FT262


The myth

Wearing tight underwear (or trousers) can reduce male fertility by raising the temperature of the testes, and thus lowering the sperm count.


The "truth"

More than a decade ago, in their groundbreaking Are boxer shorts really better? A critical analysis of the role of underwear type in male subfertility, Munkelwitz and Gilbert of the State University of New York reported, in the Journal of Urology (1998 Oct; 160(4):1337), their study of 97 male volunteers who had been monitored while wearing jockey or boxer shorts. The scientists found “no difference in scrotal temperature depending on underwear type”. They concluded that it was “unlikely that underwear type has a significant effect on male fertility”.