Why Does Getting Hit in the Testicles Hurt So Much?

Even if you don't have testicles, you've probably seen enough nutshots, in real life or on the 'net, that you know better than to cause one intentionally. You'll pay for that sin, in guilt if not in kind. Men know how painful it can be.
And the pain doesn’t just stay down there in the scrotum. It insists on radiating throughout the groin and up into the abdomen (and, psychically, out to every other dude standing within a few feet), leading to a weird stomach ache. This is the work of a phenomenon known as referred pain, which is when a sensation originating at one spot travels along a nerve root to other parts of the body and is perceived as happening there, too. It’s the same thing that’s going when you get an ice cream headache. In this case, the pain starts in your balls and travels up the perineal and pudendal nerves and the spermatic plexus, which cover real estate in the groin and abdomen, around the spine and even a little ways down into the anus, to make it feel like death has come for most of your lower body.

There are several reasons why testicles are so sensitive. Matt Soniak tackles the questions and the answers at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user sentex64)

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My fridge was too full once. I opened it and a coke bottle fell out, hit my stomach and rolled off over my balls.

I spent the next few minutes on the floor gasping for air like a fish outside the water. I forgot how long it hurt for but the memory remains.
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