Why do men have nipples?

Question

I know that women have them for breast feeding, but why do men have them?

Answer 1

Because the fetal cells that become female nipples must become SOMETHING...

There is no part of the male that isn't some other part in the female, and vice-versa. Men don't need breasts, but humans need breasts, so they have breasts, but they are not developed by the hormones.

Similarly, men have a uterus....it's called the prostate! Women have a penis-head called the clitoris, and testicles and ovaries are made of the same fetus-stuff.

It would be terribly difficult for our genes to be designed so that men and women would be completely different, so we're only as different as we need to be.

Answer 2

There seems to be a logical explanation about why women have nipples - for babies. But why do men's bodies retain what appears to be redundant body parts? The Darwinian natural selection process would seem to dictate that male nipples really should not be there. So what's the deal? Why do men have nipples?

The answer is that as embryos men and women have similar tissues and body parts. If anything the embryo follows a 'female template'. That is why nipples are present in both sexes. It is the effect of the genes, the Y chromosome and the hormone testosterone that brings about the changes and masculinises the embryo. Testosterone promotes the growth of the penis and testicles. Because nipples are there before this process begins the nipples stay!

Nipples and breast tissue have no function as such except for perhaps protecting the heart and lungs from injury.

Male Breasts Can Produce Milk and Get Breast Cancer
A certain level of the female hormone estrogen is present in all men. If, as a result of disease or a condition affecting hormones, breast tissue in men can grow (gynecomastia- abnormal enlargement of breasts,) and men can produce milk.

Gynacomastia is more commonly seen in adolescence, a period in development when hormones fluctuate a lot. It is also seen in some men with liver disease and sometimes in alcoholics.

Men can get breast cancer as well as women

Answer 3

We are both human. I don't know the exact science, but when we develop in the womb we are all the same.. We have the same genital features in the begining.... at a certain point early on during the pregnancy there is an instruction from DNA to make the baby a boy or girl. The genitals then devolop into male or female and hormones will take care of the rest throughout life. We are all basically built from the same template early on... so we all have nipples, the DNA will tell the body later on if they'll actually need to have a function.

Answer 4

Fetuses develop in the womb almost exactly the same whether boy or girl. Only later in fetal development do the sexual organs begin to differ due to hormonal differences. Both the male organ and female sexual organs have the same parts but they become different. The clitoris is equivalent to the penis head. The male scrotum is from the same parts that make up the female labia etc. You get the idea. So the nipples dont change much at all from male to female except the female nipples get larger.

Answer 5

As has been previously mentioned, it starts with the embryo and embrionic development. One poster stated that the embryo starts out with basically a "female template". Actually that's not entirely true. In an embryo, the potential exists for it to be either male or female. From what I understand, the rudimentary sex organs, etc. start out by being in such a state that they could at that point be either male or female. It's been correctly pointed out that your "xx" or "xy" determines which way these develop - xx for female, and xy for male. Females have an undeveloped penis for example - it's called a clitoris. Why would females need such a thing in the first place? It's the same thing as why men have nipples......

Answer 6

During the evolving growing baby inside the women's womb, the genes try to decide which sex or gender it is going to be after the nipples are built already and then picks its gender sex organs before the baby is fully developed baby ready to come out in 9 months. That is why males have them.

Answer 7

It's because ALL mammals have nipples, male and female.
And since the female of the species bears the burden of child-birth, she then has been given by nature the additional capability of having milk glands that develop during the gestation period and hence is ready and able to feed her young immediately after birthing.

Answer 8

Ok it's more or less a joke but I was told the reason men have nipples is so you know where their boobs would be IF they had any.

Answer 9

STOP IT! Everyone's giving a scientific answer to something as simple as this question. SHEESH! Men have them so women can have something to play with. Or they are merely artful decorations to enhance the anatomy of no cleavage.

Answer 10

who knows in few million years more may be men will be breast feeding