I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team.
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You know what they say about a man’s underwear: he wears them. He doesn’t wear them to wear them alone, though. In that, he might have other purposes. What do you think? I think he wears them for health, if he’s conscious and conscientious about these things.
Comfort matters, undergarments matter, but so does health such as reproductive health. In my experience, there are some things men rarely talk about. Nonetheless, the men do at times in Canada – or, at least, maybe, in your county or township. And there’s more than the basic idea of “underwear.” Men have lots of kinds of undergarments; boxer shorts, boxer briefs, trunks, briefs, jockstraps, bikinis, thongs, and G-strings.
That’s a basic visual crash-course in the underwear meant for males. If you scroll or look back up the kinds of underwear for them among the 8 that I know of online – others might exist but I do not know for sure, what’s the problem there? There’s something off about most of them and we’ll get to that in a tiny bit. But what are the testicles, really, and what do they do – in brief?
Testicles are part of the male sex anatomy and sometimes called the testes or gonads. They are two glands that are a main part of the male genitalia. They are housed in a skin pouch and produce one set of gamete cells and one hormone; the male sex cells for reproduction, sperm, and the testosterone, the ‘male’ hormone. Sperm development is best with temperature slightly below that of the rest of the body.
What is the process for semen? According to the experts, the process takes about a total of 7 weeks. That’s something amazing to me. It takes 7 weeks in total. If you look at the seminiferous tubules or the sertoli cells on the diagram above, the germ cells create the sperm. Once gone from there, they move and are stored in the epididymis for maturation for a few weeks, after which time they proceed into and up the vas deferens for admixing with the prostate and the seminal vesicles; That then becomes semen.
What about testosterone? That leaves the leydig cells that are throughout the testicle and the core creator of testosterone for the body. Typical male characteristics that come from the heavy production of testosterone are facial hair, low voice, wide shoulders, and without this the man can suffer from depression, fatigue, hot flashes (men get them too!), and even osteoporosis. You can find out more here.
So what are the health issues? One issue has to do with the innate aspect of the male sex from biology. As with many other mammal and primate species, the innate male sex organ is complicated and prone to problems like most organs and, of course, this includes the testicles. The testicles are outside of the body in human males, and this is the reason why they need to be about a degree cooler, less hot, in comparison to the temperature of the body. Tight underwear can make them to close to the body and even keep too much heat in for that 7-week developmental cycle of sperm and, that means, health sperm or male gamete cell development. Oh, man!
Another issue deals with an intuitive sense of the constriction to the blood flow to the testicles. Tight underwear can cause problems for the testicles themselves by this constriction. Apparently, the loss or reduction of regular circulation in the testicles of men, such as myself, can lead to some major reproductive issues. What does this do? According to the experts that spend their time writing the medical textbooks and websites, it reduces the sperm count of the man that happens to wear these tight garments. Like this:
That’s tight. That’s constricting and it can reduce sperm count, which for many, many men that, likely, want children can be a health issue and reproductive concern. I think it’s a probability issue. If you wish to increase chances of fertilization as a man, then this is something that you need to take into account for the future, especially with the modern reproductive health services – the numerous ones around – that can assist with family planning. Women have their own concerns and issues with respect to reproductive health. Men have their own too; myself included, because I would want to increase the chances of fertility with appropriate family planning for my partner and I (not dating at the moment, single as a lost sock). Most of the time, people want families, and so this seems like a reasonable concern to bear in mind, I feel.
Even further, there’s another issue with a higher surface area for bacterial growth on synthetic materials, which can cause…issues…odor problems. Bacterial growth can cause that, and it is more likely with synthetic materials. And if you have an intimate partner, or consider general genital health, then this can be an even more serious issue. Because I would want to keep my partner included on health things. Why? Well, if married or together with someone, my health, especially sexual health, could have impacts on my partner. And so, continuing with elementary moral truisms such as ‘the Golden Rule’ , I would expect the same of them, and so I expect the same of me.
Finally, and one particular point brought to my attention by Shannon, cotton is one of the least moisture absorbing fabrics, and this can cause irritation to the skin, which is also an issue for the health of male genitalia, and ties into the rest of the points. Thanks for your attention…
By the way, please feel free to disagree with any of this. I’m not a deity or anything like that, I did some research, and presented some information and opinions. Does this make me an underwear connoisseur now? Doubt it.
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Original publication on www.trustedclothes.com.
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Image Credit: Getty Images.