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Scrotum
 
 
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In some male
Malé

Mal? , population 104,403 , is the Capital , the largest city in terms of population, and the name of an island in the Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Male' Atoll Kaafu Atoll....
 mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s the scrotum is a protuberance of skin
Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body, also known as the epidermis. It is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial biological tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and organ s....
 and muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
 containing the testicle
Testicle

The testicle is the male gonad in animals. This article will concentrate on mammalian testicles unless otherwise noted.The etymology of the word is somewhat colorfully based on Roman law....
s. It is an extension of the abdomen
Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity....
, and is located between the penis
Penis

The penis is an external sex organ of certain biologically male organisms, in both vertebrates and invertebrates.The penis is a reproductive organ, technically an intromittent organ, and for Eutheria, additionally serves as the external organ of urination....
 and anus
Anus

The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to expel feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest, such as coprolite ; food material after all the nutrients have b...
. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with pubic hair
Pubic hair

Although fine Vellus is present in the area in childhood, the term pubic hair is generally restricted to the heavier, longer and coarser hair that develops with puberty as an effect of rising levels of androgens....
 at puberty
Puberty

Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads ....
. In common speech, the scrotum is often improperly referred to as the testicles, which actually refer to organs encased inside the scrotum. The scrotum is homologous to the labia majora
Labia majora

The labia majora are two prominent longitudinal cutaneous folds which extend downward and backward from the mons pubis to the perineum and form the lateral boundaries of the cleft of venus, which contains the labia minora, interlabial sulci, clitoral hood, clitoral glans, frenulum clitoridis, the Hart's Line, and the vulval vestibule, which...
 in females.






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In some male
Malé

Mal? , population 104,403 , is the Capital , the largest city in terms of population, and the name of an island in the Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Male' Atoll Kaafu Atoll....
 mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s the scrotum is a protuberance of skin
Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body, also known as the epidermis. It is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial biological tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and organ s....
 and muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
 containing the testicle
Testicle

The testicle is the male gonad in animals. This article will concentrate on mammalian testicles unless otherwise noted.The etymology of the word is somewhat colorfully based on Roman law....
s. It is an extension of the abdomen
Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity....
, and is located between the penis
Penis

The penis is an external sex organ of certain biologically male organisms, in both vertebrates and invertebrates.The penis is a reproductive organ, technically an intromittent organ, and for Eutheria, additionally serves as the external organ of urination....
 and anus
Anus

The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to expel feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest, such as coprolite ; food material after all the nutrients have b...
. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with pubic hair
Pubic hair

Although fine Vellus is present in the area in childhood, the term pubic hair is generally restricted to the heavier, longer and coarser hair that develops with puberty as an effect of rising levels of androgens....
 at puberty
Puberty

Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads ....
. In common speech, the scrotum is often improperly referred to as the testicles, which actually refer to organs encased inside the scrotum. The scrotum is homologous to the labia majora
Labia majora

The labia majora are two prominent longitudinal cutaneous folds which extend downward and backward from the mons pubis to the perineum and form the lateral boundaries of the cleft of venus, which contains the labia minora, interlabial sulci, clitoral hood, clitoral glans, frenulum clitoridis, the Hart's Line, and the vulval vestibule, which...
 in females. It becomes tight when sexually aroused.

Function

The function of the scrotum (also known as ballsack) appears to be to keep the testis at a temperature
Temperature

In physics, temperature is a physical property of a Physical system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that feels hotter generally has the greater temperature....
 slightly lower than that of the rest of the body. For the human, a temperature should be one or two degrees below the body temperature - 36.8 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit); higher temperatures may be damaging to sperm count. The temperature is controlled by moving the testicles closer to the abdomen when it is cold, and away when hot. This is done by the contracting and relaxing of the cremaster muscle
Cremaster muscle

The cremaster muscle is a muscle that covers the testicle....
 in the abdomen and the dartos
Dartos

The dartos is a layer of smooth muscle fiber outside the external spermatic fascia but below the skin....
 fascia (muscular tissue under the skin) in the scrotum. However, this may not be the main function. The volume of sperm produced by the testes is small, (0.1-0.2ml). It has been suggested that if testes were situated within the abdominal cavity that they would be subjected to the regular changes in abdominal pressure that is exerted by the abdominal muscles. This squeezing and relaxing would result in the more rapid emptying of the testes and epididymis of sperm before the spermatozoa
Spermatozoon

A sperm, from the ancient Greek word sp???a and and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the ploidy cell that is the male gamete. It Fertilization an ovum to form a zygote....
 were matured sufficiently for fertilization. Some mammals--elephants and sea-mammals, for example--do keep their testes within the abdomen and there may be mechanisms to prevent this inadvertent emptying.

Contraction of the abdominal muscles, and changes in intra-abdominal pressure, often can lift and lower the testicles within the scrotum. Contraction of the muscle fibers of the dartos
Dartos

The dartos is a layer of smooth muscle fiber outside the external spermatic fascia but below the skin....
 tunic (or fascia) is completely involuntary and results in the appearance of increased wrinkling and thickening of the scrotal skin. The testicles are not directly attached to the skin of the scrotum, so this dartos
Dartos

The dartos is a layer of smooth muscle fiber outside the external spermatic fascia but below the skin....
 contraction results in their sliding toward the abdomen. They also, in some men, can be lifted the same way by tightening the anus and pelvic muscles, doing Kegel exercise
Kegel exercise

A Kegel exercise, named after Arnold Kegel, consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles which form part of the pelvic floor ....
s. Although the ideal temperature for sperm growth varies between species, it usually appears, in warm-blooded species, to be a bit cooler than internal body temperature, necessitating the scrotum. Since this leaves the testicles vulnerable in many species, there is some debate on the evolutionary advantage of such a system. One theory is that the impregnation of females who are ill is less likely when sperm is highly sensitive to elevated body temperatures.

An alternative explanation is to protect the testes from jolts and compressions associated with an active lifestyle(or when women suck on them). Animals that have 'stately' movements - such as elephants, whales, and marsupial moles - have internal testes and no scrotum.

Health issues

A common problem of the scrotum is the development of masses. Common scrotal masses include
  • Sebaceous cyst
    Sebaceous cyst

    A sebaceous cyst is a closed sac or cyst below the surface of the skin that has a lining that resembles the uppermost part of a hair follicle and fills with a fatty white, semi-solid material called sebum....
    , also called an epidermal cyst
  • hydrocele
    Hydrocele

    A hydrocele denotes a pathology accumulation of serous fluid in a bodily cavity.* A hydrocele testis is the accumulation of fluids around a testicle, and is fairly common....
  • hematocele
    Hematocele

    A hematocele is a collection of blood in a body cavity.. The term is generally used to refer to the collection of blood in the tunica vaginalis around the testicle....
  • spermatocele
    Spermatocele

    Spermatocele is a retention cyst of a tubule of the rete testis or the head of the epididymis distended with a milky fluid that contains spermatozoa....
  • varicocele
    Varicocele

    Varicocele is an abnormal enlargement of the veins in the scrotum draining the testicles. The testicular blood vessels originate in the abdomen and course down through the inguinal canal as part of the spermatic cord on their way to the testis....


Other conditions include:

  • contact dermatitis
    Contact dermatitis

    Contact dermatitis or Irritant dermatitis is a term for a skin reaction resulting from exposure to allergens or Irritation . Phototoxic dermatitis occurs when the allergen or irritant is activated by sunlight....
    : may cause redness, burning, swelling, and itching of the entire scrotum. Can result from soaps, solvents, detergents, and natural irritants such as poison ivy.
  • inguinal hernia
    Inguinal hernia

    Inguinal hernias are protrusions of abdominal cavity contents through the inguinal canal. They are very common and their repair is one of the most frequently performed surgery operations....
  • yeast infection
  • swelling resulting from conditions external to the scrotum, including:
    • heart failure
    • kidney or liver disease
  • Cherry angioma
    Cherry angioma

    Cherry angiomas , are cherry red papules on the skin containing an abnormal proliferation of blood vessels. They are the most common kind of angioma....


Additional images


See also

  • Perineal raphe
    Perineal raphe

    The perineal raphe extends from the anus, through the mid-line of the scrotum and upwards through the posterior mid-line aspect of the penis ....
  • Erogenous zone
    Erogenous zone

    An Erogenous zone is an area of the human body that has heightened sensitivity and stimulation of which normally results in human sexual response....
  • Sex organ
    Sex organ

    A sex organ, or primary sexual characteristic, as narrowly defined, is any of the anatomical parts of the body which are involved in sexual reproduction and constitute the reproductive system in a complex organism; in mammals, these include:...
  • Castration
    Castration

    Castration is any action, surgery, chemical castration, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles. In common usage the term is usually applied to males, although as a medical term it is applied to both males and females....
  • Blue balls
    Blue balls

    Blue Balls is the slang term for a congested prostate or vasocongestion, the condition of temporary fluid congestion in the testicles and prostate region caused by prolonged sexual arousal in the human male....