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The problem, as Billy came to believe, was that nearly half his penis was inside his body. This knowledge was unbearable. His erect penis measured 5 and a half inches, but he felt more hiding there beneath the skin, invisible, absolutely useless. He wasn't completely crazy. Some doctors claim that all men have extra penis lurking beneath the skin, like roots underneath a tree trunk. One penile surgeon calls it "inner penis." Billy concluded that his own inner penis was 4 and half inches long. "I knew I had that much penis, but the problem was how to get it out," says Billy.

This sometimes-irrational hankering for a bigger penis is at least partly responsible for the emergence of a very peculiar corner of the cosmetic surgery industry -– penile enhancement surgery. The industry was born in 1991 and currently supports about 30 surgeons. Although neither the American Board of Plastic Surgery nor the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons monitor the industry, it's estimated that at least 15,000 men have had the operation, which now costs about $8,000.

Demand for the surgery soared in the early 1990s but by 1996, with news spreading that men were stumbling out of these back-street surgery centers with penises that were grossly deformed and permanently limp, business waned. Despite the early setback, demand for the surgery is increasing once again. Surgeons have formed the American Society of Phalloplasty Surgeons (ASPS) to lend their craft an air of respectability, and most have stopped running those advertisements in porno magazines that promised to fulfill men's wildest dreams and to double their size. And while they may never escape their seedy roots, many surgeons believe the industry is on the brink of a revival. "I am convinced that this is going to be one of the most popular male cosmetic procedures in the next millennium," says Dr. E. Douglas Whitehead, a surgeon based in New York and president of the ASPS.

The intensity of Billy's desire is surprising, given his belief that a man is more than the size of his penis. The measure of a man, in Billy's opinion, is in his ability to accept and hold down responsibility, to provide for his family, to fight for what's right when the time comes. By his own standards, then, Billy was a man long before his operations, supporting himself and his family through hard work as a coal miner, a logger, a trucker and now as a Christian minister. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall, physically fit despite a paunchy midsection and has black hair that is thinning on top and turning a light shade of gray. He has been married to the same woman for 33 years, since he was 19 and she was 16. From their home in rural West Virginia they raised two children and have seen the births of six grandchildren.

A mining accident many years ago nearly killed Billy. He was crawling on his knees in a seam of coal when the roof caved, crushing him for 12 minutes before the other miners pulled him out. "It was like a car tire slowly running over a frog," says Billy. "I felt like my guts were coming right out of me." His back sustained severe injuries and years later a disc ruptured, causing the left sides of his butt, testicles, and penis to go numb. He still had feeling in the head of his penis and along the right side of the shaft, but to get an erection he had to inject it with a chemical stimulant. When the drug no longer worked he had a doctor give him titanium implants. Now his penis is constantly erect. (He wears very loose pants).

His wife first learned of his desire to have the operation in 1993 while they were lying in bed one evening. Billy told her that in addition to wanting a longer penis, he also hoped the operation might restore some of the sensation he had lost when his disc ruptured. Mary said fine, whatever you want. He made a few phone calls and booked an appointment with a surgeon in nearby Virginia.

Next page | The penis surgery king claimed his patients would double in length!