A man claims his penis shrank 1.5 inches after contracting COVID-19 last year. According to reports, the man, who only identified himself as heterosexual man in his 30s, wrote about the problem in a letter to the “How To Do It” podcast this week.

“In July of last year, I contracted COVID and was very sick,” he wrote. “When I got out of the hospital, I had some erectile dysfunction issues.”

With medical attention, the man said his erectile dysfunction began to improve. However, his downgraded penis persisted as “a lasting problem.”

“Before I got sick [my penis] was above average,” he wrote. “Not huge, but definitely bigger than normal. Now I’ve lost about an inch and a half and become decidedly less than average.”

“It’s apparently due to vascular damage, and my doctors seem to think it’s likely permanent,” he added.

According to Dr. Charles Welliver, who responded to the man’s letter, penis shrinkage is a rare, but real side effect from COVID-19.

“COVID [causes] a mass of respiratory symptoms that leads to a lot of the deaths, but there’s also pretty significant vascular issues that occur with guys,” he said.

Urologist Dr. Ashley Winter also agreed with the diagnosis, saying, “COVID dick is a real thing.”

“The main reason that we think this occurs is something what we call endothelial dysfunction,” she explained on the podcast. “That’s basically the cells that line your blood vessels… and they’re really important for the function of many different organs.”

“And because the erection is a blood flow-event… When those blood vessels are affected, you can get the erectile dysfunction,” she added.

A study published in The Lancet medical journal that observed 3,700 people with COVID-19 found there are more than 200 potential symptoms people can experience from the virus. Symptoms were identified all over the body and a few people in the study, less than 10 percent, reported penis shrinkage.