We’ve all read discreet magazine ads, seen silly commercials or received obnoxious e-mails boasting how herbal drugs, vacuum pumps, weights and surgery can make your penis “Bigger, larger and harder!” While some men just turn the page or click delete, others may believe the hype and reach for their debit cards (and rulers) to place an order. But do they really work?

“Patients ask me about male enhancement options all the time,” says Michael O’Leary, MD, a professor at Harvard Medical School and urological surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “There is absolutely no data to support [claims] any oral medications make the penis larger. And I also don’t believe that weights and stretching devices have real benefits—some of them can potentially damage your ability to have an erection.”

Here’s our advice to those who have inflated hopes for a “big one”: Work with what you’ve got, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.