Expert issues severe warning about 'ballmaxxing' as more young men doing it

There's a new trend taking off across fringe corners of the internet – and it could have serious health implications for anyone who takes part.

In recent months, we've seen a boom in '-maxxing' trends online, such as looksmaxxing, fibremaxxing, careermaxxing and so on, with 'maxxing' being Gen Z slang for maximising whichever aspect of your life you want to change.

For any readers who don't want the phrase 'ballmaxxing' in their Google search history, it involves men inflating their gonads like a helium balloon with the help of saline injections.

A 57-year-old man named Marcus told Men's Health he'd inflated his scrotal sac to around 14.5 inches, the size of a small cantaloupe melon.

He said: "I'm astonished at how flexible the testicles are. They just expand.”

The practice can be both sexual and non-sexual in nature.

Another man, Jack, 31, told Men's Health: "Watching it happen and feeling it in real time is intense. The whole buildup is electric. It’s similar to really good foreplay."

A cantaloupe melon - this is how big Marcus' scrotum was apparently... (Getty Stock Images)

While still a niche trend, ballmaxxing has a subreddit dedicated to men sharing pictures of their knackers and measuring their progress, injection by injection.

According to Forbes, the effect is only temporary as the body absorbs the saline after a couple of days, meaning your testicles will eventually deflate like a couple of popped footballs.

Is ballmaxxing safe?

The immediate follow-up to 'what is ballmaxxing' is naturally 'is ballmaxxing dangerous', to which the answer, unsurprisingly, is yes.

It interferes with your ability to have sex

"Ballmaxxing, or scrotal inflation, is a sexual practice where men inject large amounts of saline into their scrotums to artificially inflate the size of their testes. But it can damage intimate health, performance and even lead to life-threatening sepsis," Robert Bradshaw, Superintendent Pharmacist, Oxford Online Pharmacy, told LADbible.

Bradshaw said it can 'interfere with the natural function of the testes' and lead to erectile dysfunction, infertility and problems weeing.

What some people who practice ballmaxxing have said about it (LADbible)

He said: "This trend should be taken seriously as a men’s health issue."

Unsupervised injections into your balls are dangerous

Bradshaw notes that while saline fluid itself isn't dangerous, it's used by health professionals for a variety of things, injecting the solution into an area of your body, which contains numerous delicate structures, while unsupervised, can be.

"The most obvious and medically severe risk is infection. Injecting any substance under the skin can introduce harmful bacteria," he continued.

Ballmaxxers are using saline to achieve their desired look, a substance which isn't harmful to health but can be if used incorrectly and without medical assistance (Getty Stock Images)

"The scrotum is a sensitive part of the body and particularly vulnerable to infections such as cellulitis (a skin infection) or abscess formation (a collection of pus)."

Cellulitis leads to red, hot and painful skin. Meanwhile, an abscess is a lump that's painful, warm and soft to the touch, which can leak pus.

Neither sounds fun to have on your balls.

Sepsis and tissue death

If left untreated, a bacterial infection can lead to 'life-threatening' complications such as sepsis.

Tissue death is another risk, as Bradshaw explains that the balls are not built to withstand 'large volumes and artificial pressure'.

"Over-injection of saline can stretch the skin and even lead to tissue death if blood flow is restricted. Scar tissue can also form with repeated injections in the same site and a hematoma (a collection of blood outside of the blood vessels) if blood vessels are damaged by the needle," he added.