--- title: Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers description: The ratio of the length of a man's index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-07-06T12:00:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:56:36.370Z article:section: Health og:title: Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers og:description: The ratio of the length of a man's index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba9ee5c08ad3e2b/698a9466e6e84a33102b92cb/healthland_finger_0705.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: healthland_finger_0705 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers twitter:description: The ratio of the length of a man's index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba9ee5c08ad3e2b/698a9466e6e84a33102b92cb/healthland_finger_0705.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 6, 2011 12:00 PM UTC  Photo-Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME; Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 6, 2011 12:00 PM UTC The ratio of the length of a man’s index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but new research suggests that it’s linked with penis size. The lower the ratio, the longer the penis.more The new [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21725330) was conducted on 144 Korean men who were hospitalized for urological surgery. A researcher measured the patients’ penile length — flaccid and stretched — just after they went under anesthesia for their operations. A different researcher measured the men’s finger lengths, in order to prevent knowledge of one measurement unconsciously affecting the other. **MORE:** [Add Inches!! (No, Really, Men Can Make It Longer)](http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/22/add-inches-no-really-men-can-make-it-longer/) They data suggested that those with a lower ratio, whose index finger (or second finger, 2D) was shorter than the ring finger (or fourth finger, 4D), had a longer stretched penis length, which is well correlated with erect size. “Based on this evidence, we suggest that digit ratio can predict adult penile size,” the researchers, led by Dr. Tae Beom Kim of Gachon University in Incheon, Korea, wrote. Previous studies have linked the so-called 2D:4D ratio of finger length with exposure to the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone in the womb. So it’s plausible that the same exposure may affect penis length. Higher testosterone levels during fetal development are associated with a lower 2D:4D ratio, while higher estrogen levels are connected with a higher one. Most men have index fingers that are shorter (low ratio) than their ring fingers, while most women’s index fingers are the same size or longer (high ratio) than their ring fingers. Research has shown, however, that lesbians and female-to-male transgendered people are [more likely](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18585715) to have more “male” ratios. Finger-length ratios have been linked previously with a variety of other characteristics: in both males and females, lower ratios are associated with better athletic performance. In men, one [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19139402) found that a lower ratio was connected with more success at high-frequency financial trading, while another [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21468594) associated it with better performance on medical school entrance exams; women were not included in those studies. Men with lower 2D:4D ratios were also more likely to have more “masculine” features, to have more symmetrical faces, and to be considered attractive by women, according to another [study](http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/04/19/rspb.2011.0544). Yet other research links low 2D:4D ratios with higher rates of alcohol consumption and alcoholism itself. Some data suggest that a more “female” finger-length ratio in men is associated with [increased risk](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21445935) for oral cancer but [reduced risk](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21119657) for prostate cancer. In both boys and girls, lower and more “male” 2D:4D ratios have also been repeatedly [connected](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19759064) with autism; interestingly, a recent study also found that female-to-male transgendered people are [more likely to have autistic traits](http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/18/study-why-some-transgendered-people-have-higher-levels-of-autistic-traits/). **MORE:** [Guys Are Right: Size Matters, When It Comes to Fertility](http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/16/guys-are-right-size-matters-fertility-wise/) Of course, it remains to be seen whether the correlation between penis size and 2D:4D ratio holds true in non-Korean men or in Korean men who aren’t having some type of urological surgery. But if so, digit ratio could be good for more than just a pick-up line at a bar. An easy and non-invasive measurement, it could give doctors a quick way to gauge how much testosterone their patients were exposed to in the womb, wrote Dr. Denise Brooks McQuade of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in an editorial accompanying the study. The [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21725330) was published in the _Asian Journal of Andrology_. _Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at_ [_@maiasz_](http://twitter.com/#%21/maiasz)_. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s_ [_Facebook page_](http://www.facebook.com/TIMEHealthland) _and on Twitter at_ [_@TIMEHealthland_](http://twitter.com/#%21/TIMEHealthland)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/"},"headline":"Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers","datePublished":"2011-07-06T12:00:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:56:36.370Z","description":"The ratio of the length of a man's index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba9ee5c08ad3e2b/698a9466e6e84a33102b92cb/healthland_finger_0705.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba9ee5c08ad3e2b/698a9466e6e84a33102b92cb/healthland_finger_0705.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"healthland_finger_0705","caption":"","creditText":"Photo-Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME; Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141110/penis-size-it-may-be-written-in-the-length-of-his-fingers/","name":"Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers"}}]}] ```