma to form around them.  It is this reaction that adds girth to the penis. With these fillers, the amount of reaction is unknown and unpredictable. Patients get a larger penis, but it may not be smooth.  Men need multiple sessions of filler to get a uniform contour to their penis.  But remember, the appearance of your penis after a filler injection is not what the end result will be.  It takes a long time, months at a minimum, for the body to react to the filler to provide the final contour.

So while fillers sound like a quick fix, they really have an unknown component and the end result is difficult to predict.

If you’d like more information on penis surgery, please contact my office at 310-299-3553 or email at [email protected].