Why do men have nipples?

Question

Medically, what's their purpose?

Answer 1

Men have nipples because they are fomed by the fetus (at around 7 weeks) before any sexual differentiation occurs. All fetuses are morpholgically female until the Y chromosome kicks in in males and begins sexual differentiation. There is no medical purpose for nipples in males.

Answer 2

In the womb, we all start off the with a similar structure. During development the male begins to show more differentiation of the genitals.
You may find this interesting:
During the late 19th century, Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory, or biogenetic law, was widely accepted. This theory was often expressed as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", i.e. the development of an organism exactly mirrors the evolutionary development of the species. The early version of this hypothesis has since been rejected as being oversimplified. However, most modern biologists recognize numerous connections between ontogeny and phylogeny, explain them using evolutionary theory, or view them as supporting evidence for that theory.

Answer 3

Because intially fetuses of both genders are female. It is later on in the womb that the clitoris of a female fetus develops into a penis ( if it has the y chromosome), and still later on in life, the breasts of females grow, while the breasts of males do not. So it is ultimately convention, because otherwise, males would have to shed off their nipples, and that sounds like it would hurt.

Answer 4

Nipples are not sex linked traits, therefore, they form regardless. Female hormones cuase mammary tissue (which males have as well) to become enlarged creating breasts.

People say it forms before sexual differentiation occurs. This is completly obsurd. In males, mullarian inhibitory hormone stops the formation of the mullearian ducts, causing wolfian ducts to form during the neural tube formation, which is far before nipples appear.

Also it has nothing to do with puberty, the whole clitoris and penis thing is crazy, yes they are from similar tissue origins, but poth exclusivly before puberty.

As far as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", i.e. the development of an organism exactly mirrors the evolutionary development of the species. This also has nothing to do with it. An example of ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny is us developing gills as a fetus, however, in concordance with this hypothesis (which is proven to be untrue), we will evolve on past this and loose the gills.

Simply put, it has nothing to do with the sex chromasomes, similar to eyes and ears. Nipples are exactly the same in men and women, however, mammary tissue underneath nippples changes differently in women due to differing hormone levels.

Answer 5

Read the book with the exact same title for a full answer to this and other oddities of nature!

But physiologically, there is no purpose for this in the male.
A left over from the embryonic development process that
leads to breasts in females and goes nowhere in the males.

Answer 6

All fetuses start off female, that is until the SRY (Sex-determining Region Y) gene on the Y chromosome is activated and stimulates genital growth.

Answer 7

When a human develops, different structures respond differently to the male/female hormones. Men and women both have nipples, but when a woman goes through puberty, her hormones cause her breasts to grow. Women have a clitoris for the same reason... the same basic structure is present in both genders, but when male babies develop, their hormones cause it to grow into a penis.

Answer 8

A good question indeed. Nipples are basically meant to feed the younger ones. But men do not produce milk and still god / nature has provide them. Maybe it is a set of archtectural desigin and nothing less or more.

Personally I think men with nice ones add attraction and it would be weird if they were missing u know.

Answer 9

nipples are present in a embryo before they are determined to be boy or girl. because they are there before the testosterone comes into play because of the y chromosome, they stay. They cannot just magically disappear.

Answer 10

medically, there is no reason. But imagine your about have sex and you notice he has no nipples! lol would it scared u off?? haha I think they are there so men looks normal lol