The Best Underwear For Sperm Health Might Be Nothing
When it comes to personal preference over boxers versus briefs, most men prefer to not pick teams and land on the lovechild of the two, according to multiple surveys on the subject.
But when it comes to the declining sperm health of men globally and the looming threat of a male fertility crisis that a new study warns of, the question of boxers or briefs becomes more complex.
So on an individual level, what’s better for your sperm, boxers or briefs?
Stronger Swimmers
Research from the 1990s indicated a negligible difference between the “scrotal temperature” of men who wore briefs instead of boxers.
But as this new review of over 250 studies on sperm quality confirms, the sperm counts have declined about 2.6 percent every year from 2000 to 2018, “which is an amazing pace,” Hagai Levine, who co-authored the work, said in statement.
Consequently, it’s likely that the gap between the swimmers of boxer and brief wearers has become more statistically significant. In fact, a 2018 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health revealed that men who wore boxers primarily 25 percent higher sperm concentration and 17 percent higher sperm count, compared to men who wore briefs, boxer-briefs or any other type of underwear.
A lot of this comes down to keeping testicles at healthy temperature, specifically, about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the rest of your body. (This is why they hang lower.)
So theoretically, any type of underwear that’s going to prevent that, or provide perceived “support,” could inhibit this self-cooling feature and negatively impact fertility.
For this reason, some experts recommend no underwear at all for men who are hoping to have kids one day, at least when in the privacy of their own homes.
But if going commando isn’t your thing and you insist on wearing boxer-briefs, just don’t try to off-set that heat by icing your balls later. We’ve already been over this.
