‘All the rage right now’

It’s the secret weapon in a different battle of the bulge: dissolvable penis injectables.

“I feel like I’m holding a baseball bat,” Carlos M., 25, said while describing his post-filler phallus to The Post.

The Bronx native — who asked that his full name not be revealed for privacy reasons — tacked on a whopping 1½ inches to his tallywacker by going to Lushful Aesthetics, a New York City-based cosmetic medicine company that, among other procedures, helps widen people’s willies.

Carlos is one of many men who are sexpanding their horizons with injections of hyaluronic-acid-based penis fillers, which are nonsurgical, last for more than a year and are reversible, unlike more invasive implant techniques.

The penis-plumping procedures have been around since 2016 in the millions-strong filler community — but popularity is swelling big time in 2023, experts told The Post.

Penile enhancement pilgrims broaden their appendages by up to a half-inch per session, with some patients adding a whole two inches overall in a bid to boost confidence and improve their performance in the sack.

And it’s not just the lesser-endowed who are seeking the total package.

“My mid-shaft was in the 6- or 6½-inch range,” Ray Dexter, a Lushful Aesthetics client and gay porn star whose privates have spearheaded more than 4 million Google searches, told The Post.

After receiving multiple filler treatments over several years, he claimed, his penis grew to “about 7½ inches” … around.

“I think it had a positive effect on my career,” Dexter proclaimed.

Just like the patients’ phalluses, the appeal is ever-widening.

“This is all the rage right now,” declared Lushful Aesthetics founder Dr. Chris Bustamante, a certified doctorate nurse practitioner specializing in aesthetic medicine whose clients range from working stiffs to, well, porn stars.

“This procedure is just starting to come to light,” said Bustamante, better-known as “Injector Chris” to his 16,500 Instagram followers. “A lot of people don’t even know this really exists.” 

William Moore, a co-founder of the Dallas-based enhancement firm PhalloFILL, said he started in 2020 by injecting friends and people whom he knew.

He now has 16 franchises nationwide, with people from Los Angeles to Detroit and Miami apparently clamoring to get — as the fans of Hollywood’s serial ladykiller Pete Davidson call it — that “big d – – k energy.”

The electric tool-aid acid test

The secret to the revolutionary procedure? Hyaluronic acid, a chemical found in eye and joint fluid that makes it more biocompatible than silicone and other implants.

“The advantages of using the hyaluronic acid filler for this procedure are the safety profile because hyaluronic acid is naturally in your body,” Dr. David Shafer, a double board-certified and award-winning New York City plastic surgeon, told The Post.

He invented SWAG, or the Shafer Width and Girth procedure, which uses, among other ingredients, Voluma gel that is FDA-approved for the chin and cheeks — but used for upping penis volume and doing for phalluses what augmentation does for breasts. (The latter is considered an “off-label” use of the injectable that is not yet approved by the FDA.)

Prices range from $11,000 to $20,000 for a full round of treatment, depending on the type or number of injections and desired size, from small to extra large.

Depending on the patient’s preference, this can require 10 to 20 syringes of filler. While the results begin instantly, the full effects won’t be seen (and felt) for about two weeks, and intercourse is discouraged for 48 hours after the surgery. 

Hyaluronic acid also has a “special bonding between the molecules” that can make the treatment last up to two years, according to Shafer, who claimed he went from seeing around four patients a month in 2016 to 20 this week alone.

SWAG is minimally invasive, taking only around 15 to 20 minutes to fill up two injection sites and only requiring topical anesthetics, such as lidocaine — the same local painkiller used for mosquito bites.

Most appealingly, the phallus-fluffing technique is completely reversible.

“If the patient didn’t like it or wanted to modify the result or had any other issues, there’s a special enzyme we have called hyaluronidase, which we can inject” to dissolve it, according to Shafer.

Patients can also wait it out, as “products are temporary, meaning that their body metabolizes them over time,” said the cosmetic doc. “So it’s different than somebody like the cat lady who has a facelift that looks abnormal, and now she’s stuck with it.”

They’ve come a schlong way

Fillers have seemingly come a long way from other dubious girthing methods, including transplanting abdominal fat onto the penis, which can cause scarring, unevenness and erectile dysfunction.

There’s also the Penuma, a subcutaneous silicone sleeve whose side effects can include erosion or adhesion, where the implant “might stick to the skin inside the penis” or wear away the penile tissue, potentially causing infection, per the Mayo Clinic.

Meanwhile, Moore described treating one patient who received silicone injections in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2018.

“I can’t even describe to you what his penis looked like,” said the PhalloFILL boss, who said it was “bumpy” and “fragmented” like “rock candy.”

As with equivalent procedures for other body parts, these phallic Frankensteins are sometimes created in back-alley clinics without the supervision of board-certified surgeons or urologists.

Meanwhile, so-called length-enhancing procedures — such as cutting the ligament above the penis — can paradoxically shorten one’s member.

On the other hand, widening ironically increases length because if “you have that weight constantly pulling down, you do get some increase in the flash of length,” said Shafer. “And many patients also report a slight increase in the erect length as well.”

Girth control

Girth-enlargement results vary; however, PhalloFILL can give someone around an extra inch during three to four treatment sessions spaced “three weeks apart,” according to Moore.

“That’s 0.25 to 0.3 inches increase per treatment [around six syringes],” declared the filler honcho, who claimed one patient got so big he felt like his penis was laying beside him.

This behemoth bulge can last approximately three years with maintenance, but he recommends topping off one’s manhood every year to keep it at full mast. 

SWAG mastermind Shafer, who also advises getting annual upkeep injections, puts it like this: “[When] you fill your gas tank with gas, you don’t wait for it to go to empty before you fill up … again.”

In other words, patients don’t want the Hulk turning back into Bruce Banner during a big moment.

Post-plumping care is also essential — especially due to potential bruising and swelling following treatment — with Lushful Aesthetics’ Bustamante imposing a hard rule of “24 hours of no touching or engaging the penis” beyond “going to the bathroom.”

Meanwhile, customers should abstain from sex for two weeks, per Bustamante, although Shafer said SWAG patients can make whoopee after 48 hours.

Size does matter

Supersizing oneself unsurprisingly pays dividends in the boudoir, according to patients.

“I think you have a bit more partner satisfaction,” PhalloFILL client John, 60, who gained an inch of girth over three treatments, told The Post. “The simple fact that it is thicker, it speaks for itself.”

Moore claimed that size is essential for good sex as a “3½-inch circumference penis” isn’t big enough to create the “stretch that it needs to create on the clitoris” to “have a good orgasm.”

“I think that is total bulls – – t: that it’s not the size, it’s the motion,” he declared. “I totally disagree.” 

That is crucial for postnatal hanky-panky when “everything’s just a little bit looser” and requires a “tighter fit,” Shafer added.

The perks apparently aren’t just physiological.

“It definitely gave me this confidence boost,” declared Lushful Aesthetics patient Carlos M., who felt his penis was on the “skinnier side” before treatment. “I just feel a lot more sexually liberated, if that makes sense.”

A case in point regarding the mental benefits is adult actor Dexter, who said he “always had a large penis growing up” but “wanted to get bigger.”

The OnlyFans creator has received a total of 34 injections from Bustamante (who dissolved and started over after his filler from a prior provider migrated), which caused his member to balloon from around 6½ to 7½ inches in circumference.

And while the effect on his career is unclear, Dexter said he was personally very “happy” with it and that “80 to 85% of my fans were very happy for me. The other 15 [percent] that weren’t were the haters.”

Wide effects

Penis fillers are not without downsides, which, along with the exorbitant cost of “inflation,” include rare but serious complications such as necrosis, or tissue death, from accidental injections into a blood vessel. 

And not everyone’s eligible for the procedure, with SWAG specifically prohibiting smokers and people on blood thinners — and patients with so-called “micropenises” are, somewhat ironically, viewed as poor candidates.

“We could give very moderate improvement, but you need to have space to put the filler,” said Shafer. “If there’s no canvas, you can’t really paint the painting.”

And while hyaluronic acid penis fillers perhaps represent a major breakthrough, methods are still evolving.

“We’re constantly modifying what we do,” Shafer declared. “It’s not something where we’re just stuck in one point in time. We’re on the forefront of this treatment, and we’re doing everything we can to maximize the results for the patient.”