Testicle questions (serious question about pain)

Factual Questions
1

I picked up my daughter today using the hand-under-each-armpit technique. This was to catch her before she got too far up the staircase, as it was time for dinner and she was making a dash upstairs for more playtime.

When i picked her up, i held her out initially at arms length, as she immmediately began to furiously swing her legs back and forth in a pseudo kicking motion. It is best described as a knee-locked, running-in-mid-air motion. (i hope that is visually descriptive enough).

Anyway, as i turned her away from the stairs, i must have bent my arms, allowing for her little heel of her swinging left foot to connect dead on with my left testicle. The only things between her heel and my tesricle was her thin sock, my sweatpants, and boxer briefs. Needless to say, after somehow putting her down on her two feet without dropping her on my way down to the floor, i continued my fall for a ten count. I was hurting. She connected straight on. Almost felt like someone threw a fastball straight at my left testicle, and hit it flush.

As i lay on the floor in a heap of pain, thoughts began. Mammalian testicles were the subject of my thoughts…,

Here are my questions summarized:

1). Do all male mammals with testicles dangling outside of their own body, feel pain when the testicles are smacked?

2). For an example, picture an unneutered dog in your neighborhood, or perhaps a male lion on one of those nature shows, with the testicles dangling prominently between the animals hindquarters… Is this a point of pain for all animals in the same way as it is for humans?

3). If not, why not?

4). If so, do male animals in fights ever go for their opponents testicles? In all the nature shows I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen it, but you would think that a kick or bite to a lion’s groin area would immobolize the animal fairly quickly. I would think it would be a great way to stop an attack of a larger animal.

5). So assuming for a moment that human males have the most sensitive (in terms of pain) testicular region, why? What could be the evolutionary benefits for having sensitive-to-pain testicles? I would think that having testicles with little to no pain associated with them would be a GOOD thing.

6). Has there been any research in this area, and has anyone specifically looked at primates to see if they have a similar reaction to being hit in the testicles?

7.) one final, strange question. Would someone suffering from paralysis still feel pain in the testicular region, or would that be shut down to sensation? I remember seeing a program where a guy with two paralyzed legs could get an erection and ejaculate, which i didn’t exactly understand. Is this something that is controlled ultimately by the mind? Even if a paraplegic could get an erection, wouldnt he need to feel stimulation to ejaculate?

Thanks for your time. If after reading this you have questions of your own, feel free to ask them as part of the thread. But i would ask if you would number your questions starting with 7, as i left off at number 6. Also, since i have so many questions, if it’s possible to put the question’s number before your answer, i’d greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

2

I will blend several of your numbered questions, and hopefully give you some info as to your questions.

The nerves that serve the testicles originate at a spinal cord level that does pelvic structures such as the ovaries. In fact, at a very basic level testes are basically modified ovaries, They of course descend from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum, carrying the nerves and blood vessels that served them in their development in the abdomen. So a pain in the 'nads is felt primarily in the lower abdomen.

While I don’t have a lion or pit bull around to kick in the nuts, the development and descent of the testes are the same as in humans. So my educated guess is that it would hurt.
Don’'t know if it would be enough to make the animal release its bite (I doubt it).

Humans not only have the nerve connections to have pain from trauma to the testes, but also the knowledge of what damage to those organs might entail in the future.

I expect that the pain we feel is good in an evolutionary sense, since if a pain in the scrotum felt like a hit on the arm or leg, we could ignore it and continue our activities…and never father offspring.

Sorry for not answering your question directly.

3

It is exactly the same for lions.

Gazelles just haven’t evolved to the point yet to figure this out.

4

I have two testicle questions, but I don’t think they warrant their own thread so I’ll throw them in here.

  1. Sometimes when I lie down in bed I get a weird aching feeling in my scrotum, almost like they are being pulled out of place. Gravity I guess, but does anyone else get this?

  2. (I may have asked this on here before but can’t remember) If I’m quite drunk - not quite at the “room spinning” stage but getting there - I often feel a weird “plunging” sensation in my knackers. Kind of like when you go over a hump-backed bridge in a car, you know? It is most noticeable if I’m sitting down. What might cause that? (Edit, I have asked this before but got no serious replies.)

5

I would agree with sunstone in regards to humans having knowledge of what damage is inflicted with 'nad bashing. I would think that animals tend to strike at vital areas out of instinct. Defensive flailing, however, has surely hit the mark at some point in time.

I hope the results of your daughter’s defensive flailing are quick to heal!!

6

Evolutionary Speculation here: Perhaps, as a way to demonstrate the ultimate importance of properly functional testicles, the gods of evolution made testicles extraordinarily sensitive as a means of encouraging testicle tenderness and care.
IMHO

7

Testicles have to hang outside our body to allow for cooler temperatures optimal for sperm production. Since there are obvious disadvantages to having your reproductive organs dangling around instead of safely tucked inside you, we need to be extra sure that we’re protective of them. The intense pain of getting hit in the nads is your evolution’s way of saying “Be careful with these things, you clumsy idiot!”

I suspect most animals have a similar response for the same reason.

8

No problem. I thought with so many quesrions, the answers would start to confuse folks, but i had no trouble following your narrative.

If others choose to answer without the numbers next to an answer, that’s fine.

If this is true, this vexes me. I’m truly vexed.

I watched an Animal Planet offering this weekend, and it showed lions killing cheetahs. I won’t go into how the lion was able to catch the cheetah in the first place, but the cheetah, once it knew it was compromised, could have taken a swipe or two at the testicles of the lion. Since cheetah claws don’t retract, i would imagine even a glancing blow would cause severe discomfort, while a direct hit could slice the scrotum open. That is one bad ass lion to maintain an attack through that kind of trauma.

If a lion attacked a human, and the human had his wits about him, grabbing and or kicking the testicles might stop the attack? Or maybe it would just piss off the lion amd he’d snap your windpipe faster?

How do you know it is the same for lions? (i personally believe that it should be, but how do you know for sure?)

9

Re question #4, most accounts I’ve read of chimpanzee attacks describe chimps going for a male victim’s testicles, in addition to biting fingers off and gouging eyes out. ::shudder:: (Why anyone thinks chimpanzees are cute and cuddly is beyond me.)

10

Um… it was a joke… see the mental image of a gazelle figuring out all they had to do was kick the lion in the balls and suddenly all was dandy… think Gary Larson… still nothing… sorry, not sure what else to say.

11

Wait… damn this edit window time thing. Can a mod please remove that silly post about it being just a joke.

I know because I was on a safari in Africa when a huge male lion leaped out of the bush and tried to attack me and my wife (Morgan Fairchild). One quick kick to the nuts and we were enjoying lion bits roasted on the fire I started by rubbing two pieces of grass together… Yeah, that’s the ticket.

12

Testicles aren’t an easy target. Most mammals have them pretty well surrounded by rear legs, tail, and abdomen, and have developed skill in keeping them out of the line of fire. Going for vulnerable parts makes sense, but there are other parts that are more vulnerable, like eyes or the throat.

13

I get something similar to point 1. However for me the blood pressure medicine lisinopril causes testicle pain that comes/goes in waves when I am trying to sleep (other BP meds don’t seem to do this). And it isn’t constant, I once took lisinopril for a year before the pain started, despite at other times in my life when I tried to use it I had to quit in a week due to the problem. I don’t think alcohol has ever set it off.

14

The Honey Badger is an african mustelid with a reputation for ferocity that (according to local lore) specifically attacks the testicles of anything that crosses it’s path.

Si

15

I would like a research grant.

For what?

Kicking animals in the nuts.

Ummmmm.

Yup, you heard me. Lots of questions there…

16

That’s nasssssty!!!

17

Funds have been granted for stupider ideas.

18

According to legend, honey badger don’t care.

19

***The eyes are the groin of the head. *** -Dwight Schrute

20

I’m sorry, I actually laughed out loud at that one.

Not at the question so much as at the image I had of scientists trying to undertake the research.

The idea of watching someone walk up to a bull gorilla and kick him square in the nuts then try to get away.:smiley:

How could you actually test that? Get them to sit on a chair that’s set up with a hole in the middle like a toilet and a nasty version of a drummers foot pedal? Once they’re settled stamp on the pedal, watch their facial expression and if they don’t faint or roll into the fetal position on the floor you stroll up and ask them " So, on a range of one to 10, where 1 is you felt nothing and 10 is you’re about to tear my arms off and beat me to death with them, how much did that hurt?"