Our bodies are incredibly intricate machines, so naturally, maintaining and troubleshooting them when something goes wrong can be quite difficult. So it’s important that we are at least somewhat familiar with the “user manual.” Otherwise, we risk handing our health & wellness to guesswork and hearsay.
A recent Reddit post asked everyone on the platform to list the facts about our anatomy that many grown-ups still don’t understand, and thousands jumped in to share the ignorance they’ve encountered. From growth to metabolism and reproduction, it looks like plenty of folks need to revisit high school biology.
#1
Shocked how many guys think women can “hold” their period, like it’s pee. Not only is this not the case, exerting your core muscles or bending/moving around a lot pushes more blood out, which sometimes feels a little alarming.
Image source: 1800crimetime, Julia Larson
#2
S*men takes 64–74 days to fully develop.
Just found out the entire process from creation to maturity takes about 2.5 months. It happens in two phases – 50–60 days of development in the testicles, then 10–14 days in the epididymis where they learn to swim.
Also wild: if they’re never released, your body just breaks them down and reabsorbs them.
Image source: Dontellmywifenutn, Getty Images
#3
A lot of people still assume if you’re a tall or big dude then that reflects on all of men’s anatomy.
Image source: Mr_Coastliner
#4
Bra sizing, it doesn’t help that most major manufacturers and sellers of bras also don’t know how it works.
Image source: ginger260, Ron Lach
#5
Antibiotics don’t work for the cold VIRUS.
Image source: dissociated_disco, cottonbro studio
#6
What’s alarming is a lot of women don’t know they will have significantly different symptoms to what men experience during a heart attack. This is due to medical science using male anatomy even into the 2020s to diagnose female health issues.
Image source: Journo_Jimbo, Getty Images
#7
I think a lot of people don’t know what a vulva is.
Image source: FlameSky25340, Iraklis Gerogiannis
#8
Mnemonic (or rather menmonic):
Men: starting at about 50 years of age, your age is roughly the percentage probability of having an enlarged prostate. So at 70 years old, you have roughly 70% chance that this is the case.
This is called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and while benign, it is a main if not the main cause of leaking urine, trouble peeing, s****l dysfunction, … See your doctor about these problems, because it may be easy to treat (not always, but simply knowing may help you and your close ones with understanding too).
Image source: erikieperikie, Marcus Aurelius
#9
Awkward sentence to say but, qu*efing. Many people don’t realize that when you pull out and swap positions air WILL rush in, and then be forced out when you put it back in.
And girls, we don’t care at all. So stop being embarrassed about it.
Image source: Analgorilla, Seljan Salimova
#10
Hymens are broken for any number of reasons. She might bleed but probably won’t on her first time.
Also going too far in general.
Image source: aknownman, Andrea Piacquadio
#11
In Latin America there aren’t many, but not washing the a*s after pooping is considered a symptom of mental illness.
Image source: wittor, Cameron Casey
#12
If the voltage is high enough, as a human you do not have to actually touch it to get shocked. It will jump out and hit you if you get to close.
Image source: Shrapnel_10, Erik Mclean
#13
If you stick ur hand in ur crack after a shower and it does not come out smelling like the rest of your body, you need to get back in the shower because you are not done yet. Scrub IN the crack. You should know what your sphincter feels like.
Image source: jeff1074, Maria Luiza Melo
#14
Anything to do with humans; the gauss curve is f*****g wide. Just because X is Y on average, does not mean you are abnormal is you are super far off. Everybody is weird in some ways.
Image source: RovakX, Su Casa Panamá
#15
Testicle nerve cluster is where the ovaries would be on a female. During utero they start there and then ‘drop’. If you ever need a testicle removed they go through the lower abdomen. If you get a vasectomy, you feel it in your lower abdomen, and they typically only give you a local.
Testicle cancer x2. I’m a glorified eunich.
Image source: defensekid, artawkrn
#16
You have to wash ya a*s. Get in there all nice and deep like.
Image source: t-o-m-u-s-a, Victor Furtuna
#17
People who want their pregnancies can still end up having to terminate them if there’s a medical emergency. Just earlier today, I saw a post on FB about women who have died in that situation because of abortion bans. Of course, some unempathetic waste of space had to comment about how they could have just not had s*x.
Image source: MiniPantherMa, Tima Miroshnichenko
#18
You don’t get colds from being cold.
Image source: UnSlain, REFARGOTOHP
#19
Recently got a vasectomy. I was stunned by the number of adult men who assumed you no longer ejaculate after a vasectomy. They thought “shooting blanks” meant no ejaculate comes out anymore.
Image source: PepperidgeFleet, Pavel Danilyuk
#20
Depending on how regular your hygiene upkeep is, your belly button can have more bacteria than your toilet seat.
And now I just pissed off a germaphobe somewhere.
Image source: DeathToTheMosquito, Brett Sayles
#21
I’ve worked as an OnlyFans chatter for almost two years and have spoken with several thousand people. An alarming number of men think squirting equals orgasm for women, ‘No squirt, she didn’t c*m,’ and ‘If she squirted, she c*me.’ Neither of those things is true.
Image source: Wife_of_Shao_Kahn, Wolf Art
#22
Bruh. The fact that women dont pee out of their v****a.
I deada*s had an ex who thought I was an idiot and completely wrong for telling her that she has 3 holes down under. She was convinced that it was a*s n vag. Unreal.
Image source: KvDOLPHIN, Miriam Alonso
#23
The whole IVF/embryo development process. It was crazy concerning to me how many people in my life don’t know the insanely basic stages of embryo development (edit: regardless if it’s in a testing tube or the body!) that should have been taught in middle school science. Not all fertilized eggs even result in a zygote and not all zygotes result in an embryo that will make it to blastocyst. And not all healthy embryos will implant.
I have a family member who is insanely against IVF even though that’s how we had to have my daughter. She posts the most insane s**t how “IVF kills babies”. She is a 40 year old nurse. Just amazes me how far she got in life being so intentionally stupid.
Image source: Lilo213, Nataliya Vaitkevich
#24
Capsaicin binds to TRPV1 receptors found on your skin, mouth, and nerves. Birds do not have TRPV1 receptors and can’t taste it, which is why they can eat Uber spicy seeds. The highest expression levels of TRPV1 in the human body occur in the a**s.
Image source: Braytone, Angela Roma
#25
Boners don’t always mean that the guy’s h***y.
Image source: BoredFanta, CR7Rameshh
#26
I’ve been surprised at the lack of knowledge men have about the v****a and reproductive system.
Once a guy said he doesn’t have period s*x because he doesn’t want an std. I’m like what?! So I explained how that doesn’t give you an std.
And then another time a guy mentioned how he didn’t know why women didn’t just take the time to squeeze and push out all the period blood all at once and save the hassle of it coming out for days (?!).
Then another time where I had to explain that a cramp wasn’t just the blood being clogged at the end, it’s the uterus squeezing to help itself shed. Shed what?, he says.
I don’t understand. These people had the same s*x ed I did, how did this happen?
Image source: lipstick_dipstick, Sora Shimazaki
#27
It’s urine she is squirting.
Image source: EmotionalMixture5968, Nadin Sh
#28
The michtochondria is THE powerhouse of the cell.
Image source: Treebull
#29
Where tampons go.
Image source: Fryeer, Polina Zimmerman
#30
The skin is the largest organ of the body. Not the liver, not the brain, not the intestines!
Image source: Same_Lychee5934, Valeria Smirnova
#31
Yours and your sibling’s 23andMe results will be different. I can’t be the only one who thought it would be the same.
Turns out I am more Italian than my brother.
Image source: Yung-Tre
#32
Our immune system doesn’t know about eyes, so if it gets to know them – it attackes your eyes.
Image source: Snulow
#33
Yes, the carpet matches the d**n drapes
– a tired ginger.
Image source: rouquineau
#34
Ovaries are not actually like flat off to the side like they are shown on textbooks. They’re actually bunched up and basically touching either side of your uterus.
Image source: beaujonfrishe
#35
Most men have 0 clue and weirdly some women, about the smells and PH balance of women.
Boric acid and other things are life savors and the scents really are your bodies way of talking to you. A good PH level = healthy.
Image source: HockeyDockey1234
#36
My wife used to run an Urgent Care. The amount of women who don’t know how their reproductive organs work is shocking. The amount of men who don’t know how to clean their p***s is shocking. The amount of people who don’t know urine in your eye isn’t a **legit** medical procedure is shocking.
EDIT: I’m a man of the people so I’ll elaborate on the urine thing. This wasn’t a widespread issue but it’s a funny anecdote so I through it in there for fun. “Urine therapy” is a thing. It’s not a smart thing but it’s a thing. Some people think that drinking urine or applying it topically can treat health conditions. There was one lady who came in with a nasty eye infection. She basically told my wife, “I don’t know why it’s not getting better. I’ve been putting urine in it. Why is it getting worse?” She said it so casually like everybody was going to be on board with p**s in their eye. For those that don’t know, urine is not sterile. That’s a myth. And even if it was, it gets pretty gross, pretty quickly. Don’t do urine therapy.
EDIT2: I almost forgot about all the people who don’t know how diabetes works. Tons of people out there with uncontrolled diabetes. She once told a guy in his early 20’s – who came with his mom – that he has diabetes. To his credit, he vowed right then and there that he was done with sugary drinks. Unfortunately, he vowed that it was only going to be Gatorade from now on. The best part was that he didn’t say “diabetes”. He said, “I got the sugars?!”
Image source: CaptainAwesome06
#37
Pee is stored in the balls.
Image source: Lucifer_Morningsun
#38
Massaging your prostate helps reducing risks for prostate cancer.
Image source: MadeInTheUniverse
#39
You are not your body.
You are a brain, piloting a calcium mech frame, wrapped in meat.
Image source: Mark_fuckaborg
#40
The Clitoris isn’t just a tiny bean, it actually has 5 arms; one goes to the Clitoris and the remaining 4 go to each of the Labia Minora and Majora.
So Guys; don’t just focus on the Clit!
Also Vulvas aren’t identical. Only a small proportion of women have Innies. Most women have Labia Minora which protude. Labia Minora can be smooth or frilled, different lengths, shapes & colour to the surrounding skin. Its normal but many women have been taught to think of their genitals as ugly and shameful and it needs to stop.
Image source: SouthernAlbinoChimp
#41
That a woman’s v****a relaxing and becoming more elastic is them being aroused. So many men think that “Oh she’s loose, she must be a h*e” or some stupid immature c**p like that. In reality, if it feels “looser” than usual, it means she’s probably very aroused and you’re doing a good job. Number of s****l partners etc does not pertain to looseness at all.
Image source: DrBrainzz9
#42
What the fallopian tubes do.
I recently had mine removed after my second c-section, and was telling a friend about it and how if I ever changed my mind at least IVF was an option. Friend, who is currently doing IVF herself, argued with me and told me she didn’t understand how this would be possible. She also expressed concern of where my eggs would go without fallopian tubes. I should also add this woman is a teacher….
Image source: MoutainsAndMerlot
#43
Women have three holes down there.
Image source: IAmAlittleteapot_AMA
#44
The breathing hole being next to the feeding hole is definitely the most NSFW element of the human body. If you were building a living organism from scratch that would be a major code violation.
Image source: manditoryusername
#45
The frenulum needs more attention.
Image source: Logical_Hospital2769
#46
While an erection or lack thereof could signify a physical attraction, it should not be used as an indicator of it one way or the other. Your mental state is the biggest factor with what happens down there.
Image source: TheBluePriest
#47
People think men have fewer ribs because of Adam.
Image source: DanielDannyc12
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