What Is Ballmaxxing

Ballmaxxing is sort of an extension—both literally and figuratively—of the scrotal filler trend that I described previously in Forbes, but an even more perilous extension and trend. On social media, it’s been customary to add the suffix “maxxing” to a word when you are trying to maximize that thing. For example, the term fibermaxxing is about trying to get as much fiber into your diet as possible. So, if you are on the ball about how words work, you’ll realize that ballmaxxing is not just about making your scrotum a little larger. It’s about getting it a lot larger, in many cases, as large as seemingly and dangerously possible

Also, it looks like a big aspect of this ballmaxxing thing is DIY—meaning “do it yourself.” For example, a subreddit with over 8,700 followers includes photos of scrotums filled with saline to the point that they look like grotesque balloons with the overlying skin stretched taut. And accompanying some of these photos are detailed steps on how to DIY these.

Why Are Men Ballmaxxing

Speaking of DIY, your first question may be “why?” Why oh why would you go through the big risks of inserting a needle into your scrotum, connecting it to an intravenous line and a bag of saline and then running the saline through the line over the course of about 30 minutes into your scrotum to fill it with saline. That is the burning question, especially since infusing saline in there can give you a burning sensation.

After all, no job seems to have as its requirement having a scrotum that looks like that floating Pikachu in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. And few dates will probably say, “I like your personality and pretty much everything about you but your scrotum is just not big enough.” Moreover, the effect is only temporary as the saline gets absorbed and the scrotum gets deflated usually within a day or two.

One claim is that such big genitals seem to be making at least some of these ballmaxxers feel more masculine and confident, perhaps riffing off phrases like “having the b--- to do it” that equate the size of one’s scrotum with things like bravery or aggressiveness. Another stated-on-the social-media-posts belief that women might like bigger scrotums, too. This is a big assumption, though since it’s not really clear how such men got this idea and how many women might actually have this preference.

Then there’s the belief that this expansion will somehow enhance sex and the pleasure derived from sex. Some posts suggest that this may be a pain-mixed-with-pleasure BDSM thing. It could also just be a pure fascination and intrigue thing—sort of like witnessing in awe the Aurora Borealis, Machu Picchu or your partner actually washing the dishes. Some posts express amazement of how much the scrotal skin can stretch and change appearance as the scrotum gets filled with saline.

The Many Dangers Of Ballmaxxing

That being said, if you are indeed thinking, what’s the harm of this ballmaxxing thing, you had better think twice, in the words of that Gnarls Barkley song Crazy. This is dangerous with a capital “D.” Your scrotum is not just some kind of flexible flask. There’s a reason why you don’t typically store water or wine in your scrotum. Your scrotum’s got a lot of sensitive, delicate structures within it, like your nerves, blood vessels and testes, that can be displaced, damaged or crushed by pressure, which can be very gnarly.

Damage or even just any kind of disruption to these structures can result in a whole host of problems. For example, impairing blood flow to your testes can lead to erectile dysfunction and infertility, even permanent infertility. There are also life-threatening possibilities such as bleeding, blood clots or ischemia, which can end up with tissue in your scrotum dying and gangrene. Yikes.

Plus, whenever you penetrate your skin anywhere with a needle, you risk bringing nasty microbes into your body. Such microbes can cause a variety of nasty infections. And while you typically don’t want infections in any part of your body, an infection inside your scrotum can be particularly nasty because of all those sensitive structures.

Therefore, it’s safe to say that this ballmaxxing practice is super unsafe, especially when it’s DIY. All of the aforementioned risks could leave you bawling in many ways rather than balling.