The largest study of its kind has now found that wearing tight underwear really is linked to poorer sperm quality.

Compared with looser undergarments, for instance, tighter options were linked to 18 percent higher odds of producing less semen.

Tight undies were also linked to 12 percent higher odds of having fewer motile sperm, 48 percent higher odds of having fewer normally shaped sperm, and 108 percent higher odds of having more sperm with DNA fragmentation or damage.

In a secondary analysis, researchers also found that erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation were more prevalent in the tight underwear group.

“In conclusion, tight underwear was associated with poorer semen quality and a higher prevalence of erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation,” the authors write, led by urologist Xue-Chun Hu from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

  • Lumisal@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    2 days ago

    I blame underwear (and to some extent pants) on declining birth rates in Europe in part. At least in Finland - seriously, why is almost all the underwear here so fucking tight in the ball region??? It fits my wife and girlfriend just fine so are they secretly passing off women’s overstock boxers as mens or something? Have to shop at foreign stores to find underwear that’s not designed to push your balls back into your body or something.

    Same with pants at certain stores like Dressman - they size them to scale so good luck if you’re tall but not incredibly overweight. Have to basically take all pants to a tailor here, otherwise my only other option is smaller pants that start showing my calves and fit my waist but squeeze the balls so tight I could pull of a Michael Jackson “Hee-Hee”.