Penis length cannot be determined by how big his hands or feet are
-- those and other supposed indicators have been widely discredited
for years. But now a team of Korean researchers has produced what
may be a more reliable guide: the ratio of the length of his index
finger to that of his ring finger. The lower that ratio, the longer
the penis may be, the researchers wrote Monday in the Asian Journal
of Andrology.
Dr. Tae Beom Kim, a urologist at Gachon University in Incheon,
Korea, and his colleagues studied 144 men over the age of 20 who
were undergoing urological surgery for conditions that do not
affect the length of the penis. One member of the team carefully
measured the lengths of the index and ring fingers on the subject's
right hand before surgery -- left hands are thought to be more
variable. A second team member then measured penis length
immediately after the subject had been anesthetized. The length was
measured both when the penis was flaccid and when it had been
stretched as much as possible. Stretched length is thought to
correlate to erect length, the team wrote. The team found that, in
general, the lower the ratio of the lengths of the two fingers, the
longer the stretched length of the penis.
Although it may seem like the results are coming out of left field,
they actually are not. A variety of studies suggest that the ratio
of the two finger lengths is determined by prenatal exposure to sex
hormones, both testosterone and estrogen. It is not unreasonable to
assume that penis length might also be.
Men and women are what is termed sexually dysmorphic in terms of
finger lengths. In women, the index and ring fingers are generally
the same length, while in men the index finger is generally
shorter. Researchers from UC Berkeley created a stir in 2000 when
they reported that lesbian women tended to have a ratio of the two
finger lengths that was more typical of men. But the situation was
more complicated for men. The team found no difference in the ratio
between gay and straight men unless they had several older brothers
-- a factor which had previously been linked to being homosexual.
Such men were found to have an unusually low ratio of the finger
lengths.
Other recent research has suggested that men with a lower ratio
have a more symmetrical face and are more attractive to women, a
phenomenon known as the "sexy ratio." And just last
year, researchers from Warwick University and the Institute of
Cancer Research in Britain reported that a man's risk of developing
prostate cancer is related to the ratio of the two digits. Men
whose index finger in longer than their ring finger were found to
be one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Digit ratios are noninvasive and easy to measure and thus may
provide a surrogate for studying prenatal development in men, wrote
Dr. Denise Brooks McQuade of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs,
N.Y. in an editorial accompanying the study.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/04/news/la-heb-finger-ratio-penis-length-20110704
