Weird Facts About The Male Body

Being a man is pretty great. Men can be fairly strong, they don’t have to worry about giving birth, and they get to pee standing up! But when you take a look under the hood of the male body, there are quite a few things that are just downright weird. Ranging from color-blindness and male menopause, to what’s really happening below the belt, here are a few little known facts about being a man!

Bigger Brains

For centuries, women were told they weren’t equal to men in terms of intellect because their brains were much smaller than their male counterpart’s. Over the years though, women have constantly proven that they are more than capable of meeting and exceeding those misogynistic misconceptions.

However, in 2014, a scientific review of all studies that analyzed measurements of the human brain revealed something shocking. Men do, in fact, have larger brains than women, ranging from about 8% to 13% larger!

They also had larger brain regions associated with memory and spatial awareness. Women, on the other hand, had larger volumes in areas of the brain dealing with language and emotions. But here’s the thing, there is no established link between function and size, so bigger definitely does not mean smarter.

After all, an elephant’s brain is 3 or 4 times larger than a humans, and we have yet to see an elephant score well on a calculus exam! But how can we be sure that having bigger brains definitely doesn’t mean men are smarter? Well, the next section might provide some evidence.

More Darwin Awards

For those who don’t know, The Darwin Awards are honors bestowed on people who accidentally remove themselves from the human gene pool in the most spectacularly idiotic ways possible. From fatally jet skiing off Niagara Falls, to taking stupidly extreme selfies, each winner is just that much dumber than the last. And you might spot a pattern in the winners: the vast majority of them are male, and I mean vast.

In 2014, the Darwin Awards were handed out to 318 people, and an astonishing 89% of them were men! This indicates men have less self-preservation, and, in turn, smarts, than women. But this kind of recklessness might have been an advantage at one point in humanity’s evolution.

Cave men might have displayed dominance by engaging in risky feats, like taking down large, dangerous prey. This impulsive, high-risk-high-reward strategy likely won them mates and first access to food, with their strong, risk-taking genes passed down to the men around us today.

With that being said, next time any of you boys try to jump an open drawbridge with a car, or play hide and seek with a bulldozer, two very worthy Darwin Award Winners there, please, just ask yourselves, what would the women do?

Finger Length

Please lay out your hand on a flat surface and look at the length of your index finger compared to your ring finger. For most women, these will be about the same length, but for most men, their ring finger will be slightly longer than their index finger. Weird, right?

Researchers have discovered that the length of your ring finger compared to your index finger is correlated to the amount of male hormones, mainly testosterone, you were exposed to in the womb. Cool as it is, it’s not clear exactly why testosterone has this oddly specific effect. Did men in the past need those extra few millimeters on their ring fingers for something in particular?

Muscle Development

Many women slave away endlessly in the gym in the hopes of building a lean, toned body. But some men just lift weights a few times and seem to develop a six pack overnight.

The magic ingredient to this fast muscle development is testosterone. It’s the primary male sex hormone that really starts pumping around our bodies during puberty. Women produce it too, but not nearly as much, with adult men producing approximately 20 times more testosterone naturally than women.

It affects parts of the male body’s development such as muscle mass, because it’s partially responsible for muscle protein synthesis. And, as you’ve probably guessed, the more protein you can synthesize, the bigger your muscles are. These synthesis rates are also linked to your body’s metabolic rate, so the more testosterone you have naturally, the easier it is to build muscle and burn fat.

You’re probably thinking that having more testosterone makes it easier to build your dream body. At least, that’s what the meaty men pumped up on steroids hogging the weight section at the gym will tell you! But having too much testosterone isn’t always a good thing, as we'll observe in the next section.

Baldness

By the age of 50, about 85% of men have begun balding, though some try and save what few strands of hair they have left with a combover! But have you ever noticed that women, no matter their age, rarely lose all their hair? Why is that? Well, guys, we have bad news, and worse news.

The bad news is that this is a wide-spread, hereditary condition called Androgenetic alopecia, more commonly known as male pattern baldness. It happens because each strand of hair sits in a tiny cavity called a follicle, and over time these follicles can shrink, resulting in finer, shorter, and eventually no hair.

“But if that’s the bad news, what’s the worse news?” Well, this follicle shrinkage is caused by genetic sensitivity to dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a by-product of testosterone. This means that for men, the more natural testosterone you have, helping you build muscle and burn fat, the more DHT you’re potentially producing, killing off your follicles.

Pain Tolerance

Which, do you think, hurts more: giving birth to a baby, or being kicked square in the gonads? It’s an age-old question that’s guaranteed to start a war between men and women. While there’s no question that giving birth is a much longer and way more impressive ordeal, it’s hard to say exactly which hurts worse because all pain is subjective. It’s all in the mind, and so it’s difficult to directly compare one experience to another.

What scientists do know from their research into human pain tolerances is that women have a much greater nerve density in their bodies than men, making them more sensitive to things like pain. One study explained how scientists found an average of 17 nerve fibers per square centimeter in the facial skin of men, but around double that amount in women, with 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter.

Women also experience hormone fluctuations linked to increased pain sensitivity, so women likely feel more pain than men, and feel it more intensely to boot! This might indicate that men have a higher tolerance for pain than women, but these studies don’t show any concrete findings, so more research is needed. Regardless, you can bet most men are happy never having to find out how painful pushing a whole baby out of their body is!

The Perfect Body

If social media is anything to go by, the ideal male body is a set of chiseled abs, big arms, a little waist, and meaty thighs. The workouts that must take are exhausting just to think about, and it seems like this strong shape has been the standard for male beauty since, well, forever! But it really, really hasn’t.

Let’s rewind all the way back to the 1870’s, when the ideal male body was one that was, surprisingly, overweight! Being overweight in this age was a sign that you could afford plenty of food, and so indicated you were wealthy! And what woman back then didn’t want a wealthy husband, considering women weren’t really allowed any means of supporting themselves!

Moving on to the 1930’s though, and suddenly being slim was all the rage. This fitting physique became the common trend as middle-class families were no longer in fear of starving, and so the wealthier among them could afford to be fit.

Then came the 1960’s, and long-haired, skinny silhouettes surged in popularity. This physique was popularised by rockstars on the stage, who were the embodiment of anti-corporate mainstream chic. And then, in the late 1970’s and 80’s, the widespread use of steroids saw meat mountains like Arnold Schwarzenegger steal the spotlight. Bigger really was better! Today, the roid rage is over, and a sort of effortlessly ripped physique is the main trend.

We Were Once All Female

Guys, have you ever looked at your chest and wondered why you have nipples? Women can use theirs to breastfeed babies, so you'd think it doesn’t really make sense for men to have them. Well, did you know that every human on earth was once female, physically and phenotypically speaking.

We’re all born with a set of chromosomes that determine our sex. For women, that’s two X chromosomes, and for men it’s an X and a Y chromosome. When we’re first conceived in the womb, the Y chromosome doesn’t kick into our development right away. In fact, the first five to six weeks of embryonic development are influenced by the X chromosome alone.

Females grow from an embryo fully developed from the X chromosome. But after about 6 weeks, a gene called the SRY gene activates the Y chromosome, if it’s present, and stops female features from the X chromosome developing further while kickstarting male development.

However, before the SRY gene is activated, certain female features, such as nipples, will have already developed on the fetus’ body. And that’s why we’re all born with nipples!

Male Lactation

We’ve established that male nipples don’t have any kind of function, they’re just a sort of body decoration, Chestmas Ornaments, if you’ll forgive the pun! Except, they’re not always useless. It’s an uncommon occurrence, but men do have the ability to lactate, which is the scientific way of saying producing milk.

The breast tissue of men and women contains clusters of alveoli that provide milk in response to a hormone produced by the pituitary gland, called prolactin. Women naturally produce about one third more prolactin than men, and during pregnancy this increases up to 20 times more.

So technically, you don’t need to be pregnant to produce milk, you just need the right rush of hormones, and these can surge in men given the right circumstances. For instance, male prison camp survivors from World War II who suffered months of starvation began lactating after they received their first proper meals in months.

It turned out their hormone-producing glands rebounded far quicker than their livers, which normally metabolize hormones, resulting in a hormone spike that caused lactation. And I thought regular war stories were bad!

Single Men Smell Different

How can you tell if a man is in a relationship? Maybe he’s wearing a wedding band? Perhaps you could check his relationship status on Facebook? Or you could give him a big old sniff. That last one may sound weird, but it links back to a scientific study conducted in 2019.

Researchers claimed that single men, on average, have higher levels of testosterone than men who have partners. This is because there’s more sexual competition in single males, stimulating their bodies to produce more testosterone, whereas bonded males don’t need to compete.

But when it’s broken down and discarded through our sweat, it produces the chemical androstenone, which has a smell that’s as pungent as urine! So, the more testosterone you produce and break down, the smellier you are! Researchers tested this hypothesis in an 82-person study, and the results showed that the single, heterosexual men did smell stronger than the partnered men!

With strong BO indicating a man has more testosterone, it’s likely they have some of the other effects of high testosterone production as well, such as more muscle mass and better mating potential. This has led researchers to theorize that BO works as a chemical signal that women pick up, supposedly helping them identify single males and avoiding partnered ones.

Although, an alternative hypothesis is that single males have worse BO because they have bad hygiene practices. Most of us know a few single basement-dwellers who could definitely confirm that theory!

Men And Women See Things Differently

Did you know men and women see things differently? And it's not only about asking for directions! Men have about 25% more testosterone receptors in their visual cortex, the part of the brain where images are processed, than women. As a result, men are better at perceiving changes in brightness across a space in front of them, meaning they’re significantly better at detecting fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli.

According to the hunter-gatherer theory of human evolution, this would have helped them detect predators and prey more easily while out hunting.

Women, however, are better at distinguishing colors in the very middle of the visual spectrum, mainly shades such as blue and green. This is because our color vision depends on 3 types of cones in the retina of the eye. Two of these are carried on the x chromosome, so with more x chromosomes, women end up with better cone development, and better color vision.

In the hunter-gatherer theory, this would have made women better at gathering tasks, such as distinguishing which wild berries were safe to eat. You can say the grass really is greener on the women’s side!

Body Hair

Have you ever tried to grow a beard? If so, chances are you’re a man. While it’s not impossible for women to naturally sport hairy chins, men are more likely to grow long, thick, dark hair across their faces. This is because everyone’s born with light, soft vellus hairs that cover most of their bodies. When puberty hits, we begin producing hormones, called androgens, which stimulate vellus hairs to coarsen and darken in hormone sensitive areas, such as our armpits and nether regions.

Because men typically have higher levels of androgens, it stimulates more body and facial hair to sprout. But why exactly does it grow on our faces? Well, there is a weak link to beards and perceived dominance, because beards have the ability to make our jaws appear larger than it really is. Any burly looking man who’s shaved off a few months of growth, only to reveal the baby face beneath will know it!

Some studies indicate we see beards as being linked to older, stronger, and more dominant characters. However, having a beard isn’t neatly linked to having more testosterone, greater muscle mass, or strength, so the verdict is still out on that one. What we do know is, at some point in history, women chose men who had beards, which is why the furry facial feature has been genetically passed down too many men today.

Digestion Differences

At a guess, how long do you reckon it takes for the food you eat to travel all the way through your digestive system and out the other end? Some of you may know from experience, if corn is anything to go by, that it generally ranges from 24 to 72 hours. But what you might not know is that time also depends on if you’re male or female.

A study from 2019 marked the time it took 21 healthy people to digest the same food. On average, men took 33 hours to digest their food, whereas women took almost half a day more at 47 hours. This is just one study, so we can’t say this is true for every man, woman, and child. But we do know that when it comes to colons, the longest part of the large intestine, men actually have much shorter ones than women.

Longer, slower emptying colons mean women are almost twice as likely to experience colonic issues in their lifetime; from chronic constipation to the urgent need for a bowel movement! This means that the average man has shorter sit-down bathroom breaks, while women generally need a little more time to deal with their chronic colonics!

Women's Farts Smell Worse Than Men's

So, we’ve established that, on average, men are naturally bigger and stronger than women. But when it comes to the realm of farts, it’s men who are the weaklings. How is that possible? Well, flatulence occurs when the good microbes in our gut ferment undigested food, producing hydrogen sulphide. It’s this chemical that gives our toots some seriously nose-pinching odors, like the type that smell like rotten eggs!

But professional flatulence researchers, which is somehow a genuine job title, went sniffing for more information. In one study, they measured the amount of smelly sulphur released by men and women who’d been fed the same diet of pinto beans and laxatives. The data collected during the study found that the men had an average sulphur concentration of 0.59 ml per fart, whereas the women almost tripled that, with an average of 1.77 ml! That meant the standard male butt murmur wasn’t nearly as noxious as a female fart!

But why exactly do women have worse smelling wind than men? That’s currently up for debate. Some believe that the increased length of the female colon gives food more time to ferment, or they may have more microbes in their gut. Whatever the reason is, next time you’re looking for who dealt it, be sure to look towards the lady in the room!

Height Of Fashion

It’s no secret that men are, on average, taller than women thanks to many genetic, hormonal, and evolutionary factors. But what you might not know is that in the 1600’s, the average European male height hit an all-time low of just 5 ft 4 inches, which forced an incredible innovation.

Was it stilts? Step ladders? Maybe booster seats? Nope, it was, in fact, high heels. They can be traced back to 15th century Persia when soldiers wore them to help secure their feet in stirrups. Persian migrants brought the trend to Europe, where male aristocrats wore them to appear taller and more formidable!

In 1673, King Louis XIV of France introduced a set of shoes with red heels and soles to the French court, and so they became a male fashion must-have for around 100 years. In those times, women were slowly adopting masculine fashions, like trimming their hair short and wearing hats. So, they too started wearing high heels, and since then they’ve become a feminine fashion statement.

Still, it’s pretty funny to think that if it weren’t for women adopting them, high heels might be seen as a massively masculine thing to wear today. Now there’s a body building show you’d pay to watch!

Adam's Apples

Both men and women have Adam’s Apples, but men’s are generally bulkier and more noticeable. Why is that? Well, this throaty feature is actually a chunk of cartilage wrapped around the larynx, also known as the voice box, which develops during puberty. Men tend to have larger voice boxes than women, and so the cartilage coating them is usually thicker. And because of their larger larynxes, males tend to have deeper and louder voices than females.

But, from an evolutionary standpoint, why would they need to be louder? Well, it’s believed men once used their voices to intimidate male rivals. Because we’re social creatures, men likely tried to scare other males away from their resources and females without resorting to violence, as that move poses a risk to them as well.

It’s similar to what we see in gorillas, where males will pound their chests and growl at rivals to frighten them off instead of launching into an immediate, much riskier, attack. Hopefully this means that men are a little smarter than the average ape!

Male Menopause

As women get older, they usually hit an age between 40 and 50 where their hormones suddenly change. Their body’s production of female sex hormones, estrogen and progestogen, drops, transitioning them naturally into a state where they can no longer have children. This hormone fluctuation, called Menopause, triggers mood swings, hot flushes, body changes, and is often the butt of many jokes.

Guys might find this funny, until they learn that women aren’t the only ones that suffer from menopause! Also known as Irritable Male Syndrome, male menopause generally starts to affect men in their 30’s and 40’s. Just like women, their body’s naturally stop producing certain sex hormones, most notably, testosterone. But instead of stopping suddenly, men stop producing testosterone incrementally, dropping up to 2% each year.

Eventually it all adds up, and combined with lifestyle choices, like a poor diet and lack of exercise, this can result in weight gain, mood swings, irritability, and even hot flushes! Unlike female menopause though, male menopause doesn’t affect fertility, although there’s no better contraceptive than being a crotchety old man!

Morning Wood

It’s time we talk about the trouser snake in the room, and we'll be using some slightly fluffier language to explain it all! Any man will tell you that getting a trouser tent isn’t something they have much control over. Women may think that’s just an excuse, but it genuinely is an automatic response caused by the body’s parasympathetic nervous system.

This is the same bodily system that makes you physically react to certain stimuli, like goosebumps or shivers! For a proof, when they’re asleep at night, men tend to pitch a tent 3 to 5 times on average. But why does this happen so often when you sleep?

Well, this is called nocturnal penile tumescence, or NPT; a sheet-raising phenomenon linked to the deepest phase of the sleep cycle, known as rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep. REM is the type of deep sleep where you dream, but it’s not racy dreams that trigger this super stiff phenomenon.

When a man’s meerkat is on the lookout, his meerkat fills with blood, becoming rigid. Usually, a neurotransmitter in the brain, called Norepinephrine, can prevent the meerkat popping up by stopping the flow of blood to the meerkat. But during REM sleep, norepinephrine levels drop, resulting in a few meerkats!

I hope you were amazed at these facts about the male body. Thanks for reading!