Peyronie's disease is a connective tissue disorder of the penis that leads to bending and disfiguration of the penis and to hard thickened inelastic areas in the penis.

Peyronie's disease consists of  fibrous tissue, called plaques, developing within the penile shaft. The plaques are hard, thickened and stiff areas with exagerated growth of connective tissue, actully a kind of internal scarring.

The Peyronie's ailment is also called cavernositis, and also sometimes plastic induration. There is probably a chronic inflammation process that leads to this scarring.

Scarring is fibre rich conective tissue that can grow on places in the human body. Usually this happen to repair damage. Chronic inflammation in areas in the body often lead to damages that causes exagerated growth of scar tissue.

The thickened area has less blood flow than normal penile tissue, and do not fill with blood and swell as the normal spongy areas in the inside of the penis. Therefore the penis swells more at the opposite side, and gets a curvature towards the side containing the plaques when erected.

If the plaques are situated at both sides, more complex deformations will develop. The abnormal bending, twisting or swelling within the penis, often also lead to painful erections.

Scar tissue formed to repair damage or caused by inflammation tend to be replaced by normal functioning tissue after some time. This can happen also by Peyronie's disease. Therefore the  condition can sometimes improve or heal by itself. 

The diseases is named after the  French surgeon, François de la Peyronie, that first described the disease in 1743.

The three main characteristics of cavernositis are:

• One or more small hard lumps underneath the skin, or a continous hard, stiff and thickened area.

• Abnormal bent or crooked penis when erect. All penises have some curvature, but by this disease, the penile bend increases, and one may get a very curved penis. The penis may be bent as a banana or in an angular fasion. The penile bending are most often up, but may be  down, to the left side, to right, sloping or down.

• The benings are usually to the same side of the hard thickened area when the penis is erected.

• The hard areas in the erected penis may look like bumps, making the penis irregular.

• Sometimes the penis bends greatly enough to make sexual intercourse difficult, or impossible.

• The plastic induration may progress and cause erctile dysfunction or impotence.

• Pain during erections caused by the pressure from the hard areas in the penis, or from the streched skin at the opposite side of the penis.

• One may not notice the bend immediately, as it tends to develop over one to three months and later than the hardness and stiffness of the indurations.

• Sometimes the Peyroni's disease will clear up by itself,  but this may take several years.

• Plastic induration of the penis is not cancer or an infection, and cannot cause cancer or infections, however a lomp or deformation in your genitals that developes, must be examined. 

The disease sometimes makes it difficult or impossible to perform intercourse or other sexual activities, or the joy of sexual activities is dimmished or gone. This may lead to emotional distress and  problems in the relationship with the partner.

How common is Peyronie's disease?

Any man from the age of 18 and upwards can develope Peyronie's disease. The average age of men suffering from Peyronie`s disease is 50. The disease is most often seen in caucasian males. Ca 1 % of all men have this disease to some degree.

Men having Peyronie's disease also often have connective tissue disease in their hands and feet, for example a condition called  Dupuytren's contracture, which is a cord-like thickening across the palm causing fingers to pull inward.

The cause and development of Peyronie`s disease