Penis Illustration

Picture of the Penis

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The penis is the male sex organ, reaching its full size during puberty. In addition to its sexual function, the penis acts as a conduit for urine to leave the body.

The penis is made of several parts:

• Glans (head) of the penis: In uncircumcised men, the glans is covered with pink, moist tissue called mucosa. Covering the glans is the foreskin (prepuce). In circumcised men, the foreskin is surgically removed and the mucosa on the glans transforms into dry skin.
• Corpus cavernosum: Two columns of tissue running along the sides of the penis. Blood fills this tissue to cause an erection.
• Corpus spongiosum: A column of sponge-like tissue running along the front of the penis and ending at the glans penis; it fills with blood during an erection, keeping the urethra -- which runs through it -- open.
• The urethra runs through the corpus spongiosum, conducting urine out of the body.

An erection results from changes in blood flow in the penis. When a man becomes sexually aroused, nerves cause penis blood vessels to expand. More blood flows in and less flows out of the penis, hardening the tissue in the corpus cavernosum.