why do men have nipples?

Question

they have beards to show they are men at first glance, etc.
but why are mens nipples almost as sensitive as womens?
maybe nipple less men would just not look human.
i dont mean this to be a silly chicken or egg answer we know the chicken came first and adam/eve did not have belly buttons, any ideas? stupid people need not answer.

Answer 1

I'm going to answer this complicated query in a most simple way....
A human fetus' gender is already determined right after conception.
The physical characteristics do not manefest themselves until later during in-vitro develpment.
....Until then, the TEMPLATE, or cookie-cutter, basic start-out form of a human is very ambiguous.
That means that we ALL have nipples in the very beginning.
Boys and girls have the same nipples and even the same glands beneath them, ready to sprout - or not sprout at puberty.
Even the basic structure of the penis and clitoris are from the same starting out point.... So we ALL start out as a default female, ready to develop completely one way or the other!

Answer 2

Genetics. When a female egg is fertilized and the embryo is formed the embryo is female. When it gets to a certain stage in the pregnancy if a Y chromosome is given by the guy then the penis forms, if an X chromosome is given by the guy then it stays as it is, the female body parts. Men have nipples because all embryos start out as female. Later in life(puberty) the women get the hormones to make them grow, men dont. When you take a look at a baby, the only thing different about them is the lower extremity private parts. That is what the Y chromosome changes.

Answer 3

Here is some background: for the first
6-8 weeks of development, the fetus has the capacity to develop into either
a girl or a boy (or both).

If not influenced by hormones in the womb, the fetus will turn into a girl
and certain male characteristics will be lost. If influenced by hormones in
the womb, the fetus will turn into a boy and certain female characteristics
will be lost. Nipples are formed in an early stage and thus everyone
initially has them.

They are useful on adult females and so they are kept as a girl develops.
They apparently do no harm on adult males, and the body makes no effort to
get rid of them as a boy develops. Males also have rudimentary breast
tissue, and also have milk ducts.

And don't think that nipples are limited to only two per person. Sometimes
humans have several sets too! (the extra ones are small).

B Erck

Answer 4

The prototype fetus for both male and female body is a Female fetus.

Only when the fetus starts to release testosterone that the fetus is changed into a male fetus... rewiring everything from the brain, bone density, to the male reproductive organs, etc... Otherwise, if there is no release of testosterone, the fetus is a female.

That is why men have nipples also because we came from the same prototype fetus who has nipples. By the way, men get breast cancer also!

Answer 5

According to the book "Why do Men have Nipples "

While only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in.

Answer 6

I actually know this one.

In the womb, physically speaking, everyone starts out as female. It takes exposure to male hormones (testosterone and androgen) to start physical development into a male. Nipples start to develop before the surge of hormones. So men are born with nipples. Not all men's nipples are as sensitive as womens, although some are.

Answer 7

They are there because at a certain stage during pregnancy, the sex of the baby is not yet developed, so both have nipples.

It may surprise you to know that men and women's nipples are both functional. It's just that in men the testosterone levels block out the development.

Answer 8

At one point, if you believe in the evolutionary tale, men went through a metamorphisis inwhich they stopped directly caring for their young and women took over. And the phenominon has yet to be bred out of them. And they are sensative as well as women because of the prominant nerve endings are all clustered there.

Answer 9

Both sexes start off exactly the same - basically female - and then hormones later in utero create the male. Nipples are vestigages of that beginning.

Answer 10

As an embryo, in the first stage we are all alike, and we have kind of a female 'body'. After a certain point you turn out boy or girl. Before that happens we allready have nipples.

http://www.plasticsurgery4u.com/male_plastic_surgery/why_men_have_nipples.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/ask_the_doctor/mennipples.shtml