‘Blue balls’ is a real condition, not a myth made up by desperate men: doctor

“Blue balls” is a real medical condition — and not a myth made up by men to pressure women into sex, a top doctor says.

Australian physician Dr. Sam Hay made the declaration during a radio interview on Tuesday, as the discussion turned to the term that some men use to describe an ache in their testicles caused by prolonged sexual arousal without orgasm.

According to researchers, there is no medical consensus that “blue balls” exists.

However, said Hay, “I always thought blue balls was this urban myth that if you stay aroused for [too] long your balls will go blue and they’ll fall off and the only way to relieve it is to have some fun. I thought it was a complete excuse for guys to get off — but it’s actually true.”

He went on to explain that a man can begin experiencing “pressure” in the testicles during an erection — but it comes from an increase in blood flow in the genital region, not from a dangerous level of semen that needs to be expelled from the body.

“If you become aroused for a long time, you get lots of blood going down to the testicles and it increases the pressure…. If you don’t [ejaculate] then that pressure becomes achy,” Hay stated, describing a concept known in medical circles as “epididymal hypertension.”

The physician added that while balls do not literally turn bright blue, they can take on “a sort of blue hue” because the veins carrying the blood become engorged.

Based on a number of studies, Medical News Today writes that “blue balls may be uncomfortable,” but insists that the condition “is not dangerous.”

The condition is also temporary and, if orgasm is unable to be achieved, the site suggests a sufferer “focus on work or problem solving as a distraction.”

Over the years, many have doubted that men experience blue balls.

In 2019, Cosmopolitan published a piece titled “Blue Balls Aren’t Real — You’re Welcome,” in which the author insisted that some men might experience mild “pressure” due to the phenomenon, but that the experience was not painful.

The piece featured quotations from a female medic who insisted that some women experience a similar strain in their pubic area when extremely aroused.

“We go through something called engorgement, when blood flows into our vulvas,” sexologist Carol Queen told the publication. “It can certainly create a sense of pressure or tightness in some women.”