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What were the sizes by ethnicity in the wessells penis study

Checked on November 23, 2025
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Executive summary

The specific Wessells et al. [1] paper is cited frequently as a clinical measurement source for penile length (often pooled into meta-analyses), but the provided search results do not include a breakdown of "sizes by ethnicity" reported in Wessells himself; Wessells is listed among measured studies in reviews and systematic analyses [2] [3]. Available sources show many systematic reviews that examine regional/ethnic variation and discuss methodological limits, but they do not give a Wessells-by-ethnicity table in the material you supplied [4] [3].

1. What Wessells et al. measured — and what the reviews say

Wessells, Lue, and McAninch [1] is repeatedly cited as an investigator-measured dataset used in later meta-analyses and reviews; for example, it is named among four measured studies combined to give a pooled mean erect length of 5.36 inches in a social‑desirability/self‑report paper [2]. Systematic reviews that list Wessells as a source use it to help estimate overall means and temporal trends, but those same reviews emphasize heterogeneous methods across studies and limited reporting on ethnicity [3] [4].

2. Do those sources report sizes by ethnicity for Wessells?

The search results you provided do not contain a copy of Wessells et al. with an ethnicity-stratified table, nor do the systematic reviews excerpted reproduce a Wessells-specific breakdown by ethnic group [2] [3] [4]. Therefore: available sources do not mention a Wessells study table listing penis sizes by ethnicity [2] [3].

3. What broader reviews report about ethnicity and regional differences

Larger meta-analyses and systematic reviews in your set discuss geographic or regional variation (WHO regions, country groupings) and sometimes ethnicity coded from primary samples; these reviews find measurable regional differences but stress methodological caveats — measurement technique, sample selection, age ranges, and mixing geography with ethnicity all limit conclusions [4] [5]. For example, a WHO-region meta-analysis reports regional variation but warns that intermixing geography and ethnicity descriptors and inconsistent measurement methods undermine simple racial interpretations [4] [5].

4. Methodological reasons why an ethnicity breakdown is often missing or unreliable

Multiple sources highlight why ethnicity-specific claims are fragile: many studies rely on self-report, have small or clinic-based samples, use different measurement protocols (stretched vs erect vs flaccid), and often do not standardize or report participant race/ethnicity in a comparable way [4] [6]. Critics argue that when you correct for these biases, ethnic differences shrink or disappear, and that some historical claims (e.g., Rushton) have been debunked or are methodologically flawed [6] [7].

5. Competing perspectives in the literature

Some analyses and compilations conclude there are statistically detectable differences across regions or ethnic groupings (for example, global surveys and meta-analyses that present regional averages) [4] [5]. Conversely, critical overviews and commentaries emphasize the low magnitude of differences, pervasive biases, and the potential for racist misuse of findings; they argue legitimate research shows no meaningful, consistent ethnic variation once methodology is corrected [6] [4]. Both perspectives are present in the search results you supplied.

6. What you can do next to find Wessells’ ethnicity data

To confirm whether Wessells et al. reported ethnicity-stratified sizes, consult the original 1996 Journal of Urology article (Wessells H, Lue TF, McAninch JW. Penile length in the flaccid and erect states: guidelines for penile augmentation) directly; the reviews name it but the excerpts here don’t reproduce ethnicity tables [2] [3]. If the goal is robust, ethnicity-specific estimates, prioritize large, clinician-measured datasets or contemporary meta-analyses that explicitly report race/ethnicity and standardize measurement methods [5] [4].

Limitations and transparency: This reply relies only on the search results you provided; those results cite Wessells as a measured source but do not include an ethnicity-by-size table from that paper, so I cannot cite figures Wessells may or may not have published [2] [3].

Want to dive deeper?
What were the sample sizes and ethnic breakdown in Wessells et al.'s penile size study?
How did Wessells et al. measure penile length and girth, and were methods consistent across ethnic groups?
What statistical differences in penile size did Wessells et al. report between ethnicities and were they significant?
Have later studies replicated or challenged Wessells et al.'s findings on penile size and ethnicity?
What are the ethical and methodological critiques of using ethnicity to compare penile size in medical research?