The Hard and Fast on Penis Filler, a Growing Injectable Trend
By now, Botox and Juvéderm are household names as recognizable as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. People getting poked in the face with needles hardly registers as noteworthy — but unexpected anatomy like the feet and bladder are beginning to make headlines as novel sites for injection. As patients begin to offer up their entire bodies as pincushions, doctors and cosmetic injectors are honing in another anatomical region: the genitalia.
Enter the era of penis filler. Advancements in cosmetic medicine have led to the discovery that hyaluronic acid filler — the same FDA-approved substance used to smooth wrinkles and plump lips — can be injected into the penis to increase its girth.
William Moore developed PhalloFILL, one of several penile girth treatments that uses hyaluronic acid filler, in 2021 after identifying a need for innovation in the penile enhancement arena. Things can get complicated down south and Moore, based in Dallas, Texas, saw first-hand the sticky situations patients found themselves in. Some had received injections of liquid silicone or acrylic — which aren't FDA-approved and tend to migrate away from the intended injection site — in the penis. Others were receiving silicone implants, a practice that has come under recent scrutiny thanks to an exposé published by ProPublica and The New Yorker. Unlike hyaluronic acid, silicone and acrylic are permanent (the body can't break them down). If a patient injected with these substances isn't happy with his results, his only option for correction is surgery. Hyaluronic acid, on the other hand, can be dissolved instantly via an injection of hyaluronidase.
Moore knew that his peers were experimenting with hyaluronic acid as a safer alternative to liquid silicone and acrylic. But online, complaints that injections of the substance made the penis appear lumpy and uneven populated online male enhancement forums. After several years of experimentation, the cosmetic practitioner developed a special injection technique and post-care garment that help ensure the filler appears natural and stays in place.
Currently, PhalloFILL is offered at select providers in the United States. It's not the only option on the market but Billy Cordon-Galiano, a board-certified urologist and director of urologic reconstruction trauma and prosthetics at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, believes it's the best.
"I would argue that the filler we use is a higher quality," he says. "PhalloFILL has been very selective with who they let join the network of providers. They want to ensure a certain standard of care and outcome. PhalloFILL is gathering data and tracking the outcomes of all the patients." Cordon-Galiano, who also serves on PhalloFILL's medical advisory board, cites the treatment's injection technique — which he and other providers cannot elaborate on due to a non-disclosure agreement — as another point of differentiation.
Depending on the amount of desired growth, patients will require multiple injections spaced out over the course of several sessions. "If they're looking for about an inch of girth, which is what most patients are looking for, then they'll do anywhere from six to eight units each session. Each unit is 1.2 ccs," Cordon-Galiano explains. "Spacing it out over a few sessions allows us to see how it interacts with the tissues. It's better for the patients to do a gradual increase in growth so they learn what to expect rather than have a dramatic change very quickly."
The price for an additional inch of width? Approximately $10,000. Again, hyaluronic acid fillers are not permanent and gradually dissolve — this is what makes them a safer alternative to permanent substances. In Cordon-Galiano's experience, most patients require touch-ups every 12 months, though some return every six. "Everyone metabolizes it a little bit differently," he says.
As is the case with any cosmetic procedure involving needles, penis filler isn't a procedure to be taken lightly. Brian McNeil, Chief of Urology at The University Hospital of Brooklyn and the Vice Chair of SUNY Downstate's urology department, notes that the same risks that accompany facial filler (lip injections, liquid nose jobs, etc.) are at play when it comes to penis filler. "Those complications can include bleeding, infection, the formation of a nodule," he explains. In McNeil's opinion, the risk of injection into a blood vessel — a complication that, in extreme cases, can cause necrosis, or tissue death — is relatively low when dealing with the penis. "You can see where the larger [blood] vessels are, but I don't want to say that it's impossible."
Paul Gittens, a board-certified urologist and founder of Rockwell Centers for Sexual Medicine & Wellness, has seen other complications arise. "I've had patients come from other facilities that actually [injected] the filler into the corpora cavernosa, which is one of the cylinders of the penis, which has caused erectile dysfunction. You can get scarring of the penis. You can get something called Peyronie's disease where you have curvature of the penis."
The best way to avoid unsavory side effects? Gittens urges patients to do their due diligence when selecting a provider. "Meet them and ask as many questions as [you] feel comfortable with," he says. "It's important to go to someone who is a urologist, someone who is board-certified and licensed to practice medicine in whatever state you're in," McNeil adds.
When it comes to the patient's side of the equation, Cordon-Galiano treats people who run the gamut in age, relationship status, sexual orientation, and income level. Some are married men whose wives don't enjoy sex the same way they did before having children ("We've saved marriages," Moore enthuses). Some are twenty-year-old bachelors working in tech. Some have small penises. Some are already well-endowed.
Whomever the patient or their reason for increasing their girth, there's no question that penis size is seen as a measure of one's masculinity and desirability. Cordon-Galiano believes that porn has warped perception of what an average, and even large, penis looks like. "The average penis in pornography is much larger than the average penis in the population, so what they're seeing is unrealistic," he says.
While Cordon-Galiano acknowledges that society's emphasis on penis size isn't fair, he believes penile enhancement treatments like PhalloFILL can drastically increase a patient's quality of life. "I've had multiple patients who've had PhalloFILL and told me that it has enhanced their confidence not just in the bedroom, but at work," he says. Moore agrees: "They tell us that they became much more productive. I've had people say, 'I got a job promotion because my dick was bigger. I was more confident and I spoke better and I got more things done because I wasn't sitting around thinking about [my penis] all the time.' It really does control your life."
