MALE INFERTILITY ISSUE - TO BRIEF OR NOT ? - PART 2

Part 1 here - http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.in/2012/03/to-brief-or-to-debrief-part-1.html

While I started blogging this I tried to ensure a language that is palatable to an average reader kindling his curiosity for nature and science than crass sexual titillations. I would trust your maturity more as an adult than my writing skills to focus on the important theme and ignore the irrelevant aspects of this blog (if any).

Now let’s look at Nature’s design of male sex organs. Evolutionary biologists have been asking the question as to why the testicles of male species which is the repository of sperm is hanging outside the body and not embedded in the body.

• Our biologists concluded that the male reproductive fluid, sperm needs to be maintained at a relatively lower temperature than the average human body temperature. To their surprise they found every aspect of design revolved around this principle.

• Sperm, it turns out, are very sensitive to even minor fluctuations in room temperature. When the ambient temperature rises to body temperature levels, there is a temporary increase in sperm motility (that is to say, they become more lively), but only for a period of time before fizzing out. To be more exact, sperm thrive at body temperature for 50 minutes to four hours, the average length of time it takes for them to journey through the female reproductive tract and to fertilize the egg. But once the spermatic temperature raises much above 37 degrees Celsius, the chances for a successful insemination consequently plummet–any viable sperm become the equivalent of burnt toast. So in other words, except during sex, when it’s adaptive for sperm to be highly mobile and hyperactive, sperm are stored and produced most efficiently in the cool, breezy surroundings of the relaxed scrotal sack. 

• The thin skin of the scrotal sack is designed to promote heat dissipation. The arteries that supply blood to the scrotum are positioned adjacent to the veins taking blood away from the scrotum and function as an additional cooling/heating exchange mechanism. As a consequence of these adaptations average scrotal temperatures in humans are typically 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius lower than body temperature (37 degrees Celsius), and spermato-genesis is most efficient at 34 degrees Celsius. One doesn't want their scrotum to be too cold, however, since nature has calibrated these temperature points at precisely defined optimal levels. 

• Fortunately, human scrota don’t just hang meaninglessly holding our testicles and brewing our sperm, they also “actively” employ some interesting thermo-regulatory tactics to protect and promote males’ genetic interests. 

• The scrotal muscles serves to retract the testicles so they are drawn up closer to the body when it gets too cold–just think cold shower–and also to relax them when it gets too hot. This up-and-down action happens on a moment-to-moment basis, thus male bodies continually optimize the gonadal climate for spermato-genesis and sperm storage. 

• In summary, the scrotal temperature in a male should be optimally kept at a temperature lower than the body and nature has taken pains to design it this way. On the other hand the female reproductive organs are embedded in the body maintaining it body temperature, giving incubating properties. It is this difference in temperature that leads to sperm motility during a sexual intercourse. Most importantly the potency of the sperm when exposed to higher temperatures than ideal for more than 4 hours is significantly diminished. We also need to understand it takes about 10-12 weeks for our body to produce sperm and it just takes few hours to kill it. 

• Now let’s get to our style of dressing. The most popular dressing among the educated masses is briefs and trouser for the lower part of the body. Both of them ensure that there is no air circulation and the scrotal temperature is many times even higher than the body temperature. 

• We sitting in a couch with the laptop being placed on our lap are a common way of working for the geeks. With the power of CPUs increasing temperatures reaching over 60 degree C, is not unusual. This is despite the cooling agents like inbuilt fan and the cool pad that we could possibly use. Think of us exposing our scrotal area to 60 degree instead of the ideal 34 degree for few hours a day. To make it worse we would have “briefed” and “Jeansed” to ensure that we outright burn our sperm every day. 

If you think this is not true just Google and see thousands of studies conducted which highlights that the so called machismo “bulge in briefs” is bulging despite the briefs. Not just the briefs but the trousers which do not allow any air circulation are equally guilty. Thick material like jeans would make it worse. They say that the new variety of boxers is supposed to be better than briefs, but they still are useless with our trousers on. 

Compare this against the traditional dressing of Indians – Loin cloth / Langot / Kaupinam / Komanam along with Veshti / Dhoti / Lungi which ensures very good circulation of air, excellent thermo dynamics for the scrotal region and a bane to all the fertility clinics and herbal help lines. Just think which is better? I agree that there are certainly other factors which lead to infertility and require serious treatments. But I am trying to discuss one aspect which could be a possible trigger for the alarming rise in infertility. 

If you are still not convinced just look at this site and you would be convinced that the scrotal temperature is one of the main reasons of rising infertility cases. 

http://www.babystart.co.uk/fertilmate_scrotum_cooling_patch.html

So if the medical community is fully aware of it then why would not they come out and educate the public in a big way? May be the medical community wants you to live longer but certainly with diseases and disorders so that their commercial interests are protected for your life long. :)

I am sure you would agree with me now that:

• Our childhood heroes Superman and Spiderman theoretically should be most impotent men in the world because of their dressing sense. 
• Any ad for Jeans, trousers made of synthetic material that does not promote air circulation, tight and slim fits ensure that we lose our manliness each and every hour we use them. 
• Jockeys, fruit of the looms and VIPs of our world are disorder injecting industries / products and should be considered as predecessors or facilitators of the medical industry in our disease chain. 

Picking up from one of the Tamil movies, Indian “Langkot” is what I called as “Tear and wear” as against briefs which is a “Wear and Tear”. Tell me now which is better? 

If you are a male who has lived your productive life and think that this does not affect you, let me share this. According to Ayurveda the nutritional force that we consume progressively becomes a body part over a period of time. Among the 7 different types of bodily parts (Dhatu), Semen is the 7th Dhatu (part) and the essence of nutrition which is created after bone marrow. If the semen is properly utilized and maintained in our body this semen evolves into a subtle force called Tejas after 30 days and between 30-60 days it becomes Ojas. This Ojas is the vital force. Conversion of nutritional force into vital force is one of the anti-ageing techniques and the sexual energy sublimes to become spiritual energy. Hence maintenance of sperm quality and count is very important for healthy and long life too. 

So what are the recommendations of a healthy life style? Since experts are not telling us because of their commercial interests lets learn this by sharing what we know with each other. I am not going to share anything on some of the common recommendations like stop smoking, avoid stress type items which is not directly relevant to the temperature issue. 

• Be sensitive to the scrotal temperature – The simplest indication of rising temperatures is a wet brief at the end of the day due to sweat. 
• Avoid very tight dresses and material that do not promote easy air circulation. This is a very difficult thing since for many of us including me Jeans and Tees are the most favorite outfits, how do we come out of this? 
• Electronic devices like iPad and Laptops on the laps – a strict No! NO!. 
• Don’t keep your mobile phones in the pant pocket. 
• Avoid hot saunas, steam bath which exposes your scrotum to very high temperatures artificially.
• Avoid hot water bath, hot Jacuzzis – typically warm water at body temperature is fine. 
• You cannot completely avoid briefs too since the testicles have to supported to avoid impact of gravity on it. 

These are what I could think of but the most important aspect is that there is no alternative to easy fitting dress that ensures good air circulation. In that measure the current day thongs and bikinis should have been ideally dresses for males and not for females. Guess we have the right dresses designed already but being used by the wrong sex. 

“To brief or not” ? is a vital question that we need to answer every day in front our dressing mirror. As you try to answer this,  I shall come back with an article on one of the main aspects of the female infertility issue in the next blog to keep fairer sex busy and confused. :)

Yours briefly
Happy reading!

PS; I can’t be held responsible for any unacceptable public behavior after reading this blog.