Boxers or briefs? It’s not the same for male fertility

Boxers or briefs? The debate has been open for decades but now there is one more reason to prefer one over the other. In fact, the choice of men’s underwear could make a difference in terms of a man’s fertility.

It has long been known that the high temperature of the scrotum can negatively affect the production of sperm, so much so that some had tried to design and commercialize cooling underpants !

The effect of underwear on male fertility has been little studied in the past and with often inconsistent results.

A study was recently published in the authoritative Human Reproduction   which involved the analysis of the semen of 656 men engaged in an assisted fertilization process with their partners. Researchers at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health have found that men who wear boxers may have higher sperm counts than those who wear briefs.

I study

This is the largest study linking men’s underwear to sperm quality.

Fifty-three percent of 656 participants reported wearing boxers, the remainder various styles of tighter underwear such as briefs or form-fitting boxers. The scientists evaluated the semen samples for parameters including sperm motility, total sperm count and the percentage of sperm with normal morphology.

All were also subjected to blood tests for the dosage of testosterone and other hormones.

Compared to men wearing tight underwear, those wearing boxers had a 25% higher sperm concentration, 17% more sperm count, and 33% more motile sperm count. However, differences in sperm shape and blood concentrations of most hormones were insignificant.

Should you wear boxers?

“For most men, wearing one or the other won’t make any difference,” explained study senior author Dr. Jorge E. Chavarro, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard, “because most men he’s not trying to be a dad. But if you are trying to get pregnant, then you can try buying boxers, this is an affordable route that can really help. “