Things You Didn't Know About The Male Body

By Editorial Staff in Facts On 22nd December 2016

Men can be a mystery to women and to themselves, for that matter, so it’s no surprise there are some shocking things you didn’t know about the male body. Get ready to throw certain assumptions out of the window. There are obvious differences between men and women, but there are also some fascinating similarities. Men can do things that we all thought only belonged in the domain of women. You’ll never look at a man’s nipples in the same way again.

#1 Male Baldness Isn't Inherited By The Mother

People believe that male baldness is something passed down from his mom because the X chromosne is passed on from the mother, but there are other more important factors involved as well. If a man's father is bald, they are 60% more likely to develop male pattern baldness. Some men begin losing their hair by the age of twenty and by the age of 50, half of all men are practically bald. It starts with a receding hairline and takes around 15-20 years to become hairless in most cases. Stress and health issues also play an important factor in hair loss for men and women both.

#2 Men Can Lactate

Men have mammary glands just like women and can actually lactate and produce milk. However, they wouldn't actually be able to produce enough man milk to feed an infant. Men with enlarged breasts, or gynecomastia, can produce mile and lactate on a regular basis.

#3

If a man is lactating, it is not unusual, especially in the first stages of puberty. However, this occurrence is usually caused by a hormone known as prolactin. It can become active in men due to a tumor in the pituitary gland, not eating properly, opioids, or hormone treatments like testosterone or for prostate cancer.

#4 Men Can Get Period Pains

Some men actually experience 'man periods' and suffer from the same or similar effects as women do when they are going through their menstrual cycle. They feel more sensitive, tired, irritable, hungry, and even get cramps. It is believed that only 26% of all adult men experience this but aside from the period bleeding, they are feeling the same as a female would on a monthly basis.

#5 Men Can Experience Parenthood Hits

When a woman is in labor, the chemical oxytocin is released to help with contractions and then bonding with the new child. This chemical also rises in new fathers as well. During this period a new father can also get a surge of the prolactin hormone which makes lactation possible. A study at the University of Isreal has stated that this hormone release in men is nature's way of helping men turn into good fathers.

#6 Men Have Estrogen

Estrogen is known as the female hormone and testosterone as the male hormone, but both are found in men and women. Although it's at a lower level, men's bodies produce quite a bit of estrogen, as compared to the little testosterone produced by females. If a man produces too much of the estrogen he may experience unusual symptoms like breast tissue growth, infertility, and erectile dysfunction.

#7 All Men Were Once Females

All of us started out as a generic embryo. Though we have our own male or female chromosomes, the distinction doesn't start until the sex hormones come into the picture, which is several weeks into our embryonic stage. Before the testosterone kicks in, boys are actually on a path to becoming baby girls and female parts of the body have already begun to formulate.

#8 Men Have Thicker Skin

It'snot just an old saying that someone is 'thick-skinned', men actually are. Men'sskinis 25-35% thicker than a woman's skin is and that is because of the testosterone. However, a man's skin thins gradually over time but a woman's skin remains constant until menopause, and then it thins even more significantly after that.

#9 Men Have Bigger Feet

Men are built larger than women anyway, but even when a man and woman are the same weight and height, the man's feet will be wider and longer. Women have smaller in steps, shorter ankles, and shallower first toes than men do.

#10 Men Have Thousands Of Whiskers

There could be anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 stubs of hair on a man's cheeks and chin. A guys facial hair grows approximately six inches every 8 months. On average, a man will remove over 27,000 feet of hair through shaving. That's over 60 hours per year on average, which means he spends over 5 months of his life shaving!

#11 Men Use Only One Side Of The Brain

Men tend to perform tasks on the left side of the brain, the rational and logical side. Women, on the other hand, use both hemispheres. Women's brains are about 8% smaller than men's brains but they have a larger corpus callosum.

#12

Women can transfer data between the two sides of the brain quicker than men can. Of course, this is just on average, as many men can also use both sides of their brains. But in men, the connections are usually stronger between the front and back regions of the brain instead of the left and right. That is why women are better multitaskers and men are better at solving problems or spatial thinking like navigating.

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