Testicles can also hide – everything you need to know about eggs

Easter, we all secretly know, are really just for talking about eggs.

The symbolism really isn’t exactly subtle, it doesn’t take Freud to know it’s all about one thing. Fertility. reproduction. The joys of our existence.

In short: it’s all about balls. Also called testicles. Or testicles. Optionally also family jewels. Here arises one of the two necessary ingredients for new life. Spring is at home here with its pleasant temperatures…

It is not for nothing that the sperm factory has been moved to the outskirts of the city and not – like its female counterpart, the ovaries – to production in the sheltered inner city.

The comfortable temperature of fertile sperm is namely approx. 34 to 35 degrees Celsius. In the body, where it is 37 degrees, it would definitely be too hot for them.

Now the testicles don’t just hang loosely between two men’s legs, but are nicely wrapped in one Skin bag with two compartments – one for each testicle. This pouch is called something prosaic scrotum is the medical term scrotum.

Its function has not yet been fully unraveled – O marvel of nature! – but a special ability is credited to him quite undisputedly: the temperature regulation. It ensures that the sperm does not die from heat or freeze to death. When the former threatens, the thin muscle layer relaxes (Tunic dartos) in the scrotum and thus increases the radiating surface. If the spermatic cord gets too cold, it contracts, the skin becomes wrinkled and the surface area becomes smaller.

And not only that: in the scrotum, the testicular artery and vein a braid that is considered excellent heat exchanger actions.

What a name. What muscles. He also calls himself medical Cremaster muscle (from Latin/Greek = pendant). This wonder boy is activated when danger is imminent. Or just the opposite: with strong sexual arousal.

If you irritate the skin on the inner thighs, the affected testicles will pull closer to the abdominal wall. Quasi protective position and approaching orgasm in one!

This process is called cremaster reflex and is also sometimes activated during medical exams to check nerve pathways in certain segments of the spinal cord.

The testicles do not dangle in the fresh air from the start. In humans, in the fetal stage, they slowly migrate from their origin behind the kidney through the inguinal canal to the scrotum. Normally that ramble is with the fancy name Descensus testis in the seventh month of pregnancy, but no later than the birth of the male baby.

The testes of most male mammals are also ready at sexual maturity in the skin pouch designed for this purpose; in certain rodents, dogs and horses, this does not occur until puberty. Hamsters, shrews and bats, moles and aardvarks even enjoy it seasonal testicular descent, so their testicles are only visible during the mating season. And then there are those who do not need such a descensus at all – their testicles nicely remain in the body, where they nevertheless produce fertile sperm: this is in elephants, sloths, platypus and armadillos, in anteaters, manatees, whales and the case with dolphins.

In summary, these latter animals are mentioned testiconda. So those who hide their eggs (from lat. tstands = testicles, condere = hide).

If the descent of the testicles in humans goes wrong, if one or even both testicles fail to reach their destination, there is also a positional anomaly testicular dystopia called (aberration testis).

The question then becomes where exactly did the testicle get stuck during its journey. The abdominal testicles for example, the migration did not start at all and remained in the belly – then one speaks of undescended testicles or cryptorchidism (Greek cryptocurrency = hidden).

The groin testicles has migrated to the inguinal canal during the sliding testicles It can be slid into the scrotum with gentle pressure, but only stays there for a short time because the spermatic cord is too short, then immediately creeps back into the inguinal canal. The sling or wandering testicles in turn, it can oscillate back and forth between the scrotum and inguinal canal, which it especially likes to do when sexually aroused, but also when cold or stressed. This moving requires no treatment at all – the owners of such a travel-loving testicle need not worry about their fertility.

However, if the testicle strays completely from its path, it is of a testicular ectopy the speech. It is then found in the area of ​​the thigh, perineum, shaft of the penis or in the opposite scrotal compartment.

Yes, it is the most beautiful word you will encounter today. Perhaps the most beautiful thing ever.

What does it mean?

In 85 percent of men, the low flyer is the left testicle. It dangles a little further down, so that when moving it is not in constant danger of bumping into its neighboring testicle, as is the case with the pendulum.

Incidentally, it is also quite normal for one testicle to be slightly larger than the other, usually the right one.

Sad testicles are the most poetic expression for that unpleasant process, which is also known as cavalier’s pain, groom’s pain, “blue balls” or popularly simply testicle spasm.

This describes the unpleasant feeling of tension, which can certainly degenerate into severe pain in the lower abdomen and testicles if the liberating ejaculation does not occur after sexual arousal.

A particularly prolonged erection before ejaculation can also be a reason for this, as can multiple ejaculations in quick succession.

The “blue balls” refer to the increased blood concentration in men when they become sexually aroused, the penis becomes erect, the testicles swell and glisten bluish. The sad testicles, on the other hand, have more to do with the high level of sexual frustration when the sperm has to stay inside.

If a fetus loses its testicles in the womb before the 8th week of pregnancy, the baby is born with female reproductive organs. Then if he loses it, the baby will have normally developed male sex organs, but the testicles will not work.

The absence of both testicles or their complete inability to function is called anorchy.

If there is only one testicle, it is called monarchy. And then there is the extremely rare case of it Trilogy – three testicles by duplication of a testicular anlage.

Of these, just under 200 true cases have been described worldwide. The presumed third testicles were much more likely benign or malignant tumors or cysts after injuries – as in the case of Philip I of Hesse:

As so often in history, it took man a while to get it right. The testicles were no different.

For the Greek natural philosopher Alcmaion of Croton (early 5th century BC) the testicles were nothing more than a sperm transit station of sorts. Namely, this would arise in Brain, that central organ of the body, the seat of consciousness and all sensations, the lord of all mental and physical activity of man. It is therefore logical that he also found the male seed there. About the blood vessels would he get further to the testicles, he guessed, while democritus (ca. 460 BC – around 370 BC) and a little later Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) the spine praised as a vas deferens. Those ideas survived into the Middle Ages, even beyond Leonardo daVinci (1452–1519) anatomical drawings show connections between the testes and the lungs, spinal cord, and brain. After all, the sperm draws its spiritual power from the brain, the testicles only provide the material basis for the “lower emotions”.

It was only on the threshold of modern times that various humanist doctors began to doubt the teachings of the “ancient authorities” and checked the available findings by their own perception – the “autopsy”.

In this way, the ideas about the male sperm were gradually demystified – even though it still seemed to be the only active part in the fertilization scenario until the 19th century.

The first modern description of the structure of the testicle comes from the Dutch physician and anatomist Reinier de Graaf (1641-1673), who incidentally is also the discoverer of the ovarian follicle in the ovary, which is why the tertiary follicle is named after him as the Graaf follicle to this day.

(robbery)