Be Cool: How to Lower Body Temperature to Boost Fertility

Think you’re pretty cool? I’ll take your word for it. But no matter how cool you are, you need to get even cooler.

 

If I weren’t cool, I wouldn’t be writing this. Let me explain. Over a decade ago, I was in a similar place to where you likely are today. I was going through IVF with my wife. More accurately, my wife was going through IVF, and I was doing my best to support her, and feeling pretty helpless in the process. A good friend of mine was in the same situation (with a few differences that I’ll explain later). He and his wife had been through an especially painful two years of trying. They’d had a silent miscarriage, and the best doctor that money could buy now figured their chances were basically zero. He suggested they start thinking about adoption.

 

They ignored his advice. They saw another doctor, then another, until finally one gynecologist took the time to listen carefully. Within minutes she was strongly advising my friend to do one thing: “You need to ice your balls.”

 

A few hours later, my friend called and told me the whole story. We laughed. He was already holding a bag of frozen peas to his crotch.

 

Still, we were both intrigued. We started to do some research and discovered that more than antioxidants, pollutants, or anything else, elevated scrotal temperature is perhaps the number one cause of male infertility.

 

To understand that, let’s first get to know your testicles a little better. They’re so important, we call them the “family jewels”. They’re so important that nature hung them outside the body just to keep them nice and cool. Unfortunately, we too often treat them like rhinestones.

 

Nature’s Air Conditioning

All of this may be obvious to you, but initially it wasn’t to us: optimal sperm production needs cooler-than-body temperatures – typically 3-6°F cooler. Men even have a muscle called the cremaster whose sole mission is to regulate scrotal temperature. Jump in a frozen lake on a winter’s day, and the cremaster muscle will contract, bringing the testicles closer to the body. On a hot day, however, the cremaster relaxes, allowing the testicles to hang further away from the body for cooling.

 

Cooler-than-body temperature optimizes sperm production and health, but it also optimizes testosterone production, which maintains mood, libido, and overall vitality. This is beneficial in itself, but as we’ve already seen, healthy endogenous testosterone plays an important role in fertility.

 

Scrotal heat wasn’t much of a problem in the past (although 19^th century Casanovas dipped their testicles in hot water as a birth control technique). Modern life, however, overheats us in all sorts of ways. We tend to live in temperature-controlled environments, put hot laptops on our laps, and indulge in comforts like heated car seats and hot showers. There’s a good reason that the health benefits of cold plunges and other cold therapies like cryotherapy have gained increasing attention in recent years.

 

Since the mid-20th century, many studies have proven the link between elevated scrotal temperature and poor sperm quality. Heat exposure, whether from fevers, hot tubs, tight clothing, prolonged sitting, or the thermostat, can hurt sperm count, motility, and morphology. Research has also found that even brief exposure to elevated temperatures (a fever, for example) can impair spermatogenesis, or sperm-making. And in men exposed to occupational heat – drivers, welders, chefs, etc. – reduced fertility rates have been clinically shown.

 

I could go on and on. My friend and I did, to the point that one Sunday afternoon, his aunt caught us in the kitchen holding freezer bags to the fronts of our pants. We were convinced that we were onto something big (I’ll get to that too). The aunt, however, was concerned.

 

Earlier I mentioned that although my friend and I found ourselves in similar situations, his was a bit different. By this point he had bought a lot of frozen veggies, because in his case scrotal cooling was even more crucial. The doctor who had recommended icing had recognized that he had a condition known as a varicocele. While that may sound like some rare and horrifying disease, the odds are pretty good that if you’re wrestling with infertility, you have a varicocele too. 40% percent of men struggling to conceive have one. 15-20% of all men have one. And that’s great news, because a varicocele is a relatively straightforward problem to fix.

 

Varicoceles

So what, exactly, is a varicocele? You’ve likely heard of varicose veins, which are often visible in legs. It turns out that a similar condition can develop in the scrotum: enlarged veins that end up carrying more blood into the scrotum, which end up causing overheating in your fertility factory. What often makes this overheating problem worse is that when a vein is enlarged, the valve that prevents blood from settling in the vein may no longer close off the vein completely, which means that excess blood remains in the scrotum, creating additional heat.

 

So how do you know if you’re the one in every five guys with a varicocele? First off, in 85% of cases, the varicocele is on the left side of the scrotum. You may experience a mild aching there after long periods of standing or sitting. To the touch, a varicocele is often described as feeling like a “bag of worms”. Yep. This is because the veins tend to branch off and expand like a frayed rope. You may also be able to see a small area of this “frayed rope” texture on the surface of the scrotum (varicoceles are classified into 3 grades, and the mildest form, Grade I, may not be detectable by sight or by touch). Think you might have one? Schedule an appointment with your doctor immediately. But don’t worry. The condition is not dangerous, although it is dangerous for your sperm. The good news is that if you treat a varicocele, you’re almost certain to improve fertility.

 

To treat a varicocele, the options are generally surgery or what’s called varicocele embolization. Surgery (a varicocelectomy) is minimally invasive and has a high success rate (with 97% of men regaining normal blood flow and sperm production), but it can be pricey (roughly $5,000). Varicocele embolization, on the other hand, is as effective as surgery, but requires no incision to the scrotum and no general anesthetic. It’s painless, and patients generally return to work the next day. The cost, however, is usually about the same as surgery.

 

Manly Cooling

If you have a varicocele, whatever course of treatment you choose, the one thing you should be doing immediately is icing your balls. As my friend emptied supermarkets of frozen peas, and we continued researching the huge effect of temperature on fertility, it was thrilling to realize that we could hack our own fertility. After feeling completely powerless, here was a powerful technique that gave us back some sense of control.

 

Wishing we could share what we’d learned with others, we started dreaming of a simple product designed to give optimal “manly cooling”. We became obsessed with organic cottons and iced gel compositions, and the name we came up with – Snowballs – was the punch line of what was becoming a beautiful story. Almost exactly one year from the day he started icing, my friend’s wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. That was their first, and they’ve since had a second.

 

Long story short, your balls are meant to be cool. So here are a few practical steps you can take to ensure that you’re not any less cool than you were meant to be. 

 

1. Avoid Prolonged Heat Exposure: Avoid hot tubs and saunas, and if you need your hot shower, make it quick. Ideally, however, make it a cold shower, which has the added benefit of energizing body and mind.

 

2. Take Regular Breaks from Sitting: Prolonged sitting increases scrotal temperature, but breaks for standing or walking will mitigate negative effects.

 

3. Maintain a Healthy Weight: Obesity is linked to increased scrotal temperature due to excess fat in the groin area.

 

4. Optimize Sleeping Conditions: Sleep in a cool environment with breathable fabrics. A side benefit of this is that it should also help you sleep more deeply.

 

5. Hydrate Adequately: Proper hydration helps regulate overall body temperature. Carry a water bottle (ideally lined in glass or metal) and drink regularly.

 

6. Use Cooling Devices: Stock up on frozen peas. Or, if you’d rather not leave puddles of pale green liquid around the house, get some Snowballs. Then just slip in an ergonomically designed ice pack whenever it’s convenient. Note that “manly cooling” is especially important in situations where you naturally overheat, like right after a workout.

 

Now get out there and be cool.