– Generally speaking, when slowly entering a pool/ocean with cold or cool water, why are we (at least from this male’s perspective) prone to hesitate at the points when our genitals and armpits are about to become submerged? Similarly, why do we not experience the same feeling in warmer water?
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Heat flow from your body to water is much faster than in air, so water doesn’t have to be much colder than your body temperature to feel very cold, that feeling is made stronger in areas of the body where hot blood from the interior of the body is close to the skin and warming it like the groin or armpits where major arteries enter the extremities. As for the genitals, the scrotum is especially sensitive to temperature change because sperm can only survive a specific temperature range slightly below normal body temperature. There is a similar reaction to hotter water just in the reverse, ever stepped into a hot bath and felt like you were getting burned? Beyond that, things like sweating in response to heat aren’t as noticeable in water.
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