NEW YORK - Despite eons of speculation to the contrary, two British scientists have laid to rest the idea that a man's shoe size is in any way correlated to the size of his penis.
Their scientific study found no link between the two variables, according to a report in the British Journal of Urology International.
"This myth has now been dispelled," Jyoti Shah of St. Mary's Hospital in London told Reuters Health. "There is no point using shoe size to obtain indirect measurements of penile length."
To date, there have only been two studies that evaluated the relationship between the size of a man's foot and the length of his penis, according to Shah and colleague Dr. N. Christopher of University College Hospitals. While one study showed a "weak correlation" the other showed no correlation--but this study relied on men self-reporting their own penis length and shoe size.
In the current study, the researchers studied men visiting a urologist for various reasons. Because it wasn't feasible to measure the length of the erect penis, the researchers measured the penis when gently stretched.
"There is a strong correlation between stretched penile length and erect, and thus it is not necessary to obtain erect lengths," Shah said in an interview with Reuters Health. "The correlation is so strong that the results can be extrapolated to erect penises."
In all, 104 men had their penis measured and had their shoe size recorded.
The investigators found no correlation between shoe size and penis length.
"The supposed association of penile length and shoe size has no scientific basis," they conclude in the report.
Is there another body part that accurately estimates the size of a man's penis?
"There are suggestions from the literature that hand span, finger lengths or nose size...may be predictive," according to Shah.
"I have some ideas that I am currently putting together as a research proposal," the researcher added. "There must be some part of the body that is predictive of penile length...the search continues."
