Gentlemen, you know your age, but do you know your penis’ age?
That’s the question you might start to consider after hearing tech mogul and anti-aging enthusiast Bryan Johnson’s latest weird, but characteristically attention-grabbing interview.
Johnson, 47, has previously gone viral for experimenting with a lot, including taking blood plasma from his 19-year-old son, trying penis shockwave therapy and adhering to a rigid diet (no eating after 11 a.m.!). It’s all part of his costly “Project Blueprint,” a plan he devised to reduce his biological age by meticulously measuring and revamping each aspect of his health.
This week, the venture capitalist sat down with the Daily Mail and shared how he’s de-aging his penis: He may be pushing 50, but he claims to have the penile health of a 22-year-old. Johnson says he knows this because he uses a tracking device that measures how often his penis engorges with blood at night, and for how long. (As one does.)
Last month on X (formerly Twitter), Johnson posted data favorably comparing his nightly erections to his son Talmage’s, noting that younger Johnson’s duration is only two minutes longer than his.
Speaking to the MailOnline as he wore a “Don’t Die” T-shirt, Johnson shared his theory on how measuring nighttime erections can be a gauge of overall health.
“It turns out that — this is true for both men and women — that a man’s night-time erections and a woman’s nighttime erections ― the clitoris engorging — is one of the most important biomarkers of anything about our entire body,” Johnson told the the site.
“So while it kicks up some giggles, it really is one of the most important things for all of us to know about our bodies and it’s just not talked about,” he said.
Generally speaking, yes, the health of the penis is a reflection of the health of the entire body, said Aaron Spitz, a urologist and author of “The Penis Book: A Doctor’s Complete Guide to the Penis.”
“Getting and keeping erections requires several body systems to be healthy, properly functioning and coordinated,” Spitz said, before detailing all the effort involved in getting blood to the penis.
“The circulatory system ― the heart and blood vessels ― must be healthy in order to pump enough blood from the heart all the way to the penis through branching blood vessels that get narrower and narrower in size until they terminate in the shaft of the penis,” Spitz said. “The diameter of the arteries entering the penis is only a millimeter or two, and even so, the blood vessels get even tinier within the shaft of the penis.”
In comparison to the blood vessels of the penis, the blood vessels that pump blood to the heart and the brain are much larger in diameter and take longer to close off, so a man can experience weak erections years before he will experience chest pain, a heart attack or a stroke, Spitz explained.
Urologists often speak of how poor erections while awake (AKA erectile dysfunction) are a canary in the coal mine for heart health and cardiovascular disease, said Paul Turek, a urologist who runs the Turek Clinic in San Francisco. (Specifically, men with ED have a higher risk for developing high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease, peripheral artery disease and stroke.)
Generally speaking, Turek said healthy men have at least three nighttime erections lasting 30 minutes or more, and occur during REM dream sleep.
But nighttime erections aren’t the be-all-end-all when it comes to determining a person’s overall health, as Johnson is claiming.
“This is because many illnesses and other heart issues, both psychological and physical, along with age, can reduce nighttime wood,” he said. “Plus, many day-to-day issues can influence the quality of any erection, either when awake or asleep. As DaVinci one said, ‘the penis has a mind of its own.’”
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What about Johnson’s claim about women’s clitorial erections?
“Females do get clitoral erections as the clitoris is anatomy virtually identical to the male penis,” Turek said, but the frequency and quality of clitoral erections and any relationship to body health has not been established.
If you’re curious, Johnson discovered his so-called AndroAge score (or his erection health age) using an Adam Health sensor. It costs £149.00, or about $186, and it currently has a seven-to-eight-week waitlist.
None of this technology is new, though, Spitz said, noting that the only scientifically validated measurement device is the Rigiscan. (Hard to believe Johnson hasn’t gotten his hands on that yet.)
“As far as a true penis age, such as 22, it is unlikely that there is truly the scientific data behind the Adam sensor to accurately report a man’s penis age based on the device’s readings,” Spitz said. “More reasonable assessments would be normal or abnormal.”
Both urologists stressed that men shouldn’t take too much stock of their nighttime erection frequency or the “true age” of their own johnson.
“Measuring your erections may provide useful insights about health and wellness, but you run the risk of becoming overly focused on such measurements, which could even lead to some degree of performance anxiety,” Spitz said.
Turek added that the best ways to keep your penis youthful is to “a) keep it out of trouble and b) keep your body youthful and disease free.”
“I have to be honest, though,” he added. “In my three decades as a men’s health specialist, I have never had a patient ask for a younger penis. Longer? Yes. Wider? Yes. Straighter? Yes. Better performing? Yes. But not younger.”