On an operating table New Jerseythe patient keeps his eyes firmly focused on the ceiling.
He’s wearing a dressing gown, his fingers are intertwined across his chest and, from where I stand, he looks relaxed yet focused – as if he’s about to tell his problems to a psychologist.
But Tom, 35, who has asked to remain anonymous, is not here to talk about his emotional woes. He has his penis enlarged.
Urologist Dr. Stuart Diamond steps forward and carefully parts Tom’s dressing gown, exposing the area where he will be working. He leans forward and inserts a half-inch needle into the side of his member, delivering a small dose of fat to increase its size.
He does it again. And again. And again. It feels like this is going on for a hair-raising amount of time – I count at least a dozen injections in total. Despite my discomfort watching, I notice that Tom doesn’t flinch. I ask him if everything is okay.
“I don’t feel anything,” he answers, without breaking eye contact with the ceiling.
After 10 to 15 minutes, the injections are over and the surgeon begins to gently massage and manipulate Tom’s manhood to ensure that the fat is evenly distributed.
Then, about 45 minutes after the procedure starts, it’s over. Tom’s member is dabbed clean of the small blood spots oozing from the puncture sites, and he stands up, finally daring to look down.
Dr. Stuart Diamond and his wife Noelle are pictured above. Dr. DIamond administers the aloe-Clae injections to Tom’s penis
The picture above shows how the alloClae fat injections are prepared
Dr. Diamond is shown above holding the filler injection. It is located in a side room, away from the main room where the injections into the penis are performed
“I’m excited!” he declares. ‘It looks great!’
Tom is one of a reportedly increasing number of men in the US who are opting for cosmetic procedures to increase the size of their penis.
Such treatments have been around for decades. One of the most common techniques is the use of fillers: a gel usually made of hyaluronic acid, the same substance widely used to plump lips and smooth wrinkles.
Injected under the skin of the penis, the gel adds volume, increasing its girth rather than significantly lengthening it.
But what Tom just injected is very different.
He is one of only three men in the country to have undergone an experimental new procedure that uses donor fat (tissue taken from the bodies of deceased people) to enlarge the penis.
I was the first journalist invited to see the technique being performed.
The treatment uses a product called alloClae, which takes donated fat, extensively processes and purifies it, and then packages it as a ready-to-use product that can be shipped to cosmetic clinics and injected under the skin to add volume.
It may sound macabre, but donated human tissue has long been used in medicine. For example, bones, skin and tendons are routinely transplanted or used in reconstructive procedures.
Now the same principle is finding its way into cosmetic medicine.
Fat is attractive as a filler because it can provide a soft, natural-feeling volume and, unlike conventional fillers, can be absorbed into the body’s own tissue.
However, traditionally using fat for cosmetic enhancement meant having liposuction to extract it from another part of your own body. AlloClae is designed to circumvent that problem: it provides processed donor fat that is ready to be injected, without the patient needing a second procedure to deliver it.
The penis enlargement procedure costs between $8,000 and $12,000.
There is no medical need for it – it is entirely cosmetic, designed to increase size rather than improve sexual function.
Still, doctors say demand for cosmetic penis enlargement has increased in recent years, no doubt fueled by an insecurity that is remarkably common.
Research shows that about half of men worry about the size of their penis, although doctors say almost all of them have no medical reason to do so.
Tom is one of only three men in the country to have undergone an experimental new procedure that uses donor fat (tissue taken from the bodies of deceased people) to enlarge the penis
Above, Dr. Diamond shown injecting filler into Tom’s penis during the procedure. In the background, his wife Noelle is shown preparing the filler for injections
Although dermal fillers are FDA-approved for adding volume to areas such as the lips, cheeks, and chin, they are not approved for injection into the penis.
And there are significant potential complications, including injury, scarring, infections and oblique erections. With injectable fillers there is also a risk that the material can migrate or collect unevenly, causing the penis to look lumpy or misshapen.
For Tom, however, the potential risks were worth taking. His penis functioned normally and no partner had ever reacted negatively to its size, he said, but he had worried about it most of his life.
He simply didn’t want to feel insecure or worried about it anymore, he told me.
Before the procedure, his penis was four inches long, stretched and flaccid. Doctors use this measurement instead of erect length because it provides a more consistent way to assess penis size in the clinic and is the standard method used to diagnose conditions such as micropenis.
Tom’s measurement was below the average stretched length of 6 inches, but remained just above the threshold for a micropenis – the medical term for an abnormally small but otherwise normally shaped penis.
This is generally defined in adults as a stretched flaccid length of less than 3.7 inches.
After the injections, Tom’s stretched flaccid length increased by half a centimeter to 10.5 centimeters.
But the far more significant change occurred in girth: the girth of the penis, and the main target of injectable enlargement procedures.
Then this increased from 3.5 inches, which is about average, to 5 inches.
About Tom, he said that he first became concerned about the size of his penis in his teenage years.
“It was in the baseball locker rooms when I first looked and thought, hey, mine is shorter than everyone else’s,” he says.
‘Nobody ever commented, but it felt weird taking my pants off. Normally I would rush to put them back on quickly.
“When I joined the army, no one said anything anymore, but I still noticed in the changing rooms that mine wasn’t as big as the others.”
Tom has been married for 16 years to his childhood sweetheart, who has also never said anything about his penis size, and the couple have three children together, now aged 14, 12 and six.
Deciding that their family was complete, he opted to have a vasectomy a few years ago. But penis size remained a concern.
He had never tried anything to treat it. But this year he came across one while scrolling News article from Daily Mail which reported on the experimental treatment in New Jersey.
“After I saw that article, I said, ‘Fuck it, why not?’” he said. “I only live a few hours away from the clinic.”
The treatment is offered by Dr. Diamond at the NDA Medical Spa, about a 10-minute drive outside of Philadelphia, which he co-founded with his dietician wife, Noelle.
Tom initially had a consultation with Dr. Diamond, where the couple discussed the potential risks and benefits of the procedure. They also discussed what changes Tom hoped to see – mainly a thicker penis, rather than a significant increase in length.
At the beginning of the procedure, an antiseptic solution was rubbed over Tom’s penis to remove any bacteria, before Dr. Diamond drew two purple lines across the top to guide the injections.
Several injections of the local anesthetic lidocaine followed to ensure he would not feel the procedure.
“I felt a bit of pressure to start, but after that there was nothing,” Tom told me later. “When I got a tattoo, the pain was much worse.”
He gestured to a tattoo covering the front of his right leg.
During the procedure, Dr. Diamond repeatedly around the table to view Tom’s penis from the same perspective as his patient.
“It’s important to me to look at the penis from the patient’s perspective,” he said. ‘I need to know where any asymmetries might be.’
Tom remained conscious the entire time and was able to carry on a conversation.
He was then told to wait two weeks before he could have sex again – the time it took for the filler to sink in.
Dr. Diamond and wife Noelle offer their treatment just outside Philadelphia
He was also sent home with a bag of creams and ointments to apply to his penis daily for the first two weeks to reduce the risk of infection.
No one knows for sure how long alloClae lasts when injected into the penis because the technique is so new.
Research into similar donor fat products used elsewhere on the body has shown that they can retain volume for at least six months, with one patient still seeing results eight years later. However, long-term data remain extremely limited.
Dr. Diamond suggests that the effects on the penis will last for at least a year.
As he left the clinic, Tom said he was excited by the results.
“I’m sure my wife will be happy too,” he said. “My phone is already vibrating. She’s asking how it went.”
He is now looking forward to a family vacation to Florida next month, where he says he will wear his swim shorts with pride.
