Koro (disease)
genital-related neurosis, in which an individual has an overpowering belief that one’s genitalia are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals
Koro is a culture-bound delusional disorder in which individuals have an overpowering belief that their sex organs are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals. Koro is also known as shrinking penis, and was listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The syndrome occurs worldwide, and mass hysteria of genital-shrinkage anxiety has a history in Africa, Asia and Europe. In the United States and Europe, the syndrome is commonly known as genital retraction syndrome.
The condition can be diagnosed through psychological assessment, along with physical examination to rule out genuine disorders of the genitalia that could be causing true retraction.
The word was borrowed from Malay and means the head of a turtle (or tortoise), referring to how it looks when they retract their heads into their shells.
Signs and symptoms
Most patients report acute anxiety attacks due to perceived genital retraction and/or genital shrinkage, despite a lack of any objectively visible biological changes in the genitalia that are longstanding. "Longstanding" refers to changes that are sustained over a significant period of time and do not appear reversible, unlike the effect of cold temperatures on some genital regions that cause retraction. These changes may trigger a koro attack when observed, although the effects of cold temperatures are objectively reversible.
According to literature, episodes usually last several hours, though the duration may be as long as two days.
The public source identifies “Koro (disease)” as genital-related neurosis, in which an individual has an overpowering belief that one’s genitalia are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Koro, disease and genital-related.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1080699. The Library of Congress control number is sh00009280. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Koro (disease)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.