‘Ballmaxxing’ solved – males clarify actual cause why they inflate testicles with injections
WARNING, EXPLICIT CONTENT: A sex educator has opened up about ballmaxxing after the new viral trend of injecting saline or lubricant into the scrotum to bulk up testicles went viral
A sex education expert has warned that fellas inflating their balls with injections should probably consider therapy first(Image: Max Horvey)
A sex education expert has warned that fellas inflating their balls with injections should probably consider therapy first. Men have been increasingly boasting about ballmaxxing, a bizarre online trend where they jab saline and even surgical lubricant into their scrotums to make their testicles swell to extreme sizes.
And it has left people baffled. Adult content creator and influencer Max Hovey said his “jaw dropped” reading claims of men pumping their two veg full of fluid.
He argued it’s proof some men will “do literally anything” to feel more masculine or “impressive” rather than unpack body image insecurities. Max told the Daily Star exclusively: “My jaw like dropped and I had almost a visceral reaction to reading some of the descriptions [of ballmaxxing] because some of them were quite extreme.”
There are many testimonies of men taking ballmaxxing too far. This includes a Reddit-fuelled “ballmaxxing” subculture being with 8,700+ followers, where men swap tips and post “aspirational” results from pumping fluid into the scrotum.
In a testimony shared via widely circulated Men’s Health/Vice interviews, practitioner Marcus described a “two‑liter session” that left his swollen scrotum stuck in a toilet and tore his skin – yet he still planned to inject more. Max added: “My first reaction was men will do literally anything other than just go therapy.”
The sex educator then suggested: “There are multiple reasons why people do it. Some people do it actually from a fetish perspective, they have a fetish for it.
“Whether it’s the feeling of it or some people like the fact that it makes it look very abnormal. They like the fact that their balls look very big and very like the scrub looks very stretched and that they enjoy the fact that it looks weird which, I don’t kink shame!”
Max added: “A lot of people actually do it from a masculinity perspective. … [some ballmaxxing practitioner] felt that by having an overall larger package, so by having bigger balls, it would maybe compensate for [a smaller penis] and a woman would maybe like it if there was just generally something big down there. Generally, it just feels like a man’s instinctive reaction to wanting to get a woman.
“It’s just ‘let’s just make things as big as possible’ and not actually talk to a woman about what it is they like.” The content creator believes men are still chasing a “prehistoric” idea of what it takes to be attractive.
He said: “When men instinctively think that women want someone who is absolutely jacked, they’re insanely masculine, they’ve got a giant dick… you automatically assume that you being more powerful and bigger in any regard is going to make you more appealing to a woman. It’s like you’re thinking all of this because it actually is just impressing your male friends and it makes you feel more powerful.”
The certified sex educator believes the pressure doesn’t just come from dating, but from the “male gaze” and the standards men enforce on each other. Max explained: “Fundamentally a lot of things do just come back to men and the male gaze.”
He noted that the male gaze feeds “so many body image issues and issues around sex, particularly with gay men” because it creates “this whirlpool of being a man but also attracted to men” and a constant sense of “bigger is better”. Nevertheless, Max admitted: “I’m never going to sit here and say don’t do that because people are going to do it regardless.
“But I think it’s important for people to be aware of how to reduce the risks as much as possible.” Dr Baldeep Farmah, who runs a men’s beauty programme for patients in their 20s and 30s, described ballmaxxing as “one of the most reckless body modification trends to come out of male online communitie[s]”.
Dr Farmah stressed that while the swelling may fade, the internal damage may not. Dr Farmah said: “Permanent reproductive and vascular damage from compromised testicular blood supply aren’t hypothetical risks.
“If you take one thing from this, take this: don’t do it.” Ultimately, Max believes it’s rooted in “toxic masculinity or fragile masculinity” and the “innate need to impress people”.
He added: “I think you’d be better going to therapy than injecting liquid into your b*******.”
Max’s new book NO FATS, NO FEMS: A Guide to Queer Empathy And Unpacking Prejudice is coming out on May 21. You can pre-order it here.
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