From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Anabolic steroids are NOT benign.
Date: 29 Apr 1998 12:39:37 GMT

In <1998042909044600.FAA23360@ladder03.news.aol.com> carobmcgoo@aol.com
(CarobMcGoo) writes:

>I mean face it..any guy who takes a drug to enhance their
appearance...even though it may mean their testicles may shrink or
shrivel up...can't be much of a man?
I mean there got to be 90 pound weaklings with more balls than
you.....not to >mention brain.



COMMENT:

    Well, if you women would judge men on the basis of testicular size,
it would be a lot more straightforward, wouldn't it.  Alas, it doesn't
work quite that way.

    Though I did know a female endocrinologist once who had a set of
testicular volume models on a plastic key-ring, used for just this
purpose.  Makes for much less subjective numbers.  I'm sure they still
make them commercially.  She, and the female medical students, seemed
endlessly ammused by them.  I used to point out to her that chimpanzees
have enormous balls because they are so completely promiscuous-- males
compete by sperm amount.  Interesting, she said.


                                       Steve Harris, M.D.

Newsgroups: sci.med
From: bae@cs.toronto.edu (Beverly Erlebacher)
Subject: Re: Anabolic steroids are NOT benign.
Date: 29 Apr 98 16:41:29 GMT

In article <6i7729$re0@dfw-ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>,
Steven B. Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

>    Though I did know a female endocrinologist once who had a set of
>testicular volume models on a plastic key-ring, used for just this
>purpose.  Makes for much less subjective numbers.  I'm sure they still
>make them commercially.  She, and the female medical students, seemed
>endlessly ammused by them.  I used to point out to her that chimpanzees
>have enormous balls because they are so completely promiscuous-- males
>compete by sperm amount.  Interesting, she said.

Heard an interview with a primatologist on a science radio program once.
She was studying a species of monkey in the Amazon rainforest that has
huge testicles.  When a female is in heat, she mates repeatedly with
all interested males.  The scientist explained about sperm competition
and how the size of the testicles relative to body size is an indicator
of how important sperm competition is in the social life of the species.
Monogamous primate species with strong, long-lasting pair bonds have very
small testicles.

So of course the interviewer had to ask her where humans fit into this
sequence.  She said, right in the middle.

It's too bad one can't apply rules like the above *within* a species.
Could be very useful in selecting a husband.  Might make for more
sales for the outfit that manufactures those models, too.