During the summer I turned 18, I had an extended group of male friends, one of whom had surprisingly long balls. Everyone knew, because everyone had seen them. Except me — the one time he decided to mow the lawn completely nude at a party, I couldn’t quite sneak a good peak. It’s been seven years, and I still think about it. Whenever the topic of ball size is brought up in conversation, these mythical long balls always dangle at the front of my mind.
But how much does ball size matter, really? Is it something guys should actually think much about?
I know plenty of you are worried about it — it’s something that people ask on r/AskWomen and r/AskReddit almost annually. “Ladies, do you care how big a guy’s balls are?” one man asked nine years ago. “I have raisin nuts, yet I am as horny as can be and perform very well in the sack. Is this an issue?”
The general consensus is that it’s not. Just as with dicks, there’s a significant range of sizes that most would consider “normal” and never think twice about. You might think your balls are smaller than average or bigger than average, too, but the reality is that even if that’s true, most people don’t care either way. Personally speaking, large balls sound cool and fun in theory, but I genuinely don’t remember a single detail of any of the balls I’ve ever encountered in my life. Not even my boyfriend’s that I see on a regular basis! In fact, the reason that I think so much about those legendary long balls is because I never actually got to see them.
The only time ball size really matters is if they’re either extremely large or extremely small (or, if you’ve only got one of them, which is, at the very least, more memorable than having two). Still, none of this means anything in terms of performance. Well, okay, maybe extra big balls do — it’s possible for the receiver of penetration to feel balls slap against them in certain positions, often in an enjoyable way, and if they’re huge, you’ll probably feel it more. But never in all my years have I heard someone complain that a guy’s balls were too small. It just doesn’t factor in.
In terms of actual function and reproductive health, there’s little evidence to suggest any correlation between ball size, fertility or sexual capacity. Bigger balls don’t necessarily mean you produce a larger quantity of sperm, though that may be the case for some. There’s also a tiny bit of research that says small balls may produce a lower total volume of semen, but nothing to say that your ball size is definitively related to the size of your nut. The testes do produce testosterone, but again, no concrete correlation between size and quantity there, either, with the exception of aging. As people get older, it’s indeed common for their balls to become smaller and for them to produce less testosterone.
There aren’t any underlying conditions that typically cause a person to have exceptionally large balls throughout their life. It’s possible, however, to develop bigger balls later on due to a specific medical problem. Testicular cancer, for example, does lead to swelling and growth in some cases. It’s also possible to develop non-cancerous growths like hydrocele, a build-up of fluid caused by an injury to the balls or spermatocele, a fluid-filled cyst that can form randomly. The latter can be totally asymptomatic and harmless, but some require surgery. That said, if your balls become bigger for any reason, you should get them checked out.
There are a few outlier cases in which clinically small, underdeveloped balls are associated with specific hormonal or chromosomal abnormalities. Hypogonadism is a condition in which biological males produce less testosterone than average, and is associated with smaller testicles, a reduced ability to grow facial or body hair and the growth of breast tissue. It’s typically diagnosed during puberty, and remedied with testosterone replacement therapy. About four percent of all men experience hypogonadism, though this figure includes men who experience reduced testosterone levels with aging, too.
Meanwhile, Klinefelter syndrome is a rare condition impacting around one in 1,000 people in which a biological male has an extra X chromosome. The symptoms are similar to hypogonadism, but it’s often not diagnosed until adulthood, if ever. Some people with Klinefelter syndrome are able to have children, while others aren’t. Again, if you’re worried your small testicles are a sign of one of these issues, it’s worth seeing a doctor.
But if you just feel like your balls could be a bit bigger and have no other symptoms bothering you, you’re probably the only person who notices how big they are. Ball size doesn’t matter in any grand way, just as dick size often doesn’t — there’s a range of what’s “normal,” and you probably fit into it. Unless you want to be like my aforementioned long-balled friend, you don’t need to make your ball size any major part of your personality.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
