The scrotum: A comparison of men's and women's aesthetic assessments

Paula Albrecht, Carolin Eimer, Erich Kasten

Cosmetic surgery is a growing trend. Opportunities for an individual to attain their personal aesthetic ideal via plastic surgery have now extended as far as the genital area. Adaptive surgery on intimate areas of the body may take place for physical complaints, but may instead be due to a desire to conform to a particular ideal. Breast operations, labia reductions, and penis lengthening are long-established interventions, the motives for which a number of previous studies have examined. Tightening of the scrotum, by contrast, is a new trend in the aesthetic surgery market. Notwithstanding its rapid increase, studies have yet to investigate aesthetic preferences as regards the scrotum. Accordingly, the aim of the present study is to compare men's and women's evaluation of various sizes of scrotum, to the end of assisting people opting to undergo this procedure in taking decisions on their visual preferences. The participants in this study rated a number of photographs of scrotums, in nine different lengths and widths, and completed a questionnaire whose aim was to determine whether assessments differed by gender. Further, we considered whether the variables of age, extraversion, openness to experience, and consumption of pornography influenced participants' evaluations. We found no significant differences in evaluation of the aesthetic of scrotums in relation to any of these personality traits. The results show what sizes (lengths and widths) of scrotum the participants judged to be the most and least attractive. The esthetics of the scrotum is little explored. In this study, only normal deviations were considered, i.e. within one standard adjustment. Further studies should consider extremes. Ultimately, it was barely possible to identify a "beautiful" scrotum; we must instead speak of the least ugly.