THE Aesthetic Guide November/December 2016 | Michael Moretti, Editor-in-Chief
With technologies continually advancing to provide better results with less discomfort and downtime, cosmetic procedures are increasingly appealing to men. For years, male patient volume hovered around 5% of all aesthetic patients, but those days are gone as the number of men seeking procedures has been spiking in recent years. Of particular interest to men are body shaping / skin tightening, hair regrowth or removal, neurotoxins and/or dermal filler injections and physician-dispensed skincare.
“Penile enhancement is going to be a big trend,” said Dr. Mueller. “If you look at current developments among treatment for women, there are now effective energy-based devices that perform vaginal rejuvenation. The natural pathway is going to be procedures that give men larger penises with added girth. Whoever figures out how to do these types of procedures safely and non-surgically will be very wealthy.”
According to Dr. Perito, “With the rise of testosterone replacement therapy came a surge of men seeking aesthetics. Men are continuing to seek sexual satisfaction much later in life, with some studies claiming more than 35% of 80-year-old males remain sexually active. If active, why not look good doing it?”
“When specifically addressing penile girth enhancement, we have found that previous stumbles in the science behind these treatments led to a justified fear of the procedure,” Dr. Perito continued. “With many unfounded, unstudied girth enhancement techniques in the public eye, patients will remain hesitant to seek treatment.”
However, physicians have been working toward more clinically safe therapies that have moved away from surgery. “Unlike my female incontinence patients who are very comfortable with surgical intervention, my male patients want something quick and easy or not at all,” Dr. Perito pointed out. “If they can have it done in one shot then they are happy.”
In the past, penis-related concerns were the domain of the urologist. “It was about erectile dysfunction and sensitivity,” stated Dr. Emer, “But we now have a lot of younger patients asking what they can do to look bigger, because their bodies feel and look so good and they want everything else to look better. They ask these things of their aesthetic physician now, so we are uniquely qualified to add penile rejuvenation to the patient’s agenda of treatments.”
Emerging approaches to penis aesthetics have involved PRP and/or stem cell injections, and fat grafting to that area. “We are even injecting BOTOX to decrease sweating in that area, as well as hair removal and laser-based treatments,” continued Dr. Emer. “We are using YAG-based lasers (Aerolase Neo) to stimulate blood flow around the penis and to remove veins on the scrotum. As a result, patients that had difficulty getting an erection are getting four or five per day without surgery, pumps, or pills.”
While it had previously been considered a totally hush-hush topic, penile enhancement or rejuvenation is currently “the next big thing in aesthetics,” Dr. Perito concluded. “Men are basically asking ‘where’s the beef’ when it comes to penile aesthetics, and in larger numbers, they say that they want to feel better about their genital area, just like women.”
