Strange Facts About The Male Anatomy

Being a man has its privileges. For instance, you don't have to worry about giving birth and also get to pee standing up. But a closer look under the hood can reveal some strange things. Several oddities can be found under the surface.

Exploring lesser-known aspects of masculinity such as color blindness and male menopause, it is important for us to delve deeper into the subject. 

Brain Size - Women were often told that their intelligence was inferior to men's because their brains were smaller. This belief persisted for centuries.

However, in 2014, a scientific review of all studies that analyzed measurements of the human brain revealed something shocking. Men do in fact, have larger brains than women. Ranging from about 8% to 13% larger. 

There is no established link between function and size. So bigger definitely does not mean smarter and after all, an elephant's brain is three to four times larger than a human's.

 Hand Digit Development - If you lay out your hand on a flat surface and look at the length of your index finger compared to your ring finger.

For most women, these will be about the same length, but for most men, their ring finger will be slightly longer than their index finger. Weird, right? Researchers have discovered that the length of your ring finger compared to your index finger is correlated to the amount of male hormones, mainly testosterone, you were exposed to in the womb.

It's not clear exactly why testosterone has this oddly specific effect.

Muscle Development - While many women put in tireless effort at the gym to obtain a trim and defined physique, some men appear to achieve a well-toned abdomen with minimal effort. This is due to the presence of testosterone in their bodies.

It's the primary male sex hormone that really starts pumping around our bodies during puberty. And women produce it too, but not nearly as much with adult men producing approximately 20 times more testosterone naturally, than women. So the more testosterone you have naturally, the easier it is to build muscle and burn fat.

But having too much testosterone isn't always a good thing. By the age of 50, about 85% of men have begun balding. Though, some try and save what few strands of hair they have left with a comb-over. But women, no matter their age, rarely lose all their hair.

Nipples - The existence of nipples on male individuals may seem puzzling as they do not serve a practical purpose for them, unlike women who use theirs for breastfeeding.

Well, what if I told you that every human on earth was once female, physically speaking. We're all born with a set of chromosomes that determine our sex. For women, that's two X chromosomes and for men, it's an X and a Y chromosome. When we're first conceived in the womb, the Y chromosome doesn't kick into our development right away.

In fact, the first five or six weeks of embryonic development are influenced by the X chromosome alone. Females grow from an embryo fully developed from the X chromosome. But after about six weeks, a gene called the SRY gene activates the Y chromosome, if it's present and stops female features from the X chromosome developing further while kick-starting male development. However, before the SRY gene is activated, certain female features such as nipples will have already developed on the fetus's body. And that's why we're all born with nipples.

Body Odor - Research suggests that women can detect whether or not a man is in a relationship through body odor, regardless of whether or not he wears a wedding band or posts his relationship status on social media.

That may sound weird, but it links back to a scientific study conducted in 2019. Researchers claimed that single men on average, have higher levels of testosterone than men who have partners. This is because there's more sexual competition in single males, stimulating their bodies to produce more testosterone. Whereas bonded males don't need to compete, but when it's broken down and discarded through our sweat, it produces the chemical, androsterone, which has a smell that's as pungent as urine. So the more testosterone you produce and break down, the smellier you are.

Male Perspective - Studies have shown that there are differences in how men and women process visual information, as men have a higher amount of testosterone receptors in their visual cortex than women.

Studies have shown that men have an advantage in perceiving changes in brightness and detecting fine detail and moving stimuli. On the other hand, women demonstrate a knack for distinguishing colors in the middle of the visual spectrum. Mainly shades such as blue and green. This is because our color vision depends on three types of cones in the retina of the eye. Two of these are carried on the X chromosome. So with more X chromosomes, women end up with better cone development and better color vision.

Beards - Have you ever tried to grow a beard? If so, chances are, you're a man. Well, it's not impossible for women to naturally sport hairy chins, men are more likely to grow long, thick, dark hair across their faces. This is because everyone's born with light soft vellus hairs that cover most of their bodies. When puberty hits, we begin producing hormones called androgens, which stimulate vellus hairs to coarsen and darken in hormone sensitive areas, such as our armpits and nether regions, because men typically have higher levels of androgens. It stimulates more body and facial hair to sprout. We do know at some point in history, women chose men who had beards, which is why the furry facial feature has been genetically passed down to many men today. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm never shaving again.

Digestion Differences - What is the estimated duration for food to pass through the digestive system and exit the body? Some of you may know from experience. If corn is anything to go by, that it generally ranges from 24 to 72 hours. But what you might not know is, that time also depends on if you're male or female. You see, a study from 2019 marked the time it took 21 healthy people to digest the same food. On average, men took 33 hours to digest their food. Whereas women took almost half a day more at 47 hours.

Now this is just one study. So we can't say this is true for every man, woman and child. But we do know that when it comes to colons, the longest part of the large intestine, men actually have much shorter ones than women. Longer, slower emptying colons means women are almost twice as likely to experience colonic issues in their lifetime from chronic constipation to the urgent need for a bowel movement. This means that the average man has shorter sit down bathroom breaks while women generally, need a little more time to deal with their chronic colonics.

Gas Passing - So we've established that on average, men are naturally bigger and stronger than women, but when it comes to the realm of farts, it's men who are the weaklings.

Research indicates that while men typically have larger and stronger physiques than women, they may not be as proficient as women in the art of flatulence.

Well, flatulence occurs when the good microbes in our gut ferment undigested food, producing hydrogen sulfide. It's this chemical that gives our tutes some serious nose pinching, odors, you know, the type that smell like rotten eggs, (farts) but professional flatulence researchers, which is somehow a genuine job title, went sniffing for more information. In one study, they measured the amount of smelly sulfur released by men and women, who've been fed the same diet of Pinto beans and laxatives. Tasty. The data collected during the study found that the men had an average sulfur concentration of 0.5, nine milliliters per fart. Whereas women almost tripled that, with an average of 1.77 milliliters. That meant that the standard male, butt murmur wasn't nearly as noxious as the female fart, but why exactly do women have worse smelling wind than men? Well, that's currently up for debate. Some believe that the increased length of the female colon gives food more time to ferment or that they may have more microbes in their gut. Whatever the reason is, next time you're looking for who dealt it, be sure to look towards the lady in the room.

Height And Fashion - It's no secret that men are, on average, taller than women. Thanks to many genetic hormonal and evolutionary factors. But what you might not know is that in the 1600's, the average European male hit an all-time low of just five feet, four inches, which forced an incredible innovation. Was it stilts, step ladders, maybe booster seats? Nope. It was in fact high heels. They can be traced back to 15th century Persia when soldiers wore them to help secure their feet in stirrups. Persian migrants brought the trend to Europe where male aristocrats wore them to appear taller and more formidable. In those times, women were slowly adopting masculine fashions. Like trimming their hair short and wearing hats. So they too started wearing high heels. And since then they've become a feminine fashion statement. Still, it's pretty funny to think that if it weren't for women adopting them, high heels might've been seen as a massively masculine thing to wear today.

Adam's Apples - Some are big and difficult not to stare at, whereas others are so small, almost non-existent. Both men and women have them, but men's are generally bigger and more visible.

This throaty feature is actually, a chunk of cartilage wrapped around the larynx also known as the voice box, which develops during puberty. Men tend to have larger voice boxes than women. And so the cartilage coating them is usually thicker. And because of their larger larynxes, males tend to have deeper, louder voices than females. From an evolutionary standpoint it's believed men once used their voices to intimidate male rivals because we're social creatures, men likely tried to scare other males away from their resources and females without resorting to violence. It's similar to what we see in gorillas where males will pound their chests and growl at rivals to frighten them off. Instead of launching into an immediate much riskier attack. 

Male Menopause - As women age, they usually hit an age between 40 and 50 where their hormones suddenly change. Their body's production of female sex hormones, estrogen and progestogen drops, transitioning them naturally, into a state where they can no longer have children.

This hormone fluctuation called menopause triggers mood swings, hot flushes body changes. Unfortunately women aren't the only ones that suffer from menopause also known as irritable male syndrome. Male menopause generally starts to affect men in their 30's and 40's. Just like women, their bodies naturally stop producing certain sex hormones, most notably testosterone, but instead of stopping suddenly, men stopped producing testosterone incrementally, dropping up to 2% each year.

Eventually it all adds up and combined with lifestyle choices, like a poor diet and lack of exercise., this can result in weight, gain, mood swings, irritability, and even hot flushes. Unlike female menopause though, male menopause doesn't affect fertility, although there's no better contraceptive than being a grumpy old man.