A lot of underwear today is a synthetic fabric, even if it says it’s wool. Very often it’s actually a blend of wool and synthetic. So we went and found genuinely 100% wool or 100% cotton underwear. (This article is a work in progress – more coming soon, including women’s underwear.)
| Underwear | Material |
|---|---|
| Merino wool boxers made by Woolly brand | 100% Wool |
| Boxers from Jockey | 100% Cotton |
For men, my favorite is definitely the Wooly brand boxer briefs. The merino wool isn’t itchy or thick or anything like that. It feels great. I wasn’t able to find other 100% wool underwear (for men) that I wanted to get.
Why is synthetic underwear bad?
Synthetic materials like polyester are generally a form of plastic. That means they also produce tiny threads of polyester plastic that effect your body, called “microplastics.” Microplastics are known to be “endocrine disruptors,” meaning that they will lower testosterone. (source)
However wool and cotton are natural materials that have been worn for generations, and they won’t hurt your hormones. Natural materials don’t have microplastics.
Unusual experiments with synthetic underwear
One researcher made it his mission to figure out if there’s something wrong with synthetic underwear. He made underwear for dogs and lab rats and measured their testicular function after wearing it for months. It sounds crazy, but he claimed that the polyester material generated a type of static electricity that damaged the sperm count! Here is one of his studies: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1456835/
Does wool underwear raise testosterone?
I don’t think wool raises testosterone, but it is a great material and feels comfortable. I think there’s a scientific case to be made that polyester underwear could lower testosterone however. But as far as I know there isn’t a study proving this in humans yet.
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