Science Vs Podcast Becomes a Ball Buster

 When I read that Science Vs was revisiting a previous episode with updated content on blue balls, my first thought was: Wait, there's new information about blue balls? And indeed there is.

In 2021, Science Vs published an arousing episode with an extensive blue balls survey the team conducted to ask: Are blue balls real, or are they a blue-faced lie, and can people with vaginas get them too?

As a result, the show recently joined forces with sexual health researchers at Queen’s University in Canada to publish the study in Sexual Medicine (HERE).

This marks the largest blue balls survey in a peer-reviewed journal. Science Vs’ very own executive producer and host, Wendy Zukerman, and supervising editor, Blythe Terrell, are co-authors.

 So, Science Vs is re-airing this special episode with an updated introduction around the recently published study.

Listen to Blue Balls: New Ball-Busting Science.

You'll be surprised at what you'll learn.

 The survey found that it is rare for people with penises to experience severe pain due to blue balls, and yet, it's common for those with vaginas to feel pressured into sexual activities for fear that their partner might get testicular discomfort.

Some key findings of the published study which surveyed 2621 participants:

●      For those with a penis, while getting some kind of pain around the balls when you get aroused but don't ejaculate is pretty common (56%), experiencing very painful blue balls is rare (less than 7% of those surveyed).

●      Despite "blue balls" being considered a 'male' phenomenon, 42% of people with vaginas surveyed said that they too felt something like blue balls. 1.4% described it as "severe". So, blue balls are real — but you don't need balls to feel them.

●      40% of those with vaginas said they had been pressured to do something sexual because of their partner's fear of blue balls. This was compared to only 3.6% of those with penises who had felt this pressure.

 For this episode, Science Vs joined forces with Sarah Marshall from the You’re Wrong About podcast to dive into a question for the ages: Blue balls — are they real?

Episode guests include Sam Pierstorff, Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, Professor Caroline Pukall, and Dr. Jonathan Chalett.

Find the blue balls paper in the journal Sexual Medicine: https://academic.oup.com/smoa/article/11/2/qfad016/7148610