Perhaps the reason why sexual health is in such a state these days is because there are so many ‘facts’ floating around that are complete rubbish. How many times have you sat in the pub whilst people screamed until they were blue in the face; ‘It’s true! Google it!’? The male body seems to be a particular source of falsehood, so let’s take a look at some of these man-made myths.
Let’s start with one to give the husbands out there a bit of a confidence boost: no matter what your single mates tell you, they are not getting more sex than you are. According to conventional wisdom, the marriage bed is for nothing more than sleeping, whilst single studs are getting all the action, yet a 2006 study by the National Opinion Research Centre found that husbands get lucky between 28% to over 400% more often than bachelors. This is depending on their age, but the same study also found that married sex-life means more female orgasms, and more oral sex for both parties – now there’s a reason to commit!
Next, semen has been said to be on various places in the wellness spectrum. Some say it increases happiness in women, whilst others say it makes them gain weight. However, according to Dr Rachel Vreeman, of Indiana University and co-author of Don’t Swallow your Gum: Myths, Half-truths and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health, semen is not loaded with calories. In a (for lack of a better word) serving, seminal fluid contains water and nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium and magnesium, and only 5 to 7 calories worth of sugar fructose. Vreeman says, ‘It is unlikely to create a diet issue, but this should not be used in an argument for whatever.
When men start to lose their hair, this can be a sore point to their emotional wellbeing, but some say that if you shave your beard or head, the hair comes back faster, thicker, and coarser. Now, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, lads, but Dr Aaron Carroll, of Indiana University and Vreeman’s co-author, says, ‘If that were true, we’d have a cure for male pattern baldness.’ He explains that stubble only looks darker and coarser because it has not yet been exposed to sun and other wearing elements, and, once it grows in, it looks identical to the hair that was shaved away.
Finally, the most cited myth on this list is that men with big feet also have big…(you can fill in the blanks). This comes from the fact that the development of penises and toes (as well as clitorises and fingers) is influenced by the same gene, but in truth the length of one does not predict the length of the other. A 2002 study, headed by Jyoti Shah at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, compared foot size to carefully measured privates, stretching all 104 penises to their longest length for consistency, but no correlation was found.
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