When it comes to nipples, the ones on women get all the press. Think nipple slips, controversial public breastfeeding, or hell, the infamous Janet Jackson’s nipplegate, to name a few. But when it comes to male nipples, the same tune isn’t sung. Sure, some media outlets have focused on male celebrities’ nipples here and there, such as Adam Levine’s 2019 performance at the Super Bowl or the nipple removal procedure Justin Bieber, Channing Tatum, and other celebrities allegedly underwent. But aside from the occasional headline here and there, male nipples remain an ignored topic, even though they’re there. Which begs the question: why do men have nipples in the first place?

You’ve probably asked yourself this question, especially during puberty. Sex education—that’s if you had it—defined the purpose of women’s nipples (i.e. breastfeeding). So why do men have them? “The simple answer [is] that it comes standard with the model,” says Jeffrey Laitman, Ph.D., the director of the Center of Anatomy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “So when things are laid down, embryologically, before birth, in what we call the embryo in the fetal period, that is when the sort of neutral breast tissue and neutral nipple area [is] laid down.”

In other words, before gender is determined, the embryo develops breasts and then nipples, Dr. Laitman says, and they stay. (There are some exceptions if someone suffers from athelia, a rare condition where an embryo doesn’t develop one or both of their nipples.)

The functional differences between a woman’s and a man’s nipples don’t begun until puberty where “individuals grow postnatally and hormones start to come into play,” Dr. Laitman says. In puberty, girls’ breast tissue starts to develop for lactation. And men’s nipples…just stay there. Some men can develop breast tissue during puberty or later if they suffer from gynecomastia, a condition where male breast tissue is overdeveloped.

Can men lactate?

Since both men and women have breast tissue, regardless of how much or little they have, male nipples can occasionally have discharge. So wait: men can breastfeed? No, not exactly. Men have the exact same breast functions—lactiferous ducts and milk-producing areas—as women, albeit on a smaller spectrum, Dr. Laitman says. So men can leak discharge from their nipples for a few reasons, including a condition called galactorrhea. This can be caused by factors such as medication side effects and disorders of the pituitary gland.

A bonus of having nipples

Male nipple play is becoming increasingly popular, and it makes sense: male nipples have hundreds of nerve endings, which make them extremely sensitive and therefore sexually stimulating, explains Dr. Laitman. Men have the same glands, nerves, and surrounding tissues that women do. In women, the glands help lubricate the area and make the area softer for breastfeeding. In men, they help make nipples sensitive in a good way during sex.

“The nipple is not a useless structure in men,” Dr. Laitman says. “People often say: ‘Why is it still there?’ Well, it’s there because it is highly sensitive in many individuals. Erogenous zones in us are very important. And so, it has been retained for those purposes. When [an embryo] starts, it comes standard, [so] men have it. It’s an important part of [our] little world.”

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