Penis Panic

Penis Panic or Genital Retraction Syndrome, as it’s technically known is a condition when someone completely believes that his genitals are retracting back into the body. Females also suffer from Genital Retraction syndrome where they think their breasts are shrinking.

Penis panic is often linked to masses in culture specific domains where’s there’s often mass hysteria or panic where large percentage of males within a group start having this belief that their penis is shrinking into their bodies. Penis panic has been reported in Asia and Africa and sometimes the deep belief has led to fatalities.

There are local terms for penis panic. For instance, in Malaysia and Indonesia it’s called Koro (which, by the way, means head of a turtle, drawing similarities between the head of the turtle shrinking back under the shell and the penis retracting back into the body.) The Chinese call it Shook Yang. Penis Panic was last reported in China back in 1975-1984.

While penis panic is believed to be a psychological issue and research is ongoing to find relief, it’s being discovered that mass hysteria plays a far bigger role than previously thought. It has often been reported to have occurred in conjunction with occult beliefs and witchcraft when people believe that a curse could be cast to retract the penis and that leads o panic setting in and mass belief. In a related finding, it seems to be more frequent in areas where knowledge and education of science and psychology is limited.

Though it’s about the penis shrinking back into the body, Penis panic is not really a physical medical situation, but a psychological belief issue.