#apocrine

Science Fact Friday: Sweat Edition, aka The One Where Jenn Gets Semantic Satiation For The Word Sweat. Sweat sweat sweat sweat. S-weat.

(Apocrine glands are also responsible for pheromone release and territorial scent markings and that stuff - hence why other mammals are covered in apocrine glands.)

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Transcript below the break.

Whew!  If a guy needs to open a window every time he takes off his pants, it’s fair to say that he has a serious penis odor problem. As penis health issues go, penis odor is one of the more common.  Because a person is less aware of his own bodily aromas, he may very well not realize he has a bad penis odor problem – but his partner does, and that can impact said partner’s willingness to engage in sex (especially, though not exclusively, oral sex). And although there can be multiple reasons for penis odor, one of them boils down to the simple presence of apocrine glands.

Apo-what glands?

A gland is a group of cells that get together to take substances (like hormones) and synthesize them so they can be released into the bloodstream or elsewhere, such as on top of the skin. Most sweat glands in humans are called eccrine glands, but there is another class of sweat glands – the apocrine glands – which cover less of the body, and are especially noteworthy for being the glands found in the armpits and the crotch.

What’s different about apocrine glands? Well, a number of things, but one of their most distinctive characteristics is that, in the armpits and crotch, the sweat that they produce has a profound odor.  The eccrine glands on your forearms, for example, don’t have the same powerful odor as the apocrine glands near your penis.

Interestingly, when a person is still a fetus, most of their glands are apocrine; they only get changed out to mostly eccrine after five or six months.  And although a person is born with smell-ready apocrine glands just all set to produce painfully pungent odors, they don’t start doing this until hormonal changes set in during puberty.

Bacteria

Actually, it’s wrong to say that the apocrine glands produce really rank smelling sweat; the fluid they secrete is actually odorless. But it is highly attractive to bacteria which feed on it and produce the breath-taking penis odor that the partners of far too many men are familiar with.

Okay, so it’s the presence of apocrine glands on and near the penis and balls that acts as a siren call to bacteria which in turn brings about a stench state in the crotch. What’s a guy supposed to do?

The apocrine glands play an important role in the body, so even if it were possible to easily get rid of them, a guy shouldn’t do it. Therefore, it pays to take steps to decrease or eliminate the sweat and/or the bacteria that feed on the sweat. There are several ways of doing this.

- Shower or bathe. This shouldn’t need to be said (yet somehow it still does need to be), but men, it’s important to wash the penis and balls regularly.  Many men need to shower every day – and those who exert a lot of physical energy and therefore sweat a lot (by going to the gym, lifting heavy objects, running, etc.) may need to shower more than once  day.

- Wear loose-fitting underwear and trousers.  Tighty whiteys may show off the package, but they also up the heat quotient and cause more sweat. Loose fitting cotton boxers are a better option when fighting penis odor.

Difference Between Antiperspirant and Deodorant

Got B.O.? Don’t reach for the antiperspirant. That’s not going to do much good. Deodorant is what you need. But why? Following is a transcript of the video.

The simple explanation is deodorant stops the smell, and antiperspirant stops the sweat. But there’s more to it than that.

Your armpits stink because of apocrine sweat glands. These glands are all over your skin but they’re highly…

Ghiandole sudoripare della pelle