Dr. Bastuba answers two age-old questions, if men wearing boxers or briefs affect their sperm quality and if sitting in a Jacuzzi is harmful to sperm production.
Male Fertility Expert Dr. Bastuba: Well I can’t resist the opportunity to somehow work the underwear bomber into this questioning. No, actually there are various studies on underwear and probably much higher powered than you would imagine, but both here and in Europe, and actually in the Middle-East people have looked at this question, doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between boxers and briefs – the age-old question. Although I will say that many men come in in their boxers; they are proud of them and their wives have asked them to do it and I never say that that’s a bad thing, but I do say that the hard science did not really show a great difference between the two.
That is an important topic and absolutely, if you are in a high enough temperature for long enough, you can actually fry those little spermies down there. Now it doesn’t affect the sperm forming cells, the stem cells in the testicle that actually are always making new sperm. And so, you know, typically within two or three months the male will repopulate if they’ve had an injury, a thermal injury, as we would call it.
But you know, it’s interesting – many surfers will be in couple or three times a week and show great sperm counts, but then there are other people who are much more sensitive that may only take a Jacuzzi every once in a while but have more of an impact.