Reason why testicles are wrinkled compared to the rest of skin
Ever looked down at your nuts and questioned why they look like they belong to someone 50 years your senior? Well, you've come to the right place.
If you're sat here on a dreary Monday desperately trying to think of anything but the week of work that lies ahead, then here's something to take your mind off it.
I can't speak from personal experience as am not lucky enough to be endowed with two globules of testosterone and semen and a dangly thing which swings slightly between my legs, but who wouldn't be intrigued as to why sacks of balls often look - and feel - like a pair of walnuts as opposed to nice shiny conkers?
Advert
To all those who have the privilege of not having to suffer from monthly bleeds and menstrual cramps, you'll be relieved to know the 'rhino skin' effect that sometimes occurs on your sack has a purpose.
Temperature is the key factor in why your ball sack changes appearance.
The skin around your testes has to be flexible enough to perform both the relax and contract movements - from relaxing and becoming silky smooth and stretchy in warmer conditions to contracting into hardened, crinkled walnuts in a colder situation.
This movement happens in order to regulate the temperature of your testes and make sure your testosterone and semen are being cooked up in optimum conditions, nicely protected from ever-changing outside elements.
So don't panic, no one's stolen your balls in the middle of the night and put them in a dehydrator, it's only natural for wrinkles to form when the skin pulls over your balls to keep the semen and hormones inside toasty warm and fit for purpose.
However, some people who are insecure over the appearance of their balls are trying something called Scrotox - yes, botox for the scrotum.
Scrotox - nicknamed 'ball ironing' by plastic surgeon John Mesa M.D. - sees Botox injected into the scrotum to smooth out the wrinkles, as per Men's Health.
Oh, and if you wanted your balls to hang lower - although, as someone without a pair, god knows why anyone would want Newton's pendulum knocking away underneath them while they're going for a jog or walking the dog - then Scrotox apparently helps with this too.
Someone who decided to get Scrotox remarked on their balls as being 'more papery' in texture as opposed to 'smoother' after the injection.
VICE's Grant Stoddard said: "The smoothness came a few days later, when I looked down at my balls after getting out of bed and noticed that they looked like they do after a long session in a 104-degree hot tub.
"Over the next few days my nuts loosened further until they hung at about the same length as the tip of my penis. My scrotum was indeed smoother. It looked less like a brain, cinched tight enough to grate a carrot on, and more like a couple of smooth, round river rocks swaying in a silk handkerchief."
So there you have it. But try and remember, it's what's on the inside that counts after all.
Topics: Health
Poppy Bilderbeck