Do you know why men need nipples?

No one seems to have any questions about nipples in women. They are needed to feed the offspring. But why do men need them?

Let's start with the fact that in many ways men are built almost the same as women. Because, roughly speaking, we come from the same ingredients.

Will the person be a boy or a girl, determined during fertilization. If the sperm contains an X chromosome, it will match the X chromosome of the egg and develop into a female fetus. If the sperm carries a Y chromosome, the XY combination is formed and the result is a male child.

But in the early stages of development It is impossible to distinguish between male and female fetuses externally, because embryos of both sexes look the same until the sixth week of development in the womb. Both form embryonic structures that will then develop into male or female organs of the reproductive system. Or, in rare cases, both options at the same time - this is called “hermaphroditism”.

Thus, at the very beginning of its development, the embryo It has rudiments of both vagina and penis. Later, in women, the labia and clitoris are formed from them, and in men, the gap closes and a penis and scrotum are formed. As a reminder of those glorious days when a man had a vagina, albeit an underdeveloped one, he still has a crotch seam - a clearly noticeable line from the tip of the penis to anus.

Men have nipples for exactly the same reason as the “scar” from the primitive vagina. When the embryo just begins to develop, it has appear rudimentary breasts and mammary glands. And when sexual differentiation occurs and some embryos begin to grow male genital organs, while others begin to grow female ones, the nipples are already there and do not go away.

Both in the womb and after birth, the mammary glands of both boys and girls are the same. Moreover, newborns of both sexes sometimes can produce the so-called neonatal milk, which soon disappears by itself. This is considered normal.

Functional differences between female and male nipples appear only during puberty. The tissue of the female mammary glands begins to develop and acquire the ability to lactation. And male nipples simply remain as they are.

However, in some men, breast tissue may also increase during puberty or later in life. This pathology called gynecomastia and occurs in approximately 30% of males. It is caused by hormonal imbalance, such as low levels testosterone or high estrogen levels. Typically, gynecomastia is safe, but unattractive from an aesthetic point of view, so men with it undergo breast reduction surgery.

In addition, sometimes men also can produce milk. This is galactorrhea - spontaneous release of milk not associated with childbirth. It is quite common in women, but also occurs in men as a result of dysregulation of certain hormones. Men's breast milk contains the same amount of nutrients as women's milk. Although this is a rare occurrence.

But if men generally don’t need nipples from a functional point of view, why didn’t they disappear during evolution? Well, how speaks paleoanthropologist from the American Museum of Natural History in New York Ian Tattersall, their existence has no real metabolic cost, so getting rid of them is not evolutionary priority.

Simply put, men have nipples because they don't bother them. This is not tail, in the end.

Moreover, nipples for men, as well as for women, can be very needed for another purpose - as an erogenous zone. Therefore, if it seems to you that you do not need them, it is simply because you have never tried to rub them.