Could What You Eat While Pregnant Affect Your Son’s Penis Size?

It is considered among the general population that to have a large penis is desirable and when we hear the words “it’s a boy” that’s the first thing we as parents check and it is with great relief when we see that everything looks as normal as possible and the bigger the better.

What if there were things that you ate or were exposed to during pregnancy that could potentially make your baby boy’s penis smaller than normal? You’d want to know, right?

There have been numerous articles like that make mention of a possible correlation between eating chicken while pregnant and the potential risk to the resultant size of your baby boy’s penis.

And it seems to have all started with “PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) asked that pregnant women be banned from the annual chicken wing eating competitions held each year in Buffalo, New York because of research linking chicken consumption by expecting women to health risks for their unborn babies; namely, smaller penis size in boys and blocked arteries at birth in both sexes.”

“Findings published by the Study for Future Families showed that eating poultry during pregnancy may lead to smaller penis size in male infants,” says Lindsay Rajt, PETA’s associate director of campaigns. “In addition, eating cholesterol laden chicken flesh during pregnancy may also increase unborn babies’ risk of being born with blocked arteries, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks later in life.”

Women’s Health decided to investigate these claims and learned that:

• “The research PETA mentioned didn’t look at chicken consumption at all – it looked at how prenatal phthalate exposure affects boys reproductively in a variety of ways, one of which was penis size. It is true that, according to the Study for Future Families’ research, boys born to moms with the highest levels of phthalate exposure were more likely to have shorter penises than those born to moms with the lowest levels of phthalate exposure.”

So what are these are phthalates?

Phthalates are substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability and longevity. They are used in a huge range of common products including lubricants, personal care products such as perfume, eye shadow, moisturizer, nail polish, liquid soap and hair spray, medical devices, detergents, children’s toys, paints and ummmm sex toys. The vast majority of people are exposed to some level of phthalates and most Americans if tested, would show traces of them in their urine.

Exposure may be through direct use (chewing on pens and erasers or storing food in plastic containers and heating those containers in the microwave) or indirectly from the vast amount of plastics that are poured into our environment, leached into the soil and subsequently eaten by livestock. Diet is believed to be the main source in the general population. Fatty foods such as milk, butter and meats are a major source but chicken did not rate highly on the list.

The problem with these phthalates is that if a pregnant mother is exposed to enough of them during the gestation period that it can cause a higher likelihood of urogenital malformation in males. This could include their sexual organs not developing normally, undescended testicles and a shorter distance between the anus and genitals which is associated with feminization.

As for babies being born with clogged arteries there seems to be little research anywhere linking chicken or phthalates during pregnancy to this condition, although there is evidence that overweight or obese women can give birth to babies with thicker than normal artery walls which can lead to heart attacks and strokes in later life.

To summarise, it would seem that the PETA claims of poultry consumption causing harm to your unborn babies is untrue but there is concern with links to your baby’s reproductive system and phthalates.

It is recommended to eat organic, unprocessed food whenever possible and steer clear of storing food in plastic containers (and in particular, heating or re-heating food in plastic containers).