Ever wondered what prompted older-generation men to wear sarong (for the Malay), boxer shorts (for the Chinese) and dhoti (for the Indian)? These may not be fashionable garments but they are certainly healthier and more practical than modern day tight briefs.
Sperm is easily damaged by heat. For healthy sperm count and fertility, testicular temperature needs to be cooler than core body temperature. Nature knows best: this why the best testes are designed to drop out of the abdomen into the scrotal sac.
Even if the testes heat up by as little as 2ºc, sperm formation is adversely affected. Sperm count will drop the number of normal sperm will fall and the number of abnormal sperm will increase.
Studies have found that wearing tight underpants - or even athletic scrotal support - can significantly lower sperm count.
In a recent experiment (reported in Reproductive Toxicology, 1990) where the fit of man's underwear and its effect on spermato-genesis was investigated, two unmarried males in their middle 30s wore tight, bikini-type briefs that fitted snugly against the scrotum for three months.
The men then changed to loose boxer shorts for the next three months. The tight-loose sequence was repeated once more so that each man was investigated for one year. Their semen was then analyzed regularly.
The result indicated that sperm count and sperm motility gradually declined during the periods when the men were wearing tight underpants and gradually increased when they wore loose boxer shorts.
In fact, changes in sperm count and sperm motility were noticeable within just two weeks of changing over to each new set of underwear.
According to the researchers, although sperm counts stayed well within fertile levels during this experiment it is possible that the type of underwear chosen by a man with a lower sperm count might make difference between fertility and sub fertility.
