Why do we (men) have nippels

[Strike For The South]

Tee

[Leonin Khan]

why wanna know. so we can give each other a NIPPLETWIST

[Craterus]

Over here they are called turnips (turn-nips). Or Nipple Cripple.

[tibilicus]

Theres another one too, Purple-nurple. This one i got from the show malcom in the middle. God, I really need to stop watching lame american sitcoms. Actually Malcom in the middle is probably one of the better ones.

[Boohugh]

I'm not 100% sure, but i think they are remnants of when we were an unborn baby, and our sex hadn't developed yet, although if anyone knows better, please feel free to correct me

[Byzantine Prince]

So women can pinch them while we make 8dafdasfs8!

[Quietus]

I'm not 100% sure, but i think they are remnants of when we were an unborn baby, and our sex hadn't developed yet, although if anyone knows better, please feel free to correct me

True. If you were female, that nipple would be part of the breast, that's all.

[Big_John]

i don't think nipples are a sex-linked phenotype. just like all humans get eyes (ideally), all humans get nipples. this is broadly true of all mamals, afaik.

also, i'm not sure how common it is, but some men are capable of lactation. i think there was a somewhat famous case of this in indonesia (or someplace nearby) recently.

[lancelot]

Men have nipples because these develop before your gender is 'decided', if you get what I mean..

At least, that is my understanding of it...

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Men have nipples because these develop before your gender is 'decided', if you get what I mean..

At least, that is my understanding of it...

Doesn't make sense, gender is decided by which kind of sperm reaches the egg.

[Big_John]

Doesn't make sense, gender is decided by which kind of sperm reaches the egg.

gender is (usually) decided by the genes, but it's not expressed in the fetus (via testosterone, or lack thereof) until the 8th week, iirc.

[Samurai Waki]

I read somewhere that is was a evolution type organ, at one time they may have been useful, such as lactation but has lost it's purpose, somewhat like the appendix. Some people are born with more than 2 nipples and some people are born with none, just genetics I guess.

[King Henry V]

They are formed before the y chromosome can kick in. Imagine, we were all girls once!

[Samurai Waki]

Not me. I was never a women. If I don't remember it...it never happened

[Papewaio]

That could only possible happen if you have no X chromosome which would require some wierd cloning technology and a pair of fathers with no mother involved.

Men can lactate and it depends on hormones. This happens to a lot of men who have been starved then are putting back on weight. Certain hormones kick in before Testosterone and hence the men can lactate... happened to POWs in WWII.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Don't you need mammary glands to lactate, though? Do we have small, vestigial ones that go unnoticed?

[Papewaio]

Male lactation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The phenomenon of male lactation in humans has become more common in recent years due to the use of medications that stimulate a human male's mammary glands. Though human males have nipples, it is not so often understood that they also have mammary glands. Ordinarily the mammary tissue is low in volume and cannot be noticed. Under the appropriate hormonal stimulus -- the hormonal stimulus that nature provides to human females when they become pregnant and give birth -- the mammary glands of human males can also produce milk. The volume of milk produced will be small relative to the amount that a female can produce.

The most common circumstance under which lactation is induced is when hormonal treatments are given to men suffering from prostate cancer. Female hormones are used to retard the production of cancerous prostate tissue, but the same hormones also stimulate the mammary glands. Male-to-female transsexuals may also produce milk due to the hormones they take to reshape their bodies. Extreme stress has also been known to be a cause of male lactation, as evidenced by American POWs returning from the Korean and Vietnam Wars, where physical activities were demanding and food was in short supply.

It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated 'sucking' of the nipple over a long period of time (months).

The phenomenon of male lactation occurs in some non-human species, and the lactating males may assist in the nursing of their infants. One species of fruit bat (Dyacopterus spadiceus) is notable for this reason. According to several sources, male lactation and even nursing have occasionally been observed in humans

So some males do lactate as a natural way of helping feed the youngster...

[Beirut]

I think Papewaio is lactating even as we speak.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

so that we can get them pierced and make our girlfriends wonder if we are really gay...

[Papewaio]

I think Wasabi wishes that I lactated ... it would be useful from the point of view of shutting the little guy up.

He needs to be warm, dry (nappies changed), washed and feed. And he cries most about the last and all I can do is give a prepared bottle of breast milk... which he consumes quicker then off the breast, meaning he then vomits up more (more crying), then he wakes up in a third of the time and starts crying again.

Only advantage my pecs are good for are when he lies on my chest I can repositon his head so that he can breath by flexing them in coordination while he sleeps on top of me... he likes to sleep with his ear against a heartbeat. And I can keep his head stable while I type...

[Beirut]

[Papewaio]

LOL.

Marriage.

What is Mine is Hers, What is Hers is Hers.

Children.

What was Hers is now Theirs.

====

"Dad I need $20"

"Why, just raise the taxes and put in a better governor."

"What? Dad I'm talking real life not TW!"

"Ok heres the deal, you get paid 10cents per year of age for any odd job you do around the house above and beyond your standard chores."

[Sjakihata]

Here is a link about men who can breast feed:
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/...s/milkmen.html

The male breasts have several other features that is helpful such as them being:
-an erogenous area
-glans
-hormone producing

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Why do men have nipples?

18-May-1979

790518.gifDear Cecil:

As I understand it, the appendix at one time assisted in our digestion. Today it is useless. Our wisdom teeth, I have learned, helped our ancestors chew tough herbs and raw meat. Today they are a nuisance. But there is a third biological mystery for which I have no answer. So please explain, Cece: why do males have nipples? --Susan L., Los Angeles

Dear Susan:

To tell you the truth, nobody really knows. The best explanation I've been able to find (and frankly it doesn't explain very much) is that nipples aren't a sex-linked characteristic. In other words, nipples are just one of those sexually neutral pieces of equipment, like arms or brains, that humans get regardless of sex.

As you may know, every human being gets a unique set of 23 pairs of chromosomes at conception. These fall into two categories. One pair of chromosomes determines sex--the XX combination means you become female, the XY combination means you become male.

The other 22 pairs, the non-sex chromosomes (they're called autosomes), supply what we might call the standard equipment that all humans get. These 22 pairs constitute an all-purpose genetic blueprint that in effect is programmed for either maleness or femaleness by the sex chromosomes. The programming is done by the hormones secreted by the sex glands.

For example, the autosomes give you a voice box, while the sex hormones determine whether it's going to be a deep male voice or a high female voice. Similarly, the autosomes give you nipples, and the sex hormones determine whether said nipples are going to be functioning (in females) or not (in males).

One interesting consequence of the developmental set-up just described is that during the very early stages of fetal life, before the sex hormones have had a chance to do their stuff, all humans are basically bisexual. Among other things, you have two sets of primitive plumbing--one male, one female. Only one set develops into a mature urogenital system, but you retain traces of the other for the rest of your life.

It's tempting, therefore, to say that male nipples are yet another vestige of your carefree bisexual youth. Trouble is, male nipples are hardly vestigial. They're full-sized and fully equipped with blood vessels, nerves, and all the usual appurtenances of functioning organs. Why this should be so nobody knows--in some other mammals, such as rats and mice, male nipple development is completely suppressed by the male sex hormones. (Incidentally, don't start thinking that at one time our human male ancestors must have suckled their young. So far as anybody knows, male lactation has never developed in any mammalian species.)

Human nipples appear in the third or fourth week of development, well before the sex characteristics. (The sex hormones start to assert themselves at seven weeks.) As many as seven pairs of nipples are arranged along either side of a "milk line," a ridge of skin that runs from the upper chest to the navel.

Normally only one pair amounts to anything, but on about one baby in a hundred you can detect some vestige of the other ones, usually on the order of a freckle. There are cases of women who ended up with an extra breast, which made them freak show candidates not so many years ago. Luckily today the women can avail themselves of corrective surgery while the rest of us can watch Jenny Jones.

Anyway, both male and female babies are born with the main milk ducts intact--the gland that produces milk is there in the male, but it remains undeveloped unless stimulated by the female hormone, estrogen. Occasionally, a male baby is born with enough of his mother's estrogen in his body to produce a bizarre phenomenon known as "witches' milk," with the male glands, suitably stimulated, pumping away at the moment of birth.

In the adult male, the dormant glands can still be revived by a sufficient dose of estrogen. Actual lactation is rare--only a couple cases have been recorded. But at least one writer (Daly, 1978) has suggested that the "physiological impediments to the evolution of male lactation do not seem individually surmountable." Meaning we may yet see the dawn of the truly liberated household.

--CECIL ADAMS

One interesting consequence of the developmental set-up just described is that during the very early stages of fetal life, before the sex hormones have had a chance to do their stuff, all humans are basically bisexual.

And I maintain that this why deep inside we all still are. Only taboos and morality stop us from engaging in sex with anyone. Its the if it feels good do it mentality taken to extremes. Thats why we all have a male and female side to our personalities. Of course that doesnt include me .

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Heres some more interesting stuff

Why do men have nipples?' answered in new book
04 August 2005

NEW YORK: Have you ever wondered why your teeth chatter when you're cold, or if you could really catch a disease from sitting on a toilet seat?

New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public's mind at ease in his book Why Do Men Have Nipples? which hits the book stores this week.

"It's really remarkable how often you get accosted," said Goldberg, 39.

"There are the medical questions from family and friends, and then there are the drunk and outrageous questions where somebody wants to drop their pants and show you a rash or something."

The book, subtitled, Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini, (Three Rivers Press), is co-authored by humorist Mark Leyner.

"People tend to know so little about their bodies as compared to their cars or their laptops," said Leyner, 49, of Hoboken, New Jersey.

"When I worked in a pharmacy in Washington, DC, people would ask me medical questions all the time. I was just a 22-year-old cashier at Rite Aid."

Chattering teeth is one way the body tries to generate heat.

When the body gets too cold, the area of the brain called the hypothalamus alerts the rest of the body to begin warming up. Shivering, the rapid muscle movement that generates heat, then begins. Teeth chattering represents localised shivering.

During the course of their research, Goldberg and Leyner found reports of gonorrhea, pinworm and roundworm found on toilet seats - but catching something from it isn't common.

The authors discovered that an office setting might be worse for your health than toilet seats.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, found the typical office desk harbours some 400 times more disease-causing bacteria than the average toilet seat.

Goldberg had compiled a list of nagging questions for several years before embarking on the book after meeting Leyner. The two met while working on a short-lived ABC-TV medical drama, Wonderland, in which Leyner served as a writer, while Goldberg was its medical advisor.

Some of the burning questions answered in the humorous book include "What causes morning breath?" and "Why do beans give you gas?"

Goldberg says morning breath results from anaerobic bacteria, the xerostomia (dry mouth) or the volatile sulfur compounds (which are waste products from the bacteria). Other contributing factors to foul oral odour includes medication, alcohol, sugar, smoking, caffeine, and eating dairy products.

Beans contain high percentages of sugars that our bodies are unable to digest, Goldberg explains. When the sugars make it to the intestines, bacteria go to work and start producing large amounts of gas.

And if you're ever bitten by a poisonous snake, sucking at the bite to remove the poison, as often shown in the movies and on TV is not only ineffective, but could lead to an infection.

Instead, the bite should be washed with soap and water and immobilized. The bitten area should also be kept lower than the heart. Medical help should be sought immediately.

And why do men have nipples?

While only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in.

Men, however, have already developed nipples.

PS please dont let my last post drag this into the back room.