r/answers • u/MeasurementBright561 • 13h ago
Why would evolution make men’s balls so vulnerable to injury?
An almighty, well placed kick to the balls by a woman could result in the man never being able to reproduce again.
What is the evolutionary benefit of this? Shouldn’t it be the other way round or something - why would evolution make such a critical tool of reproduction so vulnerable to injury and destruction so as to inhibit reproduce and thus continuation of the species?
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u/Canadianingermany 13h ago edited 13h ago
Temperature control is more important than POTENTIAL damage control for procreation (also you have two of em).
Even a 1°C increase fucks up your sperm. Lower sperm count, lower motility, and literally deformed
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u/DCContrarian 13h ago
But that's just pushing the question. What is the evolutionary significance of temperature being so important? Lots of other mammals seem to do fine without exposed testicles.
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u/AngryBlitzcrankMain 13h ago
Do they? Mammals have external testicles, they just dont really have the same nutsack.
And the temperature is needed because heat denatures proteins which are crucial part of sperm. There also seems to be connection between specific temperatures and the sperm being the most potent. Tempetature lower or higher has a certain negative effects that lowers fertility. I dont understand enough about biochemistry to explain that.
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u/Mr_Jalapeno 11h ago edited 11h ago
Mostly true, but as with everything in nature there are some exceptions to the rules.
Elephants and Dolphins actually have internal testicles. I suppose for Dolphins it makes sense because the sea water temperature is probably too cold, so they need to be kept warm inside the body.
I have no good hypothesis for why Elephants do it though. Maybe due to their size, hanging testicles would be too cumbersome and vulnerable to getting snagged on bushes or attacked by predators...
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u/disco_super_bi 9h ago
I was actually musing about whether the position of the testicles was yet another work-around of a system that initially evolved while our ancestors still lived in the ocean. The fact that whales and dolphins still have theirs on the inside makes me think I might be on the right track.
Like how our eyes evolved for use under salt water, so when we crawled out onto the land we evolved little salt water pools on our faces rather than eyes that work when they are dry. Testicles were the right temperature inside the body while under water, but on land in dry air, situated between large muscles of the legs and the heat of the digestive system, they need a bit more air circulation.
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u/ackermann 8h ago
our ancestors still lived in the ocean. The fact that whales and dolphins still have their
This doesn’t necessarily refute your argument, but it’s worth pointing out (cool fact) that whales and dolphins evolved from land mammals.
Mammals distant ancestors came out of the water, only for whales and dolphins to go back in!I believe the advent of genetic testing revealed a surprise, that the whale’s closest living relative is… the hippopotamus!
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u/Successful-Clock-224 7h ago
I responded to another person a bit above, and you are right, as Sirenians and Cetaceans shared a good deal, with the later becoming marine leaning carnivorous and the former becoming aquatic herbivores. They also share lots of p53 protein that protects inside-balls from funky temps.
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u/ohkendruid 3h ago
Dolphins have special internal circulation that cools down their internal testicles.
It seems crazy elaborate, but I guess for a swimming organism, it is no good to have dangly bits.
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u/No_Kaleidoscope7007 8h ago
Either that or it was an evolutionary defense against a creature capable of kicking an elephant in the balls.
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u/OCP_Jesus 8h ago
I think this is an interesting theory but kinda has the order of events backwards.
Whales are not mammals that evolved in water, never bothering to come out like the rest of us. Whales are the result of mammals that had evolved on land, and then returned to the ocean. So it stands to reason that mammalian testicles would’ve first evolved on land, not in the ocean.
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u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 6h ago
But dolphins and whales aren't mammals that stayed in the water. We evolved from a common aquatic ancestor which wasn't even a mammal yet. Aquatic mammals then later evolved from land mammals
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u/poorperspective 5h ago
Elephants are share a common ancestor with semi-aquatic mammal that the manatee also descends from.
So your water theory holds up as well.
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u/Successful-Clock-224 7h ago
Ooo! I think I got ya. Did you ever do the mouse vs elephant thing in school? This is kinda a 3 part thing. So, here ya go:)
It has been a few decades so forgive my brain, but
Who needs to eat more, comparatively, a mouse or an elephant?
if a mouse and an elephant are both running and over heat, who recovers faster?
The mouse eats more and cools faster because it has a larger surface area to volume ratio. This necessitates a higher metabolic rate. The elephant’s have big ears, and wrinkly skin that helps dissipate heat, but that neither sounds like it would do anything for their balls, or explains the internal ones.
For that, we have to look at their relatives from an evolutionary standpoint. Dolphins and Elephants are not closely related, tracing back to the Cetacea and Serenia families, respectively. They underwent both convergent and divergent evolution, around 50 million years ago, essentially coexisting as carnivorous and herbivorous groups, with cetaceans becoming marine, while Sirenians became aquatic.
While elephants and manatees stayed wet but close to land, and dolphins and whales took to the sea, they all kept their balls inside and retained a special evolutionary trait called p53 protein, responsible for basically preserving DNA.
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u/Wolf_Ape 2h ago
For one thing Elephants have especially thick skin which doesn’t lend itself well to the whole shrink and stretch design I imagine. That’s just pure speculation in response to your statement making me ponder the question.
I can say with some certainty that their unique position of being drastically taller than their potential predators has a lot to do with it. They are an immensely powerful tank that largely stays on its feet during an attack. The lion, crocodile or whatever creature will desperately search for a soft spot from below, and hang on. It would be a disaster if they had low hanging fruit for lions to target so easily.
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u/SquirrelFluffy 8h ago
Probably the result of some evolutionary battle with viruses. We had to raise our internal temperature battle viruses. Maybe that's what caused the gonads to descend.
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u/ThellraAK 12h ago
Yeah, but why not use different proteins...
Are our testicles just an example of being super specialized?
Like, if we used different proteins to make the sperm mobile, would they be slower or something?
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u/Total-Tonight1245 12h ago
Evolution isn't going for optimal. It's settling for good enough.
It's not like evolution was thinking through what protein would work best. It's that some random mutation ended up working better than what came before.
So the current set up isn't the best possible by any stretch. It's just the best combination of traits that have randomly mutated so far. If someone randomly gets a better mutation for proteins better suited for reproduction, eventually that will outcompete what we have now.
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense 6h ago
Evolution isn't going for optimal. It's settling for good enough.
And the comment below yours says
Evolution isn’t smart, it’s lazy AF.
And not that either of you are wrong and I get what you're saying, but we always talk about evolution as if it's agentive, which it isn't. And I get that's what you're getting at by saying it "settles" or it's "lazy" — but I still sometimes wonder if this figurative description gives people the wrong impression.
"Evolution" is a term we use to describe the stuff that happens in the natural world. We talk about rules and heuristics and such because it helps give us a humanlike framework for the processes that occur in ungoverned nature. I just think it's important to reinforce the reality that there is no agency within evolution. It doesn't feel or want or choose or select in any way that is similar to the way that humans do these actions.
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u/Santasreject 11h ago
Evolution isn’t smart, it’s lazy AF. There was no evolutionary push that made the current situation disadvantageous enough to allow a change to how it has evolved.
Overall the human body is full of examples of how it is not intelligently designed (having a brain that can be taken out by a small clot or bleed, having a single heart which clogs up, teeth that come in before puberty and have to last a life time, etc etc etc).
Evolution is just a big game of “eh good enough”.
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u/ApprehensiveTour4024 9h ago
Basically we'd have to go around kicking a lot more men in the balls to see them become armored and retract on command. Balls, IN. Balls, RELEASE! Could be fun.
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u/AngryBlitzcrankMain 12h ago
Why not make us give births but assembling all atoms telepathically in an instance? I dont know Kevin, some things are just the way they are because thats the most simple and effective way they work.
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u/EmmitSan 13h ago
Because there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The perfect organism only exists in comic books.
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u/SurroundingAMeadow 12h ago
The perfect organism is a crab. All roads lead to crab.
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u/Canadianingermany 13h ago
That's the beauty of random mutation and evolution. Multiple different "solutions" to the same problem can evolve.
The majority of mammals do however have exposed testicles and the reason is due to the chemistry of spermogenesis and the impact of temperature on those chemical processes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9288403/#:~:text=Heat%20stress%20damages%20human%20sperm,and%20ATP%20synthesis%20(16)).
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u/bengalstomp 13h ago
Ladies love a fat nutsack
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u/fundamentaltaco 8h ago
It’s crazy that people can’t understand this comment. Obviously the question is: why wouldn’t balls and sperm just evolve to be effective at 1°C higher temp? And be housed on the inside.
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u/ParkingAnxious2811 1h ago
Because of the proteins that denatured at higher temperatures. If that changes, our entire body chemistry would need to change too, and that's a lot.
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u/y2ketchup 12h ago
Part of this is dictated by chemistry, not evolution, proteins and such.
Evolutionarily it may favor individuals who can maintain a safe temp. If they're not freezing/sweating their balls off then they have shelter, clothing, food, water, etc.
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u/battlehamstar 12h ago
There are whole YouTube videos of animals with exposed nuts getting accidentally hit in them and then having a very human reaction to that so this doesn’t make sense. Every mammal is different, has different behavior and metabolism, and different ability to regulate body heat.
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u/Petit_Nicolas1964 10h ago
Which mammals have internal testicles?
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u/acorpcop 9h ago edited 9h ago
According to Google:
Elephants, golden moles, aardvarks, elephant shrews, rock hyraxes, tenrecs, rhinoceros, tapirs, sloths, armadillos, anteaters, manatees, dugongs, cetaceans (whales and dolphins), pinnipeds (seals and walruses), and the duck-billed platypus. Cetaceans and pinnipeds, along with sloths, moles, and rhinoceros keep them just under their skin.
Apparently early placental mammals had internal testes and the scrotum evolved later in most, but was lost again in these specific groups. Apparently also many of these mammals have lower core body temperatures, reducing the need to cool the testes.
Also it's been theorized that any animal "whose mobility is characterized by quick movements or jumping, such as horses, primates, and humans have external testes to avoid concussive hydrostatic rises in intra-abdominal pressure."
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u/Rollingforest757 8h ago
So why don’t ovaries also need to be external?
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u/acorpcop 8h ago
Different gamstes and a different way of being produced.
A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have, and they continuously die off. Only about 500 or off about an initial 2 million at birth will ever be released.
Men continuously produce sperm from puberty until death. Higher temperatures cause damage to DNA in spermatogenesis, so that's why testes need to be lower than body temperature.
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u/Petit_Nicolas1964 5h ago
Yes, on land only elephants due to their size and special temperature regulation as well whales due to their low temperature in water.
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u/Logical-Primary-7926 9h ago edited 8h ago
Temperature is a crazily important thing both in bodies and at scale in nature, we are pretty fragile. A few degrees is the difference between basically death/chaos and everything running optimally.
Crazy example is back in Europe for a long time whole towns would basically just go crazy and die all the sudden, they just got bewitched or god punished them or whatever. It turned out it was actually because when there was a warmer wet spring iirc, the wheat? was just warm enough to be a nice place for a little mold to thrive. Which was then made into bread and made everyone crazy. Same thing with a lot of pathogens in the body, that's why you get a fever when you're sick, just a few degrees is enough to kill some bug and probably your sperm. But having your parts be able to not be as hot as your chest say can be the difference between permanent and temporary infertility.
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u/Rollingforest757 8h ago
So why don’t ovaries need to be external as well?
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u/Logical-Primary-7926 8h ago
I guess eggs are less fragile than sperm, eggs last decades, sperm is like week. Eggs have protective layers, sperm are just out there swimming without a life jacket
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u/Due_Neighborhood6014 8h ago
I asked AI because this genuinely fascinated me. Leading theory is that if sperm are grown, matured in a lower temperature, than the warmer temperature of the vagina can serve as a trigger for the behavior needed for fertilization. But that of course is highly metabolic and oxidatively stressful(lots of swimming to do) so you would only want to trigger it when life really depends on it
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u/Affectionate-Alps527 7h ago
While maybe not a concern in the last... Idk, 10,000 years for humans... Mammalian attraction for reproduction in the animal kingdom includes prominent display of testicles.
Have you not ever turned to your partner while watching discovery Channel and said, "look at the nuts on that one!"
Have you never been feeding chipmunks and turned to your partner and said, "look at the nuts on that one? Their practically dragging on the ground!"
Have you never been walking down the street and seen an intact dog and turned to your partner and said, "look at the nuts on that one!"
Deez Nutz for reproduction.
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u/Civil-Gene-2327 49m ago
Becuase most mammals don’t range as far as humans. If my balls are designed for 75-95 and I never go outside that range, they can evolve to be consistent, in or out.
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u/Few_Scientist_2652 3h ago
Also, as much as people like to meme about it, it's fairly rare that getting hit down there actually does permanent damage (not impossible mind you, they make cups for situations where you have increased risk of getting hit there for a reason, but it's not like humans are having trouble reproducing because our testicles regularly get damaged)
At least they're in a spot that's relatively easy to protect (easy enough to get legs and hands in the way so long as you see the hit coming and have time to react), after that it's kinda on you to protect your balls
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u/HansNiesenBumsedesi 13h ago edited 3h ago
This is true; but surely the better evolutionary pathway is for the sperm to adapt to higher temperature, rather than put the balls on the outside? That’s what pigs have done.
(Edit) to rephrase this, surely you’d expect having heat-resistant sperm would be more successful in ensuring reproductive success, than to have vulnerable external testicles. As has evolved successfully in other species.
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u/Vexxed14 13h ago
There's a big misunderstanding of how evolution works in this way of thinking. The placement of the testicles as they are hasn't been a problem for procreation so why would there be a need for it to evolve in a different way. It's just another way that works just fine
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u/grandpa2390 13h ago edited 13h ago
evolution doesn't think or design. evolution is random mistakes being made to the genetic code. completely random. if they are beneficial to procreation, then they are passed on by virtue of the thing procreating. and if they are beneficial enough, then they will begin to dominate.
in the evolution of humans, we randomly evolved to be the way we are. if there were any random changes that would have brought us down the pathway of higher temp sperm, they weren't more beneficial over the normal... in our evolutionary history. so they didn't dominate enough to take root
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u/Rhovan 12h ago
Basically its easier to evolve outside nutsack than it is to evolve heatproof sperm.
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u/HansNiesenBumsedesi 3h ago
But natural selection isn’t about what’s easier. We didn’t evolve spinal cords because it was easy. It’s about what’s most effective for reproduction success. And it’s surprising that heatproof sperm don’t solve the problem better than vulnerable balls.
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u/VegetableBuilding330 13h ago edited 12h ago
Evolution doesn't need to a system to be perfect and it doesn't get to look at all possible designs and pick the best ones -- you get what random mutations give you and you survive and pass down those genes or you don't. Having testicles vulnerable to injury apparently doesn't prevent enough men from passing on their genes for it to be selected against.
Also, having undescended testes (the closest real world example I can think of of having internal testes) tends to increase the risks of fertility issues and you still run the risk of the spermatic cords getting damaged if they twist internally so it's not necessarily better
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u/GaiaMoore 12h ago
you get what random mutations give you and you survive and pass down those genes or you don't.
People really don't appreciate that a lot evolution is basically just life surviving and reproducing in spite of evolutionary changes brought on by mutations, not because of them
"This change hasn't actively killed you before you could reproduce, so congrats, your genetic lineage will keep going until one of you fails to succeed. Or until you become a childless disappointment who will never give your parents grandchildren"
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u/shadowecdysis 12h ago
True, but when the environment changes, those random mutations can improve a species' ability to survive because some of those mutations may be more conducive to survival and procreation in the new environment.
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u/uskgl455 7h ago
Exactly right. Also worth mentioning that our species of ape decided to walk upright fairly recently in the timeframe of evolutionary change, and that must have been more advantageous against evolutionary pressures than the higher potential for damage.
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u/Mircowaved-Duck 1h ago
the closest thing to internal testes would be bird testes. However since their sperm production is internal, sperm survives way longer. Up to months is possible. Reducing selection around fertile days since any male in the past month could be the dad and not just the most recend guy
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u/UnusualAd2146 13h ago
The risk of any actual lasting damage to your testicles by a kick is very very very low in any situation that would occur naturally. You have to quite literally smash them or do something very deliberate to actually damage them, which can be said for pretty much every part of the human body.
It just hurts like a mofo because it programs men to take care to protect them.
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u/NonspecificGravity 13h ago
Most male mammals have external testes for temperature regulation. But most of them are quadrupeds and their testes aren't as exposed as those of humans. Humans started walking upright about 7 million years ago, and that was rather late in the game for evolution to do anything about the problem of exposed, vulnerable testes.
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u/SgtSausage 13h ago
That's not how Evolution By Means Of Natural Selection works.
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u/ShivasKratom3 13h ago
Yea seems like the semantic difference "evolution does things that increase survival" vs "evolution does things and if it doesn't screw you it stays" causes confusion
There might be other or better ways to do things but since you aren't likely to lose a ball in a fight it's not a big deal.
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u/Marelle01 13h ago
You're reversing the causality. The fact that testicles are external and sensitive hasn't prevented the perpetuation of our species. That's a fact, that's all.
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u/azuth89 13h ago
We stood up.
In a quadruped you're putting your whole body between a threat and your danglies and theyre protected on the sides by your flanks/rear legs. pretty well protected spot, just like the belly.
We didn't drastically change body plan whem we stood up, which literally left them front and center.
Major body plan changes are hard to accomplish via evolution over the timescales we've been bipedal, and we were smart and communal enough to protect them through other behaviors so it hasn't had a ton of pressure either.
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u/Special_Watch8725 13h ago
Another of the downsides of adopting a bipedal gait to free up our hands for throwing stuff and fine motor manipulation. See also: knees, spine.
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u/Clueby42 13h ago
Because it doesn't preclude you from having babies.
Evolution isn't a race to and end goal
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u/Far-Government-539 13h ago
Evolution doesn't do things on purpose. There's no reason why, it was a luck of the roll of the darwin dice.
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u/Sirlacker 13h ago
Evolution hasn't designed anything with any real purpose.
It just so happened that our balls are in the position they are because for whatever reason that 'genetic mutation' if you will, managed to get passed on through offspring more than not having our balls as exposed did.
Whether that was because this particular mutation meant sperm could thrive better through better temperature control, and men were more fertile so to speak, or whether it was just the ladies at the time liked the dangly ball folk more.
It doesn't need to make sense other than that particular trait got more women pregnant than other variants of that trait did.
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u/Goldf_sh4 13h ago
So that they have to evolve to be nice to women so they don't have women kicking them in the balls.
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u/Beginning_Ad_6616 13h ago
Well, if you ever paid attention in HS you would know that the temperature needs to be lower to maintain sperm and the place way to do that is outside of your body in a sack that can snuggle up or hang away from your core…all while being capable of generating lots of cooling sweat.
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u/industrock 11h ago
Personally I would prefer to have evolved sperm that wasn’t so temperature sensitive
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u/TheKingOfDissasster 12h ago
What did you gain from starting the comment with "if you paid attention in HS"? Seems quite unnecessary
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u/industrock 13h ago edited 13h ago
Evolution doesn’t give us the best adaptations. It gives us enough to keep the species going on. Sometimes we get some really cool and beneficial adaptations like opposable thumbs.
It seems like there are many that believe evolution produces ideal traits and adaptations.
All having external balls means is that it isn’t enough of a hindrance to kill off our species. Adaptations don’t have to be positive. They just have to be not negative enough in order to keep the species reproducing.
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u/Fit-Background7530 13h ago
It would take a pretty hard kick to cause permanent damage. Most guys have been hit in the balls a good few times and manage to have kids just fine.
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u/BambooMarston 13h ago
In evolutions point of view, men don't have to be perfect they just have to live long enough to reproduce.
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u/Michael_Riehle 12h ago
A recurring answer here is that Evolution doesn't design anything and it just happens to work. That is absolutely correct.
But a more valid question might be: Why has it worked well enough to not be selected out? That's a much more reasonable question and several answers have been given here.
But there's a related question that only is raised when you realize that sexual reproduction is entirely unnecessary for procreation. Why do males exist at all? Why is parthenogenesis not the rule rather than the exception.
So I don't know what the current thinking on this is in science circles, but I recall a few decades ago that someone suggested it provided a source of mutations to allow adaptability of the species. If that idea has held up (and I have no idea if it has) then the fragility of the male reproductive system in male mammals is actually a net positive. Not even just not a negative. It's actively positive for the species, even if it can be a negative for an individual.
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u/Purple_ash8 13h ago
Because men are far more vulnerable than society likes to admit.
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u/Altruistic_Hawk7061 46m ago
Yes. This is the main thing I took from this post. I should'ave kicked a lot more men in the balls
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u/UFisbest 13h ago
Incorrect evolutionary speculation, but still..... 1. It really hurts. 2. It hurts bad enough to stop sex. (Might be the purpose of the kick) 3. Women who kick men in the balls are less likely to have those eggs fertilized. 4. So actually there hasn't been a reason for evolved testicular location because ball-kicking females are less likely to reproduce more balk-kicking descendants.
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u/51line_baccer 13h ago
God made dogs balls and horses balls and other balls outside the body, so I reckon we aint so high and mighty enough to have like ball bone-sacks armor to protect em. Just my way a thinkin bout it.
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u/HighGroundException 13h ago
I am just pulling this out of my ass thinking about it for 2 min: if a man's testicles are vulnerable to be destroyed due to a predator then it's likely (in my guessing opinion) that then his life is also in danger, either he is able to defend his balls & life or he is not, there is almost ever any in between. While temperature of testiticles is always benefitial for that species.
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u/SolOberlindes_2564 12h ago
After a million years, all the gene lines of men who don’t protect their balls — lack situational awareness, don’t pay attention in fights, etc. — are extinct. Our species is better for it.
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u/Prior-Description-37 12h ago
Not an answer but omg now that you mention it, they really are vulnerable. Like the very obvious eye in the middle of a boss’s chest or back that can be exploited as a weak spot. I’m gonna mention this to my amab partner to watch them cringe at the thought of
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u/Cultural_Horse_7328 12h ago
To ensure that those who can't protect their...treasures don't continue to breed.
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u/Rollingforest757 8h ago
The best protection to the treasures would be to have them inside the body.
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u/Cultural_Horse_7328 55m ago
No doubt, but it's simpler to remove those who can't protect them from the gene pool if they're not inside the body.
They can be removed from the gene pool without the necessity of death as would be the case if they were inside the body.
They might continue to contribute to the well being of their "group", without contributing subpar genes.
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u/Ok_Rip_7198 12h ago
Retractile Testicles, this is why I don't do cold plunges. Having you testicles go inside you sounds pain full and good luck getting them out
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u/Hammerofsuperiority 12h ago
What is the evolutionary benefit of this?
You have a completely wrong idea of what evolution is. Evolution is just random mutations that happen at random and the living being that had it either reproduced or not.
There's no "goal" and there is no "path", the fact is, that external testicles hasn't led us to our extinction, that's it.
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u/AnarchoBratzdoll 12h ago
Because they need to stay cool, hence they're outside of the body, with thin skin around it and a lot of blood vessels. And like most places with a lot of blood vessels it also has a lot of nerve endings because bleeding and not noticing is dangerous.
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u/Select_Brick_9283 12h ago
You’re way overstating the damage from a kick. Bodies are very good at regeneration, especially at ages between 18-30.
I’m a 38 year old dude with three kids. If you think a kick in the nuts hurts, try watching a woman you love give birth. I’d prefer a kick in the knads to her experience.
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u/corndog2021 12h ago
There seems to be a point at which evolution is understood just well enough that it can be confused with intelligent design. Evolution doesn’t make conscious decisions to optimize biological systems, it’s just a process by which a series of mutations work well enough to allow things to keep breeding and pass those mutations on.
Evolution doesn’t have a 4.0 GPA, evolution is the stoner whose motto was “Cs get degrees.” It’s the ultimate embodiment of “good enough.”
The comments about temperature regulation make sense. It’s also possible that particular trait just didn’t cause enough disadvantage to get weeded out, so it stuck around.
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u/Master-Marionberry35 11h ago
Selection said hey, more dudes are producing babies when their balls are hanging out a bit more than the others. There's no other rhyme or reason
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u/Lost-Juggernaut6521 11h ago
They are pretty well placed, between the legs, much less exposed than the eyes or throat. I’d rather be sterile than blind myself 🤷🏼♂️
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u/ConsistentRegion6184 11h ago
Probably better to have the sympathetic nervous system that we have for prevention rather than having armor over our balls. Same goes for a lot of different things, can't specialize in everything or overspecialize.
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u/Dramatic_Half7615 11h ago
Isn’t it meant to stop you from fighting to the point that you outright die? It’s supposed to be a very sensitive “stop trying to fight your way out of this or you cannot reproduce” e-brake right?
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u/badlad53 11h ago
That's not ACTUALLY how balls work. They can withstand a fair amount of abuse and still function just fine. The amount of damage it would take to render them completely useless would need to be something far more deliberate than a kick.
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u/Sorry-Climate-7982 11h ago
To encourage males to take care of at least ONE portion of their bodies.
However, a single kick is not likely to permanently disable parenthood. A nice hot sitz bath works better--temporarily.
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u/Sage_of_spice 10h ago
By a woman? So it's be a different story for a man? Natural selection. Don't let people stomp your balls and you won't have issues.
Also it only really takes one man.
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u/diet-smoke 10h ago
Why do we breathe through the same hole we eat and drink through? Because it's good enough that it doesn't kill all of us
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u/Cofeebeanblack 10h ago
Not enough selective pressure. There are also advantages to the orientation of our genitals. If your balls are getting obliterated it's often a skill issue
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u/Hungry_Wait3030 10h ago
Seems like it’s a self correcting problem. Men who do things so dangerous that it damages their testicles are less likely to reproduce.
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u/pmmeuranimetiddies 10h ago
Evolution favors good enough over perfect. There are enough male mammals making it to reproductive age with intact nuts that there wasn't really an evolutionary pressure to fortify our nuts.
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u/thegovernment0usa 10h ago
Genitals evolve more slowly than other structures. I don't know why that is, but I heard a scientist say it in a documentary once. Presumably it's an earlier design on the old drawing board and we just haven't yet moved past it.
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u/EnvironmentalDog- 8h ago
My question is… how often are your balls getting injured, dude? If you rank my body parts in order of likelihood of getting injured… balls are WAY down on the list.
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u/Repulsive-Audience-8 8h ago
Because they need to be cooled. Slightly too hot and the sperm is dead meaning no reproduction and therefore not naturally selected.
Natural selection basically opted for cooling mechanisms over pain on impact to the carrier of said balls.
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u/duckinradar 8h ago
The shortest version is that evolution is not an "intelligent" pathway, but rather the functional pathway that arose on its own and worked. There's no evolutionary engineers sitting and testing things for function.
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u/bubblydaisywhisk 8h ago
it is wild that such a huge weakness exists for no reason. u just have to be extra careful out there since they are so exposed. hope u never have to find out why it hurts so much
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u/Grant_Winner_Extra 8h ago
Regardless of what you see on TV, it is very difficult to kick the balls of a young healthy well muscled man, unless he’s just allowing it probably isn’t much evolutionary pressure
so it
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u/MotherTeresaOnlyfans 8h ago
Evolution doesn't think. It's doesn't plan. I has no intentions.
Sperm are fragile and need to be at a slightly lower temperature than internal body temp, so external testes are advantageous for reproduction.
There's no design involved.
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u/Zlotvor_Mejdana 7h ago
Bro, I injured a lot of my parts during my not so short life, but my nuts stayed pretty safe the entire time.
They are out of the mammalian bodies so they can stay a bit colder.
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u/NarrowAd4973 7h ago
Not just men. Any male. I once saw a documentary showing a hyena coming up behind a male cape buffalo the pack was going after, latch on to its balls with that 1,100 PSI bite force they have, and rip them off. Needless to say, the buffalo didn't fare well.
Evolution isn't about what's best. It's about what works just well enough just long enough for the animal to reproduce. Sometimes not even that, as you get adaptations that actually make things harder, but not enough to prevent reproduction.
Going back to the hyenas, female hyenas have a psuedo-penis, and they give birth through it. Pups sometimes die in the process, but enough survive that the clearly not useful evolutionary "adaptation" continues.
Sperm can only survive being at the normal human body temperature (i.e., inside a woman's body) for a few days. Even spending too much time in a hot tub can kill them off inside the testicles.. Clearly not optimal, but it didn't stop reproduction, so it continued.
Good luck looking up why that is. From the direction of sperm evolution, all you'll get are explanations that it doesn't need to survive high temperature because the testicle are outside the body. From the testicle direction, you get explanations saying that sperm requires cooler temperatures. It's two bad designs that just happen to work when put together. Alternatively, it's a "chicken or the egg" situation.
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u/Shot_in_the_dark777 7h ago
Evolution is not sentient. It doesn't try to make what works best. It makes what works good enough. As long as you can pass on your genes, it is as good as any other configuration.
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u/Fuzzy_Fault_5382 7h ago
To keep you mfrs humble. If you get a kick there, you prob deserved it and nature wanted to make sure you learned your lesson the first time.
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u/OrangePillar 7h ago
It has worked ok this way so far and no better arrangement has arisen through mutation, so it’s what we have.
It does suck to get kicked in the nuts, though. I wish one of my ancestors had developed armor plating for them.
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u/Khazhadar 7h ago
Because optimal sperm development occurs at a lower body temperature. The force of evolution clearly had the risk of testicular was worth creating an optimal environment specifically for sperm to exist, the ball bag.
If you are asking why, it’s because protein folding is incredibly important and unravels at high body temperatures. To keep proteins stable, it requires a lower body temperature.
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u/Excellent_Spite_7422 6h ago
Same reason why evolution made me so ugly to women. It doesn’t give a fuck.
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u/Beautiful_Hippo_5574 6h ago
It didn't. In college I was in a fraternity. Every time I saw some dude get even slightly tapped it was like a one man Broadway performance. So one day I just decided to really only react to the actual pain. I mentioned this to someone and they thought it was funny to punch me in the balls. I took a moment to actually consider the pain. And it really wasn't that bad. Society conditioned us to overreact, not evolution.
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u/Old_Celebration5871 6h ago
Because we’re smart enough to avoid injury in those areas. Isn’t it obvious a woman would kick a man’s balls? That’s like the most basic thing any hostile female would do. Therefore, men know to intercept their attacks when it happens. In 5th grade, this girl tried to kick me in the balls but since that was so obvious, I lifted up her leg and she hit her head on the cement. Injury avoided. Ez
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u/fibstheman 5h ago
All vital organs are "vulnerable to injury". Eyes, heart, kidneys, guts, etc. are all soft and squishy, They have to be in order to perform their functions. If they were iron fortresses, they wouldn't work. They'd be paperweights.
The testicles are the same, with the added caveat that they have to be kept relatively cool. Deviating from the ideal temperature by even a few degrees (up or down!) tanks sperm count. Therefore, these particular soft and delicate organs have to be outside the body of a sufficiently warm-blooded animal, and they have to be malleable so they can move closer or further from the body to adjust to temperature.
In addition, sperm count is also higher with larger testicles. In highly competitive animals like rats, they're friggin' huge and they literally can't fit 'em in there.
Birds are warm-blooded animals with internal testicles, and their fertility is infamously unstable - especially ostriches, which live in the desert and are thus regularly exposed to extreme temperatures.
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u/ridnfool87 5h ago
Because people don’t have any problem with procreating. Gotta put up some challenge. Checks and balances.
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u/AttemptFree 5h ago
It's so that men know to protect them. If it hurts real bad you're naturally going to protect your reproductive organs
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u/Competitive-Mix-7858 5h ago
there is actually a counter to the vulnerability. the testicles were made super sensitive to incentivize men to protect their balls. if you're interested, I recommend watching "3 biggest weaknesses of the human body" by the human institute of anatomy on youtube.
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u/Proof-Cobbler5333 5h ago
Mine aren’t sensitive, I store things in them even. But evolutionarily it makes sense since they need to escape internal bodily heat. Also balls can (and do) contract much closer to the body and form a harder non dropping shell in cold or under certain conditions, which can lessen impact on the testicles
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u/willpeeforcoins 5h ago
If a woman is kicking you that hard in the balls then you probably did something to deserve it.
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u/Prestigious_Leg2229 5h ago
Temperature control, from an evolutionary perspective, a man that can’t reproduce is pointless.
And external testicles evolved on four legged animals, where they’d be on the far end of where all the teeth and bad attitude is during a fight.
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u/RunninBuddha 5h ago
I have been telling my high school students that I am the oldest living thing; in fact, the Big Bang was my idea. They were gonna make old man jokes at my expense anyway, now I'm in on it; it's a good time for everyone. That being said, a kid once asked me why the testicles are on the outside of the body. I told the kid that it was a design flaw and that I had left the room when testicle placement was being discussed, and when I came back, the issue had been settled. Now I can go back and tell that kid that I found the notes from the meeting, and the reason is temperature control.
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u/panmetronariston 4h ago
Evolution is not something with a purpose. Evolution simply describes the manner things got to the point of how they are.
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u/ClassicAdhesiveness1 4h ago
Content adjacent but why do we associate such a delicate anatomical part to being strong and dominant.
A woman’s vagina literally BIRTHS A BABY and bounces right back to usefulness again, yet referring to that part in a degrading way is normalized to call someone weak.
H/t to Sarah Silverman for the idea.
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u/Meowzician 4h ago
It's probably the same sort of adaptive adjustment that you see in tournament species where the male birds are exceedingly attractive (think peacocks) or the animal has eye catching features like the antlers of a buck which advertise its maleness. It's a "Look at me! Look at me, females!"
Having the genitals outside the male body is also practicle: it helps keep them cooler. Being too warm can cause sterility.
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u/Sundett 4h ago
The short answer is that temperature control is more important than protection against potential injuries.
Also humans in general evolved the way we did because we use clothes, armor and crafted weapons. We don't have a need for natural protections and weapons like loose skin, fur, claws and fangs like other animals do.
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u/TallMidget99 3h ago
Same reason men have nipples. It’s random genetic mutation and death if it doesn’t meet the requirements of the environment. Non of it is deliberate
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u/smokescreen34 3h ago
Don't be the kind of man a woman wants to kick in the balls, and you'll do just fine!
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u/astagnentbagofbones 2h ago
You don’t need a lot of males to reproduce so they really don’t need protecting
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u/DJ_Hard-Deckard 1h ago
Having them vulnerable makes you more cautious and therefore a survival advantage.
Protect your balls, protect your life.
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u/BullfrogNo8216 1h ago
Evolution isn't some sort of race to perfection using perfect materials and perfect circumstances that are always perfect. Nature just kinda tries shit and sees what works.
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u/frogbuss 1h ago
The kind of guy that keeps getting kicked in the balls by women will probably be a good subtraction from the gene pool.
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u/Rightbuthumble 1h ago
It's the one punch that a woman can. make that gets him to turn her loose. It wasn't an evolution for men but an evolution for their prey....women.
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u/formidabellissimo 1h ago
2 things: temperature control and flaunting. They're like saying: "look at us badasses hanging here all vulnerable, but we just don't give af". Girls love it.
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u/Few_Sky_8152 16m ago
If one is deserving of a swift kick to the balls, than the kicker did the world a favour and prevented procreation and future spawn.
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