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Comment by ThrustVectoring | Hacker News Reader

Immersing the testicles in 116 F water for 45 minutes a day for three weeks is significantly cheaper, and gives an undetectable sperm count for 6 months. It's honestly likely the best avenue for male birth control, the only problem is that it's impossible for a corporation to monetize so it's unlikely to get any sort of traction.

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Something that involves 45 minutes of your time every day for three weeks, every six months... I don’t know if I would describe that as “the best avenue”. It’s not as if it’s something I can do while sat as my desk at work.

You need more accommodating coworkers. If you can't take your testicles out and dip them into nearly-scalding water at your desk in the open-plan office, you need to do some trust falls at the next morale event.

"How dare you disrespect my reproductive autonomy!"

you can work with an oculus go or quest and voice control if you keep your head above the water

If that's the only reason you're taking a bath, then sure. If you enjoy a good soak every now and then anyway, though, it can be a nice side effect (or an unwanted one, depending on your goals).

I think a 116F tub is above what most anyone could tolerate for 45 minutes.

So what you're saying is that there's a market for devices that would let you do it while sat at your desk at work?

As foretold by prophecy: https://testicuzzi.com/

I researched that when my wife and I were about to get married.

I no longer have the link, but I found a study saying that birth defect rates were higher in mouse offspring from fathers that experienced the treatment than in ones whose fathers did not.

Not great evidence to go on, but I decided not to go that route.

This blew my mind, because baths around 45-50 C (113-122 F) aren't uncommon at all in Japan, and bathing for a long time (relaxing, sleeping, reading, watching tv) every day is also not uncommon here... I wonder if that's been a factor leading to reduced birth rates in Japan.

I don't have time to search a lot for this, but I did find one study that pointed at reduced sperm quality in young men: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3641477/

> baths around 45-50 C

How do you endure that? When I was still young and lived with my parents we had a thermometer in the bath tub. Anything over 40 °C was torture. I don't think I ever managed anything above 42°C.

You don't endure that because his claim is unsubstantiated.

It seems to depend on a person. I was ok with over 40 C in winter in Iceland, but that involved moving between geo hot tubs and freezing air a few times - starting from 30C and going up. There was lots of warning signs around that pool though and not many people were happy to try.

I'd be afraid to do it regularly though... felt interesting / nice, but also "this is extreme, maybe I shouldn't be doing this".

> because baths around 45-50 C (113-122 F) aren't uncommon at all in Japan

You are stretching it. Most hot onsen are above 40C but certainly not above 45 or close to 50. At 50 you feel like you are boiling. And even if the source is at 45 C you never sit right next to the source, a few meters away the temperature loses several degrees.

ANd people in Japan don't go to onsen every single day either. At home the usual temperature is rather 40~41.

A hot tub is supposed to be max 104 F, and I shower at most at 110 F (get overheated fairly quickly), usually do 108 F.

Not sure how I would even keep water at 116F that long...

Sous vide?

Coffee mug warmer works, or just a large bucket for thermal mass

For metric units users:

116 °F ≈ 47 °C

I call bllcks

I like my baths regular and hot. While I don't doubt this affects sperm count somehow, when we started trying for a child I didn't dial back the baths and we were pregnant in about 6 weeks.

water starts feeling warm enough to swim comfortably around 80F and probably hot over ~90 (I've heard skin temp quoted around 93F, so warmer than that probably would start feeling hot). So your hot bath might be 100F, give or take a few degrees. Definitely not even 110 - that would feel extreme; hot tubs are typically 100-102 degrees, and max out at 104.

In principle it's not a lot different than thinking about what would happen if you had a 100 degree fever vs 110 - 100 you'd feel only a little unwell, and 110... I'm not sure if that's even survivable for a few hours; usual concern is how your brain cells fair in such conditions. (Let's try not to find out through personal experience?).

Of course, none of these numbers really matter if you just measure the temperature of your water, to get an idea what it actually is. But the difference between <104 and >110 is a pretty big one, in terms of how it'll affect you.

True I haven't measured them exactly but they're somewhere over 40 degrees and my other half finds them too hot to get into. I can't see anyone regularly immersing "themselves" in anything hotter.

120 degrees fahrenheit is around what your hot water heater is probably set as. Run the tap all the way hot and see how long you can leave your hand in that and then imagine putting your genitals in that for 45 minutes every day for three weeks and then repeating that every 4 months to avoid a gap in efficacy. That's just a terrible idea for practical contraception.

116 is absolutely nuts. I went to some hot springs this summer in colorado and even there hottest tub topped out at 113 and while I was able to work my way up to that one, I was uncomfortable and left after 5 minutes. I cannot imagine trying to spend 45 minutes straight in a tub 3 degrees hotter!

Well, you don't need to put your whole body in for the method to work.

So have you dipped your balls in 116 degree fahrenheit water for 45 minutes per day for 3 weeks straight every 6 months because that honestly sounds horrible. I hate condoms but they sound far better than to what you are proposing. What was it like for you?

I have accumulated a fair amount of experience with this in the last couple years hosting parties. You're close.

* Under 80, most people don't want to swim.

* The momentary shock-cold feeling when you jump in goes away somewhere near 85.

* 90 degrees feels warm and comfortable, not hot. A bit high for swimming on a hot day but much less than that and most folks don't want to swim at night.

* Less than 100 degrees feels "cold" for a hot tub. 104 keeps everyone happy. Hot tubs definitely go higher than 104 (although might require some funky button-work to "unlock" the temperature).

* 110+ feels tingly, dip-in-slowly hot. You go in for a few minutes, then sit on the side for a few minutes, then dip back in, etc. You could sit with your lower half in the water for an hour as long as your upper half was exposed and you had cold water to drink. You'll sweat a lot.

If the above poster has a hot tub set at 116, I wouldn't want to pay his electric bill.

If your bath starts out >116, it almost certainly doesn’t stay that hot for 45 minutes.

116F is really hot for water. to me at least, a hot tub starts feeling uncomfortable around just 108F.

Source?

http://www.puzzlepiece.org/bcontrol/voegeli1956.txt

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