The penis/testicle shrinkage issue

I study Psychology at the University of Sydney. During the course of 2nd year psychology, in a perception tutorial, we learned that the human body has a number of different reactions to emotions.

One of which is the reaction to fear, whereby the body draws blood away from skin, which was originally intended to make the person who is afraid seem less obvious.

So, in response to a person’s testicles rising towards the body in a fearful situation, do you think this could have something to do with it? The body heat has dropped, perhaps the testicles need a little more heat than they are getting when dangling there, so they rise towards the body to gain more heat, and stay at the optimal temperature for sperm production.

Just a thought!

The mailbag item being references is Why does the penis shrink when it’s cold?

Maybe moving up the testicles in a fearful situation is part of the fight-or-flight reaction. In either case, you don’t want those boys hanging out and getting in your way! :slight_smile:

Arnold,

Yeah, I know… and the answer referred to the testicles drawing up more than the penis.
What I meant, and I don’t think I expressed it too clearly originally, is that it seems logical that the testicles gain at least some heat from the rest of the body, not just the blood circulating through them, which would imply to me that when the blood is drawn away from the surface, as in a fearful emotional state, there would be less radiant heat from the rest of the body towards the testicles… thus they (and effectively the penis too) would draw closer to the body to capture more heat.

It’s just a thought, I don’t really have heaps of scientific sources to base this on, just one premise that when you go into a fearful emotional state, as described in the original article, the testicles tend to draw up… I’m just suggesting a possible reason.

Anyone else got any ideas in the “fear = shrinking dangly bits” equation?

If it is indeed a fact that body temperature drops when in a fearful situation, then I would agree that this is most likely the reason for the testicles shrinking in a similar situation. It is well known that the scrotum raises and lowers in response to body/air temperature, since sperm need slightly lower than normal body temperature in order to survive. So when you’re hot and sweaty (regardless of the reason), the testicles tend to hang lower in order to cool off; and when it’s cold they tend to shrivel up snug against the body for warmth.

While the idea that the testicles draw up in a flight-or-fright situation in order to protect them from possible harm seems to make sense, I think that assumes too much logical reasoning on the part of the body’s automatic responses.

If I understand the OP correctly, fear causes blood flow to the skin to be reduced. How do we conclude from this that body temperature has DROPPED? I would expect, if anything, the opposite result. I seem to recall that increased blood flow to the skin is a method for cooling…

<<While the idea that the testicles draw up in a flight-or-fright situation in order to protect them from possible harm seems to make sense, I think that assumes too much logical reasoning on the part of the body’s automatic responses.>>

Naah. Think evolution. The guys whose balls knew enough to get out of the way didn’t get kicked in them, and survived to father more offspring. The ability to draw them up at all probably evolved from thermoregulation mechanisms, but the ability to get them out of the way when harm threatened would be one of those serendipitous events that helped their owners.

<<If I understand the OP correctly, fear causes blood flow to the skin to be reduced. How do we conclude from this that body temperature has DROPPED? I would expect, if anything, the opposite result. I seem to recall that increased blood flow to the skin is a method for cooling… >>

I didn’t say body temperature, I said body heat (in my initial post)… and I can see that that would be confusing, I didn’t express it well, my fault. What I meant was that, as I said in my second post, it seems possible that the testicles gain some heat from the body areas surrounding the testicles (eg, groin, upper legs, etc), so when the blood is drawn away from the surface, as during a fear situation, there would be less heat radiating from the surface of these areas. Seeing as the testicles require a certain temperature to reproduce sperm, when the heat they gain from the surrounding areas drops off, they draw closer to the body to try to return to that temperature. I hope I’ve cleared up my thoughts now, I realise I didn’t make it so clear the first time.

As for the testicles rising to avoid getting a beating, PStamler talked about those who survive to reproduce, and their apparent ability to raise and protect their testicles during these situations. Doesn’t this imply it’s a genetic trait? Are there some men whose testicles don’t rise up during fear? I just don’t buy this theory, it seems logical, but as Non-Curved Narcotic said, it assumes too much… that the body can reason like that… although I spose we do automatically cover our genitals when they’re possibly threatened, so it’s possible.

Then again, maybe it’s a combination of these two

ren

Increasing blood flow to the surface cools the body by bringing the heat closer to the surface where it can leave the body. So, it warms the surface and cools the body.