Every man who has put on an athletic supporter must have wondered why his “family jewels” are suspended in such a vulnerable position. Why hasn’t nature tucked the testicles into the protective confines of the pelvis like their female counterparts, the ovaries? The simple reason is temperature. Low temperature is essential for testosterone output and sperm production. But modern conveniences may warm things up or have other unintended effects on testicular function. Just from prolonged sitting the temperature of your testes can raise by six degrees!
(This article is an excerpt from Shafiq Qaadri’s book The Testosterone Factor: A Practical Guide to Improving Vitality and Virility, Naturally)
Six degrees is huge. You can feel a six-degree difference. That’s the difference between, say, a comfortable room temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and an oppressive 81 degrees. In fact, each batch of testosterone and sperm is monitored for quality-control purposes. Heated testosterone does not pass the testes’ own quality-control tests.
Heat damages both Testosterone output and sperm production. In fact, hot-tub temperatures cause the testes to send out a mini-grenade called a heat-shock protein. It’s as if to say, “Sorry, all the testosterone and sperm that we were working on just now won’t be shipment quality, retail grade. We’re throwing them out or holding back a bit.”
When a couple complains of infertility, and it’s found that the man has a low sperm count, cooling the testes is one of the first recommendations made.
In our society, however, we arrange everything to challenge this testicular temperature request. The testes try to forgive us, try to accommodate us, but they can’t.
You need to better accommodate them. As much as possible,
- Avoid using Car Seat Heaters, High-end cars come equipped with seat heaters, which in some cases go on automatically in cold weather. During winter in North America, the snowbound among us turn to these heaters with switches and leave them on. For months. We, along with our testes, bake. Similarly, if you live in a hot climate, your car seat will absorb the sun’s heat. When you return home from an afternoon of shopping, you can be sure that the heat us being transmitted to your pelvic area.
Also, as much as possible,
- Avoid taking hot-tub and hot whirlpool baths
- Avoid heated water beds. Water beds can raise testicular temperature by almost 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Avoid using electric blankets.
In addition,
- Cool down the water temperature when taking a shower
- If you have a moveable showerhead, especially with pulsating massage, do not use hot water directly on your genital region.
- When you come out of the shower, wear a bathrobe for at least thirty to forty-five minutes before you dress.
- Avoid tight, restrictive clothing, like tight jeans, designer underwear, or underwear made of nylon or wool.
- Wear loose-fitting cotton boxer shorts
- Wear pants that are loose fitting, preferably with front pleats, which have extra room for your equipment
It seems that the scrotum is happiest naked. That’s probably best, if you can swing it. But, assuming that walking around naked may not be appropriate for too long in your home, you might wish to wear a terry-cloth robe.
Give the testes some freedom. The point here is to avoid the constant constraint of pants, pajamas, briefs or track pants. The testes themselves have only the thinnest layer of skin over them, and they don’t appreciate your putting on extra layers.
The testes and scrotum do their climate assessment about every fifteen minutes, telling the testes to make more testosterone, or withhold it, as necessary.
Wearing the robe for at least thirty to forty-five minutes lets at least two or three brain orders come in, with the tests unconfined.
If you don’t like robes, just wear a towel, with the knot tied on your side at your hips. Incidentally, that’s how most men in high-sperm, very fertile Eastern countries walk around all the time – open and ventilated. In fact, sperm counts are rising in such third world countries, whereas counts in the Western world have declined by 50 percent in the last forty years.
Scottish men, with their kilts, were onto a dress code that fostered testosterone effects. When Mel Gibson shouted “Freedom!” in the movie Braveheart, maybe he was speaking truer than he knew. He might also have been celebrating kilts, which keep the testes free. And there’s the old gag, “What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?” The implication, of course, is that real Scotsmen don’t wear anything.
Solving Warm Testes with Scrotal Cooling
Ever used cool water to sooth your eyes? Tea bags? An ice-pack gel? The testes would like a bit of catering, too.
Now we know that sounds bizarre. But by late afternoon many men have been sitting for hours. They’ve been generating and trapping groin heat. Things are sweaty, which is your body’s and testes’ way of telling you that the area is too hot. It is a part of the reason that Testosterone levels are the lowest in the late afternoon.
Cooling your balls is the solution. Not only will cooling maintain low temperatures, essential for testosterone output and sperm production, but many men also report that washing their testes with cool water ten to fifteen minutes before sex enhances the experience.
And instead of standing around, holding ice over your testicles, Snowballs Underwear is an easy solution for keeping the boys cool.
Keep Cool.
Shafiq Qaadri’s The Testosterone Factor: A Practical Guide to Improving Vitality and Virility, Naturally is available from Amazon.