What causes Peyronie's disease?

What causes Peyronie's disease?

Philip Werthman, FACS (Director, Center for Male Reproductive Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What is "Peyronie's disease"?; What causes Peyronie's disease?; What are the symptoms of Peyronie's disease? and more...

Peyronie's disease is caused by one of two things. Either it's a congenital problem where someone is born with a curvature of the penis, or more specifically, it's a scar that forms in the aligning of the penis that causes the penis to bend toward the side of the scar. The penis is comprised of elastic cylinders, or actually, they're semi-elastic, where they'll grow to a certain point and then they'll become rigid. If there's a scar in one of these areas, then that area loses its elasticity, so that site can't grow, so it results in a curvature of the penis.It's almost like if you took one of those long children's water balloons and you were to fill it up, it would get longer and longer and longer, and then it would get to a certain point and then it would stop getting longer. If you were to put a piece of Scotch tape on one side, all of a sudden, when you fill it up, that side won't expand, so it's going to curve to the side where the scar, or in this scenario, the Scotch tape is.