Comment by carapace | Hacker News Reader

Comment by carapace | Hacker News Reader

Kind of a tangent (but potentially useful and little known) is the "baker's method" of male contraception.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marthe_Voegeli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat-based_contraception

> It has long been observed that men who work in professions that expose them to heat in the nether regions: bakers, cooks, steamworkers; have had a hard time fathering children. Interestingly, men in these professions were observed to start having children after retiring or finding a new job. Based on these observations, Dr. Martha Vogeli [sic, her name ends with 'e': Marthe] ran a long set of experiments starting in the 1940’s in India. After trying all possible combinations, Dr. Vogeli found a consistent method for inducing temporary infertility in men by a series of hot baths. In short, men who sat in hot water for 45 minutes a day for 3 weeks were protected for at least 6 months.

~ https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/heat-based-contraception-n...

I am wondering if my MBP on my lap was the root cause of my fertility issues. I can't believe I didn't google this before.

Wasn't there a comic or meme or something about this exact premise?

Mate! This is well known! My mum told me this a decade ago https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lapt...

I'm mad it wasn't well known enough that everyone happens to know it.

Also cycling.

Is it reversible? And does a MBP also reduce libido?

The ‘baker’s method’ post above suggests is reversible. As for libido, if you’re roasting your ‘nads enough that they stop producing gametes then it seems reasonable that they might temporarily do producing other things too, so maybe?

That's why you should use a Linux Laptop with Libreboot firmware and arch linux and not an emasculating MBP.

Or just a plastic-body laptop with the heat vent off to the side.

Linux laptop because real men need higher temperatures? ;)

It certainly is possible. I learned about this after teasing my roommate for using a "lap desk" — now I use one myself for this reason.

This was initially surprising.

But it is obvious that the temperature of the balls matter. This is why we put it outside the body, have a special device (the ball sack) to keep it at the right temperature, and then load the whole structure with sufficient pain signals that the man will be very protective of it. Given that the temperature matters that much, it isn't surprising that making it too warm anyways is likely to create infertility.

a. Forty-five minutes is a long time to sit in a bath, and a long time to keep water hot.

b. Long ago, I read that wearing jockey shorts rather than boxers put one at a slightly higher risk for testicular cancer, presumably because the jockeys keep the freight warmer. Now, the risk of testicular cancer is pretty slight to start with, but I whether the hot-bath method raises it.

It's not that long if you have a spa. I have a family friend who were having trouble getting pregnant with their second child. They tried everything and took over a year, but finally the dr suggested that the husband stoped using the spa... it worked

I switched to some sexy cargo shorts, and my wife was pregnant a month later

Coincidence? I think not

that's one hell of a domain name

I've wondered before if Japan's love for hot, daily baths has played some part in its low birthrate.

Maybe originally, but not anymore. Demographers regularly survey women in various countries about how many children they want to have, and in Japan women want to have on average 1 child, which means they’re having that many children by choice and not accident.

Japanese women are having on average one child. They want two.

> Japan is one such country that discrepancy between intended and observed levels of fertility is relatively large. For example, calculated from a nationally representative survey in 2010 (IPSS 2011), the average number of intended children among women aged 40-44 is 1.84, while their observed cohort total fertility is estimated to be 1.48 . These discrepancies between intended and observed fertility suggest social constraints on meeting intentions.

https://paa2014.princeton.edu/papers/141630

Ah, I seem to have been misinformed.

Honestly this seems a damn sight safer than most forms of female birth control. Maybe I should register "cookyourballs".

I wonder if the jacuzzi people love or hate this.

I imagine love

"We call this jet the ball cooker"

It's inconsistent, you would need easy & cheap at home sperm count testing to be reliable, like we have with pregnancy tests.

With other forms you can see results via period activity reduction or increasing (in case of copper IUD) or physical breakage or feeling changes.

An hour for 3 weeks, what the hell.

For some people, that might be an easier sell than 18 years of child support.

Make sure to recruit Olivia Wilde née Cockburn for the advertising

Does it affects cultures with regular hot baths ? Japan people are said to enjoy that. Also .. saunas ?

You have to really go out of your way to keep water hot for 45 minutes.

If you stay in an onsen for 45 minutes, you’d probably have bigger issues than infertility — such as passing out and drowning. They of course come at different temperatures, whether they are artificial or natural, but onsen are HOT. After 10 or so minutes it becomes pretty unbearable. Most people take small breaks in between soaks, but even then a cumulative 45 minutes is a bit much.

I’d be more interested in how this affects sauna cultures. In particular Korea where it’s quite common to sleep in a sauna (jimjilbang) for a couple hours. Although people don’t do it daily.

I've hung out in onsen for about an hour at a time. Sometimes I raise my upper body out if I start feeling dizzy, but it's not completely unbearable. I also took sizzling hot baths all the time as a kid and don't feel the heat, although I'm sure I'm probably being cooked.

This could be why I have no kids.

>I’d be more interested in how this affects sauna cultures.

Sauna works differently than hot bath. In sauna you sweat profusely in order to maintain your body temperature, and your blood vessels expand, and the heart works hard actively pumping the blood thus avoiding local overheat of any specific body part. Plus you take a cold shower or jump into cold water right out of sauna :)

>to sleep in a sauna (jimjilbang) for a couple hours

nobody can sleep in sauna for a couple of hours :) The best i saw some few guys did in the local Korean sauna is about 30-40 minutes at 180F. In Korean jimjilbang there is also usually something like a room with warmed floor where you do go for a nice relaxed sleep after/between sauna room visits. Damn that coronavirus lockdown, i haven't been for the sauna for like 6 weeks already...

> nobody can sleep in sauna for a couple of hours :)

You're right, I should have been more clear. I was referring to the warmed floor area you mentioned. I've spent quite a lot of time in jimjilbangs back in Seoul.

Currently in Tokyo...Once the travel restrictions are lifted, I'm on the first thing with an engine headed back to Seoul!

If you don’t go blind when you get up, you weren’t in long enough.

oh ok, fun fact ... I never took one and had no idea how warm/hot they'd be.

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