Published by adriamooney October 26th, 2006
Source: http://ergonomenon.com/?p=173
Perhaps you’ve heard it said before that wearing tight pants can cause infertility in men…maybe that’s why you don’t wear tight pants. According to an alleged scientific study, Swedish men in the 1970s were found to have higher infertility rates than men in surrounding countries. After much detective work, the scientists formulated the “Swedish Tight Pants Theory” postulating that the higher incidence of wearing tight pants in Sweden was to blame for lower sperm counts.
Whether or not this study is true, it is widely believed (among doctors as well as laypeople) that tight pants do in fact damage the testicles and can cause infertility or cancer. But that’s not all. Wearing tight pants is associated with a host of negative consequences for both men and women. For starters, the same reason tight pants causes infertility problems in men (overheating of the crotch area) can cause yeast infections and urinary tract infections in women.
According to Pravda, tight pants also limit the mobility of hip joints, cause stretching of joint capsules, and negatively affect the spine. A too-tight waist constricts the abdominal area filled with vital organs, causing problems such as reduced lymph flow from the pelvis, improper immune system function and poor circulation.
Wearing “low riders” or “hip huggers” might result in compression of nerves, which leads to a burning and tingling feeling in the legs. In 2003, during the height of the hip hugger trend, a Canadian doctor wrote a letter to the Canadian Medical Association Journal in which he observed meralgia paresthetica (a nerve disorder similar to carpal tunnel) occuring in the thighs of “three mildly obese young women between the ages of 22 and 35, who had worn tight “low-rise” trousers (also called hiphuggers) over the previous 6 to 8 months.” Harvey at Bad Example agrees, hip hugger pants are just bad news. His hilarious post describes people who stuff themselves into hiphuggers as sporting the “muffin look.”
Fortunately for our health, tight jeans are no longer as much of a fashion-must for women and are actually a fashion “oh no you didn’t” for men (somebody please tell him that).
This Thai website about the jeans manufacturing industry hilariously reminds those of us old enough to remember (fortunately, not me) the dangerous fashion trend that produced the terms “skin tight” and “spray on” jeans:
We have all heard the stories from back in the 1970s, when teenage girls, especially in the USA, would buy their jeans so tight that they’d hardly fit in them to begin with and how they would then soak in a bath tub took make certain that their wet jeans would dry up to look like, and certainly feel like, nothing short of a second skin. Today’s skinny jeans have a much more comfortable fit and feel, but the principles are pretty much the same as they were with the wet tight jeans back in the old days.
Most people will remember that these wet jeans or dried up jeans had to be surgically removed on more than one occasion, but in current times the number of wet jeans removals in emergency rooms of hospitals have, fortunately, decreased a lot.
So, let’s hear your thoughts on this issue. Are tight pants a thing of the past or a clear and present danger? Even better, send a picture of you (or someone else) wearing absurdly tight pants.
