Inside the Wild West of male genital enhancement: How ‘average’ guys are paying $20,000 for off-label fillers, Botox shots and ‘shockwave’ therapy… despite the terrifying risks

Kenny, a firefighter from Texas, had filler injected into his penis eight years ago.

His wife still has no idea.

It is his not so little secret.

At the time, Kenny, as a single man, had struggled with erectile dysfunction for years and was growing frustrated with the local urology clinics that wanted to write him a Viagra prescription and send him out the door as quickly as possible.

He was not interested in medicine. He wanted to get to the root of his problems.

So he traveled to Morganstern Urology in Atlanta—the “longest-running men’s sexual health clinic” in America—to find a lasting cure.

“It was a miracle,” Kenny told DailyMail.com of the various treatments he received, including some that manually manipulated his blood flow. ‘Within a week I started having erections naturally.’

That’s part of the reason he took the chance when his doctors sold him.

For a total of $3,000 plus costs covered by his health insurance, Kenny was told he could not only treat his emergency room care but also increase his size.

The treatment involves the injection of an off-label filler, hyaluronic acid, which is injected under the skin on the shaft of the penis. Kennedy agreed.

Hyaluronic acid occurs naturally in the body and lubricates and protects our joints. It is usually used to plump cheeks and lips. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has not yet approved it for therapies below the waist.

“It was a lot fuller, just thicker,” Kenny said. “Thick as hell, about two and a half inches around.”

After a few days of rest, during which he was advised not to have sexual intercourse, he immediately received critical acclaim.

“Women’s eyes were bulging out of their heads,” he said. ‘I’ve never had those reactions before. A few girls I went out with were like, ‘Wow.'”

‘It helped my self-confidence. I felt like it couldn’t go wrong,” he said, adding that the pump gave him an “extra arsenal” in the bedroom.

Kenny (whose name has been changed to protect his anonymity) met his wife six years later, but decided not to tell her about his procedure.

“I would have told her from the beginning, but it’s been too long now. “I hate keeping a secret, but I’m not ashamed of it,” he said.

More and more men like Kenny are now discovering this growing cosmetic trend – and it’s translating into big business for boutique clinics at the cutting edge of male enhancement.

Dr. David Shafer, 50, a double board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, and inventor of the SWAG (Shafer Width and Girth) procedure, said filler procedures make up 50 percent of all the work he does now.

“When I first started doing it in 2017, I was seeing maybe one or two patients a week,” he said. “Now we have four or five a day.”

New York nurse Chris Bustamante, 32, said he treats so many men that he no longer remembers how many patients he has seen.

Bustamante, better known as ‘InjectorChris’ to his 21,000 Instagram followers, said that since opening his medical spa ‘Lushful Aesthetics’ two years ago, revenues have more than doubled to $2.2 million.

Half of his sales come from patients seeking girth improvement. But that’s not all it offers.

The full menu of intimate procedures includes Botox injections into the penis or scrotum to help the treated areas hang lower.

A ‘P-Shot’ delivers platelet-rich plasma via injection directly into the tissue to stimulate harder erections.

And ‘Shockwave Therapy’ – a non-invasive treatment that sends powerful acoustic pulses through the penis – boosts blood flow and sexual performance.

But by far, penis filler is preferred.

Bustamante estimates that half of his clientele are gay men, a notable number of whom are in the adult entertainment industry.

Boomer Banks – a gay porn star – tweeted his support for Bustamante’s handy work last month, writing, “The bigger the better… Thanks to InjectorChris.”

Adult film star Ricky Roman was another satisfied customer. He tweeted last year: ‘Loving the GIRTH’.

However, Bustamante said the vast majority of his customers are regular guys.

“I see more of you Average Joes than porn stars,” he told DailyMail.com.

An appointment at Lushful Aesthetics usually lasts an hour. After a consultation, Bustamante injects his patient with nerve blockers, applies a numbing cream for the pain and injects a dose of Trimax – a drug that induces an erection – so he can see what he is working with.

“By ‘shaking’ the patient, you as an artist can visualize the entire area,” he claimed. “I find that a lot of people who do this when the patient is completely limp get very uncomfortable, strange results.”

Filling involves the nurse guiding the syringe back and forth and using the thumb to wipe away any unsightly lumps.

A typical penis filler treatment at Bustamante’s clinic uses approximately 15 syringes of hyaluronic acid (someone with full lips typically receives one syringe). That adds at least a half-inch of girth and costs $10,500.

Injecting the filler only takes about ten minutes – and patients go home with their treated areas covered in Vaseline and wrapped gauze.

They may be “hyper swollen” for a few days and are instructed to avoid sex, hot tubs, pools, and saunas for 24 hours.

Bustamante also advises the newbies to massage their penises for 15 minutes every day for two weeks. This helps ‘drain’ the swelling to prevent the filler from loosening and causing minor irregularities.

In the event that a patient is unhappy with the results, ‘Hylenex’ injections can be used to dissolve the filler, although Bustamante claimed he has never had to do that.

Josh, a 35-year-old gay man living in New York City and working at Financial Technology Services, claims he was above average size to begin with, but wanted something with more “shock factor.”

He spent $18,000 to enlarge his penis by an inch.

“Partners have noticed the difference,” Josh boasted, but he says he appreciates “the eye-catching aspect” of his new penis even more.

He took his improvements one step further and requested 15 syringes of hyaluronic acid to also be injected into the subdermal layer of his scrotum.

Bustamante said “ScroFill” is the “best-kept secret” for men looking to expand their overall package because everything looks bigger under a pair of tiny shorts or Speedos.

‘ScroFill’ only ‘thickens’ the skin, Bustamante explains. No filler enters the actual scrotum.

“I’ve had guys who started with 15 shots in their scrotum and worked their way up to 45,” he said. “It looks like they have a huge ball sack.”

Josh told DailyMail.com that he plans to return to the clinic for a top-up before going on a beach holiday to Greece at the end of the summer.

‘When you wear swimsuits, you see it. It stands out, it’s like, “Oh hey!”

Depending on individual metabolism and biochemistry, treatments can last between 12 and 24 months – and are considered quite safe.

A 2021 Chinese study followed 230 patients with penile fillers and found that only 4 percent experienced mild complications, such as subcutaneous bleeding, infections, tissue decay, or unsightly bumps.

But that does not mean that penis enlargement is completely without risk.

Going to an unlicensed clinic, Bustamante warned, is a clear no-no.

In February 2020, a 32-year-old man in Germany died of septic shock after a restaurant worker posing as a doctor injected silicone oil into his penis instead of hyaluronic acid.

Bustamante also warned potential patients to be aware of feelings of body dysmorphia – a mental disorder characterized by an obsession with imagined physical imperfections.

He recalled refusing to treat a patient who had a “Frankenstein penis,” which was twisted and scarred from overuse of penis pumps — devices that use vacuum suction to stretch the penis.

Despite all this, Bustamante believes the future of penis enhancement is bright and predicts that it will one day be as common as breast implant surgery in women.

Kenny from Texas isn’t so sure.

Now, almost a decade later, he admits that the effects of his filler have faded.

“With the expansion you’re going to have a nice year,” he said. ‘When my wife first saw it, she thought, “Oh my God, it’s thick,” and I thought to myself, “You should have seen it sooner!”

Now Kenny thinks the best money he ever spent was on his… hair transplants.