# Why does one testicle hang lower?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 14, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381 "2005-03-14T01:39:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/1 "2005-03-14T01:39:40Z")
Someone (an MD) provided me with a statistic: most people’s left testicle hangs lower than the right one.
Why is this? And dexterity doesnt seem to play a part: I’m left handed but my left nut still hangs lower.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/2 "2005-03-14T01:55:13Z")
maybe the boys dont like to be crowded?
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### Author:  [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/3 "2005-03-14T01:58:47Z")
Sure, reasonable enough. But is it true that the left hangs lower? And if so, why?
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/4 "2005-03-14T01:59:47Z")
> [@Splanky](#):
>
> … most people’s left testicle hangs lower than the right one. Why is this?
Well, why shouldn’t it be? Nothing else in your body is perfectly symmetrical either. In women one breast is almost always slightly larger and thus hangs lower than the other - IIRC it is most commonly the left one also.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/5 "2005-03-14T02:42:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Someone (an MD) provided me with a statistic: most people’s left testicle hangs lower than the right one.
Not true. Most people don’t have any testicles at all :P.
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/6 "2005-03-14T03:00:53Z")
All together, now:
\*Do Your…
Balls hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot? (ouch!)
Can you tie them in a bow? (double-ouch!)
Can you throw them over your shoulder
like a Continental soldier?
Do Your. Balls. Hang. Low?\*
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/7 "2005-03-14T03:09:31Z")
[Maddox](http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=balls_are_huge) seems to have much the same problem with his left ball.
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### Author:  [@1point618](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1point618)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/8 "2005-03-14T03:36:54Z")
Simple : the reason one nut hangs lower is because if it didn’t, they’d constantly both be getting squashed between the legs and bumping into eachother. And I don’t have to tell you why this is a bad thing. As to why it is the left one? Dunno. Maybe the same reason that the heart is on the left : the embrionic fluid rotates a certain way within the womb, and thus pushes thing arround to the left. I read this in PopSci, I do believe, but I cannot remember when, so check it out for youself. I remember there being something about rats being formed in test tubes where the fluid was pumped the other direction, and they became mirror rats, which hearts on right etc… But again, I may be wrong.
Adrian
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/9 "2005-03-14T03:41:10Z")
The view is better.
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/10 "2005-03-14T19:27:34Z")
> [@1point618](#):
>
> Maybe the same reason that the heart is on the left : the embrionic fluid rotates a certain way within the womb, and thus pushes thing arround to the left. I read this in PopSci, I do believe, but I cannot remember when, so check it out for youself.
Normal early embryos have structures called ‘primary cilia’ or ‘nodal cilia’ on them, which are little hairlike structures on a few cells that beat in a particular direction, pushing the fluid around them in a particular direction. This directs the formation of the usual left-right assymmetries, particularly of the heart and vascular system. If any one of a bunch of genes that go into making the primary cillia get screwed up, all of a sudden, it’s a random, 50-50 shot as to whether the embryo will develop normally or mirror image. (There’s a paper about Kif5B knockouts in mice that were 50-50 for symmetry in Cell in 1998 if anybody really wants to see the scientific, technical stuff.) This isn’t really a huge problem; people can live long, healthy lives with mirror-image organs, and only find out about it because of something like surgery or an MRI. (It does screw with the surgeons’ heads, though, because nothing is where they’re used to seeing it.) I’d like to see the grant application to study this in relation to testicles 😛
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/11 "2005-03-14T19:32:24Z")
Phew, I thought there was somthing wrong wit h them.
[sub]o[/sub][sup]o[/sup]
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/12 "2005-03-14T19:34:49Z")
> [@Splanky](#):
>
> Someone (an MD) provided me with a statistic: most people’s left testicle hangs lower than the right one.
>
> Why is this? And dexterity doesnt seem to play a part: I’m left handed but my left nut still hangs lower.
Haven’t you seen those old movies where the hero tilts his hat rakishly to one side and looks amazingly dashing? It’s all for the _style_, guys!
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### Author:  [@olpeculiar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olpeculiar)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/13 "2005-03-14T19:40:25Z")
Heh - Good one Chronos. That’s why it kills me to point out that men actually outnumber women worldwide by about 45 million. But, if over forty five and a half million men in the world have had sex change operations, then your statement would still technically be true.
Source: United Nations Population Division.
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/14 "2005-03-14T20:00:53Z")
There was a young man from Devizes,
Whose balls were of different sizes,
One was so small,
it was nothing at all,
The other took numerous prizes.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/15 "2005-03-14T20:35:21Z")
It’s so they don’t smack together like those old clacker balls that were the rage in the late 60s/early 70s.
[sub]Now go away before I make castantets of your testicles…[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/16 "2005-03-14T23:21:28Z")
Oddly enough, this has only come up [once](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=248184&highlight=testicles+hang) before. And no, it wasn’t for 20 minutes in 1960.
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-one-testicle-hang-lower/294381/17 "2005-03-15T00:29:25Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> It’s so they don’t smack together like those old clacker balls that were the rage in the late 60s/early 70s.
Weren’t there usually 3 or more of those in a set? :eek: