Stay cool! Special underwear for cyclic cooling significantly decreases scrotal skin temperature.
Plain-language summary
This study tested whether a specially designed cooling garment could lower scrotal skin temperature during ordinary daily life. Three volunteer urologists wore it, with a cold pack inside that was changed every 12 hours, and scrotal skin temperature was logged by a wireless sensor for 1008 hours in total, comparing periods when the garment was worn against control periods when it was not. Median scrotal skin temperature was 34.6 degrees Celsius (94.3 degrees Fahrenheit) during the cooling periods and 35.3 degrees Celsius (95.5 degrees Fahrenheit) during the control periods, a reduction of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit), and that difference was significant. The authors report that the cooling did not impair the activities of daily living. The abstract reports no semen or fertility outcome.
Key findings
- Three volunteer urologists wore the cooling garment, and the cold pack inside it was changed every 12 hours.
- Median scrotal skin temperature was 34.6 degrees Celsius (94.3 degrees Fahrenheit) during the cooling periods and 35.3 degrees Celsius (95.5 degrees Fahrenheit) during the control periods.
- That is a reduction of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit), and it was a significant difference.
- Scrotal skin temperature was logged for 1008 hours in total.
- The authors report that the cooling did not impair the activities of daily living.
- The abstract reports no semen or fertility outcome, so this study says nothing about sperm either way.
How to analyze the study yourself
- Study type
- This compares periods with the garment against periods without it in the same setting, which can show whether the garment changes temperature and cannot show what that change does to anything else.
- Population
- Three volunteer urologists, who wore the cooling garment themselves. That number comes from the full text. The abstract gives no participant count, and neither the abstract nor the full text gives their age or fertility status.
- Funding
- Not reported
- Takeaway
- This study followed three men and found that a scrotal cooling garment lowered median scrotal skin temperature by 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with normal wear. Three men is a very small study, and it reports no semen or fertility outcome, so it shows that the cooling works as cooling and not that it changes anything about sperm.