Breastfeeding Men: The Near Future?

MJ
"Fred, honey, can you breastfeed the baby today? I'm going out ". This might sound like an opening line in a comedy, but how realistic is this?

Why do men have nipples? How they got there is easily explained. From the moment of conception, all human fetuses look the same, until they are 14 weeks old. Then the genetically "programmed" males will start producing male hormones, and so this fetus will result in a boy. Before that, the nipples have already formed. It shows that we all start the same way, male and female.

Both males and females are born with glands, that produce milk; the gland is still there in the males, but undeveloped, and so doesn't produce milk. Today it is very rare for males to lactate. So why is that? They have all the equipment, but don't use it. In theory men can breastfeed, but don't.

It is rare for a man to lactate, but not impossible. Exposure to hormones like prolactin could create "lactating men". Especially if the hormone testosterone is removed. But even then, I still have to see the first breastfeeding human male. The reason is evolutionary, not physiological.

Males of a fruit bat called Dyak have been found lactating, thus offering their offspring milk. This might seem uninteresting and totally unrelated to us humans, but from an evolutionary point of view we're not that far removed from fruit bats, in fact we're very close.

In nature it's very common for the females to raise and feed their children; the males' role is to create as much off-spring as possible, thus spreading his DNA around.In doing so the species which was most successful at this survived, during the evolution, and today. So the males in nature can breastfeed but don't feel the need to stick around and feed the kids; they are out playing the field big time.

But never mind the fruit bats,other mammals and other things the scientists have discovered. What they're leaving out are some interesting details: will the man of the future look like Dolly Parton and be proud of it? What will we women think when hubby looks more feminine than us? Will Nature step in and add something on us women, while it is renovating the Big Scheme? Will we all look exactly the same? And how will men think about breastfeeding their babies?
My mind boggles.

Basically, what I'm asking is: who on earth is going to take the garbage out on Friday, in that future of big-breasted men?

Published by MJ

I never knew I could write until I joined AC. I paint, I write, love animals and ironing. (no not the last one but it looked better).  View profile

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