Effect of air conditioning and chair cushion on scrotal temperature.

The hypothesis of this study is that the air conditioning temperature and thickness of the chair cushion affect a man's scrotal, and consequently testicular, temperature. Ten healthy male subjects volunteered for the study (age: 23.4 +/- 2.4 years; height: 173.8 +/- 5.09 cm; weight: 71.6 +/- 9.7 kg; body fat ratio: 18.6 +/- 4.1%). The air conditioning temperature was controlled at 18 degrees C to represent the heating season, and at 26 degrees C to represent the cooling season. The thickness of the chair cushions was varied from 0 to 8 cm at 2 cm intervals. The changes in the scrotal surface temperature (SST) and buttock skin temperature were measured for 120 min. At the ambient temperatures (t(a)) of 18 and 26 degrees C, the average SST were 33.76 +/- 1.28 and 35.02 +/- 0.54 degrees C for the chair cushion thickness (C(thk)) of 0 cm, 33.87 +/- 1.07 and 34.96 +/- 0.75 degrees C for C(thk) 2 cm, 33.91 +/- 0.84 and 35.03 +/- 0.85 degrees C for C(thk) 4 cm, 34.42 +/- 0.89 and 35.02 +/- 0.63 degrees C for C(thk) 6 cm, and 34.65 +/- 1.21 and 34.99 +/- 0.62 degrees C for C(thk) 8 cm respectively. SST was significantly affected by the air conditioning temperature (p < 0.001), but was not statistically correlated with the chair cushion thickness.