A North Carolina man has challenged anyone on earth to disprove his claim of having the world’s smallest penis as he advocates against body shaming and aims to raise awareness about the medical condition known as micropenis.

Michael Phillips, 38, threw down the gauntlet in an interview posted Friday on TMZ’s YouTube channel, in which he purported that his penis was 0.38in (0.97cm) when fully erect – and, holding up the fingernail on his right pinky to illustrate that length, added: “When it’s flaccid, it’s smaller than that.”

He remarked that “research [he had] done online” led him to believe he was endowed with the globe’s smallest member. But, he added, “I welcome anybody to [go] out there and beat me,” during a 10-minute conversation that perhaps may have to be seen to be believed.

Phillips indicated to TMZ that he had been diagnosed with having a micropenis in 2025. He evidently agreed to the interview with the gossip outlet to reduce stigma about the condition, asserting: “It’s not just some slang term that people use on the internet.”

Furthermore, Phillips suggested having a micropenis is no laughing matter and wanted to encourage prompt medical intervention for anyone who – like him – had endured intimacy struggles while grappling with the realities of the condition.

Information from the Cleveland Clinic shows anyone with a stretched penile length of 2.67in (9.3cm) is considered to have a micropenis. The condition is rare, affecting about 0.6% of people worldwide, according to the clinic’s information.

Phillips recounted how “several occasions of being in a position where I could have sex and trying and not being successful … led to me wanting to go see if there was anything I could do to increase the size” of his penis. He also said using the bathroom can be difficult because “it goes everywhere and stuff like that”.

He said the medical providers who ultimately diagnosed his condition “didn’t give any … advice on how to increase it” but advised “there’s minor things that can be done”.

Phillips went on to explain that he now grasps he can’t get intimate in the “traditional sense” – meaning “penetrative sex” – and instead relies on oral stimulation and other forms of “fooling around” in his romantic pursuits.

He said he was recently in a satisfying relationship that really only ended because it was long distance. Yet, he confided, it still all “affects me as far as, like, confidence and wanting to approach new people, especially females”.

Phillips acknowledged to TMZ that he had researched whether there was a Guinness World Records category for which he could submit, given what he was working with.

He alluded accurately to how that organization, it turned out, does not keep records pertaining to human sexual organs.

Phillips stands apart from other men who have sought to lay claim to the unofficial title of wielding the world’s largest penis, including Jonah Falcon and Roberto Esquivel Cabrera.

He said he went in the opposite direction in part to speak out against the notion that people who have road rage, park incorrectly or drive “jacked-up trucks” do so because they are overcompensating for having micropenises.

“In reality, I believe that has nothing to do with it,” Phillips said.