It’s true boxer-briefs will always score higher than tighty-whitties in the sex-appeal department, but according to scientific research, clothing that restricts a man from letting it all hang out goes against nature and could do some major harm to a man’s baby batter freezer. At least that’s according to a new study published in peer-reviewed journal Evolutionary Psychology on why testicles descend.
According to the study, because the scrotum maintains testicular temperatures below body temperature, as it is the optimal environment condition for sperm production and storage, the testicles thus hang outside the body to maintain the desired temperature.
While in the testes, sperm activity is minimal, keeping them in a dormant state. Conversely, when testicular temperatures increase, so does sperm activity. However, capacitation — the process in which the sperm head’s membrane destabilizes in order to allow the sperm to fertilize eggs — only last from 50 minutes to four hours. That is to say, your testes aren’t meant to be under high temperatures with high sperm activity for very long.
It is believed that this is why clothing that restricts testicular descent lowers sperm count, because the testes are pressed against the body, thus raising testicular temperatures which are bad for sperm storage and production. Similarly, if temperatures drop too low, testicles ascend into the man’s body as a means to keep warm and prevent hypothermia or any other damage.
Some researchers believe that testicular thermoregulation is also the reason why a man’s testicles descend at different levels, with one being lower than the other. The surface area needed for heating dissipation and cooling increases with scrotal asymmetry, where each testicle isn’t positioned immediately adjacent to the other.
The male body is genetically designed to maintain the testicular environment at its ideal temperature in the scrotal sack’s skin being thin enough to dispel heat, but there are also veins that serve as a cooling mechanism, carrying blood away from the scrotum when necessary.
The body isn’t just wired to cool a man’s marbles when things get too hot, but it is also wired to feel an excruciating amount of pain when injured. The research study suggests the pain is high for evolutionary purposes, so to ensure that males avoid situations and refrain from behavior that would lead to damage, and therefore prevent reproductive success.
But let’s be honest here, despite whatever excruciating pain may come with a man injuring his gonads, there will always be a Johnny Knoxville or Steve-O who will foolishly put them at risk. Even then, a man’s body knows better and will naturally protect itself in response to threatening stimuli.
According to the study, the cremasteric muscle is triggered by the cremasteric reflex, which is responsible for pulling a man’s balls up closer to his body in hopes of reducing “testicular vulnerability,” as is theorized to be the case when a man’s balls draw close to the body while thrusting during sex to prevent any unpleasant damage.
So there you have it, roosters and clams: why they hang, why one droops, and why it hurts so much when testicles are injured. I still have some unanswered questions, like why some dude’s balls droop extensively lower than others, but alas, that wasn’t addressed in their issue. But seriously, why do some dude’s balls droop so much lower? I’d rather an uncircumcised penis that overly-droopy balls any day. There’s just something unnatural about balls that look like chandeliers.
Source: EvolutionaryPsychology via ScientificAmerican
