male, erections, prepubescenceMy young boys from an early age would occasionally exclaim, “Look, my wee-wee is hard!” Sure enough, it would look like they had some sort of prepubescent erection: an engorged penis, but one that doesn’t even rise to a 90-degree angle.
I honestly don’t recall anything like this as a child with 4 brothers, but maybe we just didn’t consider it noteworthy.
Do erections occur in all prepubescent males?
And what is it about the penis that changes in pubescence to increase the angle of erections?
Boys get erections even as a fetus before they are born. And during sleep even toddlers get nightly erections (“nocturnal penile tumescence”). So it is absolutely normal that boys also get erections when they are awake. The body of every healthy boy is capable of producing an erection.
When not during the period of sleep, this very often goes together with manual stimulation, from simply touching up to fully masturbation, even in very young years. I remember that I masturbated when I was 5, probably I did it before, but I have no memories of those early days. And when I was 7, I learned from my classmates, that they did the same, and some of them also had those 90°-erections. Many years ago I also talked with two nurses (teachers of 3- to 6-year-old kids) (independently from each other), who also said, that they often have seen masturbation even by 3-year-old boys and girls, and both women said that this is not rare.
But I also have heard of many adult men who pretend to never have had erections as a prepubescent boy. The first few times I heard this, I thought they were lying, because one might think this could have something to do with sexual abuse, but since then I've heard this so often that now I really believe that there are men who really never had erections before puberty.
So, to answer your question “Do erections occur in all prepubescent males?”
Yes, they do at least occur in all healthy prepubescent males when they are sleeping. But there seem to be many boys who don't get erections when they are awake before puberty.
Second question: “And what is it about the penis that changes in pubescence to increase the angle of erections?”
There is a ligament that fixes the erected penis in an upright position (see Suspensory ligament of penis on Wikipedia). I guess (but am not absolutely sure), that at some boys before puberty, this ligament is too long to fix the erected penis in the upright position.
BTW: When the penis is limp, this ligament holds it up too. So there is a method of penis-“enlargement”, where this rope is cut through. So when the limp penis hangs down, now it hangs down further and therefore looks longer. But then is also hangs down when it is erected.
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