Most people who stop wearing underwear don’t announce it. You just quietly skip a pair one morning, realize nothing catastrophic happened, and do it again. Maybe the elastic waistband had been leaving red marks by noon for years. Maybe you read something about breathability and decided to try it. Maybe you ran out of clean laundry on a Tuesday and discovered the absence was actually kind of fine. Going commando is more common than the silence around it suggests, and the people doing it span well beyond the free-spirited-lifestyle crowd.
And yet the conversation about what actually goes on inside your body when you stop wearing underwear tends to collapse into one of two camps: breathless enthusiasm from wellness corners of the internet, or stern infection warnings from the other side. Neither captures the full picture. What happens to your body depends almost entirely on your anatomy, what you’re wearing on top, and what you’re doing while you’re wearing it.
This is a look at the body part by body part, situation by situation, based on what the research and doctors who treat these issues actually say.
When You Stop Wearing Underwear, Here’s What Changes
The first thing most people notice isn’t a health outcome. It’s comfort. Going commando has genuine benefits beyond just feeling freer. According to a February 2026 Vice report, all that extra airflow reduces exposure to irritating fabrics and the detergents used to clean clothes. For anyone who has spent years fighting rashes from synthetic linings or inflamed skin from elastic that sits too tight, this is not a trivial thing. Clothing detergents, even gentle ones, leave residues in fabric, and underwear keeps that residue pressed directly against some of the most sensitive skin on your body all day long. Removing that layer removes the irritant. But the changes don’t stop at the surface.
What Happens for Women: The Infection Question
The most commonly raised concern for women who stop wearing underwear is infection risk, specifically yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis (BV). Underwear and these infections are connected, but not in the simple cause-and-effect way most people assume.
According to ASHA, vaginitis is very common, and while it can be caused by an STI, it is more often the result of an imbalance of bacteria. Two of the more common types are yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis. The vagina maintains its own pH balance (typically between 3.8 and 4.5), and when that balance shifts, infections follow. The question of whether underwear helps or hurts that balance has a genuinely complicated answer.
Certain underwear can trap moisture, increasing the chances of yeast infections. Undergarments without a cotton or natural fiber crotch don’t allow breathability in the vaginal area, so moisture accumulates and germs proliferate. For women prone to recurrent yeast infections, going commando allows air into the vaginal region, preventing the moisture buildup that yeast thrive in, according to OB/GYN Dr. Kecia Gaither.
So the underwear itself isn’t the problem. Non-breathable underwear is. Synthetic fabrics like nylon, polyester, and satin trap heat and moisture, creating exactly the kind of warm, damp environment where candida and bacteria thrive. Going without underwear eliminates that problem entirely, as long as the outer clothing is appropriately loose and breathable.
But underwear does serve one important protective function: it creates a physical barrier between the vagina and outer clothing. As NYC-based OB/GYN Dr. Kameelah Phillips explains in a Bustle feature on going commando, “Underwear is a barrier between the vagina and clothes” – it protects clothes from vaginal discharge and blood, while also protecting the vaginal area from irritation. Without that buffer, what you’re wearing on top matters significantly more. Rough seams in jeans or tight synthetic leggings pressing directly against the vulva can cause friction, chafing, and even small abrasions that make infection more, not less, likely.
The fabrics and styles you wear can affect health by influencing airflow and moisture. Breathable cotton outer layers are best for absorbing moisture, while tight-fitting pants or synthetic fabrics can trap heat and promote bacterial growth. Going commando in loose linen trousers or a soft cotton skirt puts you in genuinely good shape. Going commando in tight synthetic gym gear or stiff raw denim can create a worse situation than wearing a poorly chosen pair of underwear.
Sleeping without underwear is one context where the case for going commando is about as clear-cut as it gets. Eight or so hours of genuine airflow every night can reduce ongoing friction and heat buildup in the vulvar area, lowering the conditions that trigger recurrent infections. Tight, constrictive underwear worn through the night creates exactly the kind of sustained warmth and pressure that tips the vaginal environment toward trouble.
What Happens for Men: Temperature, Sperm, and the Brief Case
For men, the underwear conversation has always circled back to one question: can underwear affect fertility?
The answer is yes, but with important nuance. One significant benefit of going commando is improved temperature regulation for the testicles. The scrotum naturally maintains a temperature slightly lower than body temperature for optimal sperm production, and tight underwear interferes with that natural cooling mechanism.
A 2018 study published in Human Reproduction, the largest of its kind on this topic, found that men who most frequently wore boxers had significantly higher sperm concentration and total sperm counts compared to men who primarily wore tighter styles. Specifically, boxer wearers showed 25 percent higher sperm concentrations and 17 percent higher total sperm counts. The study involved 656 men attending a fertility clinic and was led by researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The mechanism the researchers identified is straightforward. Boxer-wearing men had lower levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) compared to men who wore briefs, bikinis, or other tight-fitting underwear. FSH stimulates sperm production, and elevated FSH levels suggest the body is compensating for testicular damage caused by increased scrotal temperatures. Going commando takes that temperature logic even further than boxers: more airflow, less heat, fewer constraints.
One caveat worth noting, and the researchers flagged it themselves: the study focused specifically on men attending a fertility center, so the findings may not apply equally to all men. For anyone with no fertility concerns, the effect is likely smaller. For anyone actively trying to conceive, reducing scrotal heat through looser clothing or skipping underwear entirely is one of the simpler adjustments a fertility specialist might suggest.
The Chafing and Exercise Problem
One area where going commando genuinely works against you is physical activity. Underwear helps reduce friction and provides support during exercise, and removing it takes both of those protections away at once.
Runners who have experimented with commando running tend to rediscover what inner-thigh chafing actually feels like very quickly. The skin in the groin and inner thigh area is thin and sensitive, and without a layer of soft fabric acting as a buffer against the repeated friction of movement, it can break down fast.
For women working out, there’s an added concern. Wearing a thong during exercise can increase the risk of transferring bacteria from the anus to the vaginal area, especially if worn tightly or for extended periods. But ditching underwear entirely during high-intensity exercise, when sweat is significant, can leave that same bacteria sitting directly against the skin with nowhere to go. The practical rule is simple: change out of sweaty clothes as soon as you can, whether you’re wearing underwear or not.
The choice of outer clothing also takes on entirely new importance when there’s no underlayer. Rough fabrics or tight seams that felt fine with underwear underneath can suddenly become a problem over the course of a long day. The same pair of jeans can transform from perfectly comfortable to a genuine irritant.
The Skin You Don’t Think About
Beyond the genitals, going commando has something to offer for the skin that normally lives pressed against elastic and tight fabric all day. Chronic pressure from waistbands and leg openings can cause contact dermatitis (skin irritation from direct physical contact or chemical exposure), especially in people with sensitive skin. Dye residues in underwear fabric are one of the more underappreciated sources of localized skin reactions.
Thick or rigid seams on underwear can create chafing and friction that leads to itching, burning, rashes, sebaceous cysts, and pimples, and can increase susceptibility to tinea cruris, a fungal infection of the groin folds better known as jock itch. Removing the seam from the equation removes the trigger entirely.
For the skin around the groin and inner thigh more generally, the logic of going commando tracks: less constant abrasion, less heat, less chemical residue held against the skin. The benefits are less dramatic than the infection conversation suggests, but for people with sensitive skin or chronic irritation in that region, they’re real and cumulative over time.
The Hygiene Angle
The concern that goes unspoken in most of these conversations is hygiene. If underwear acts as a daily-changed barrier between your body and your outer clothes, removing it means outer clothes absorb everything directly: sweat, discharge, general contact from throughout the day. That’s not a theoretical concern. It’s a real one if you’re wearing the same jeans three days in a row, which a lot of people do.
Without that daily-change buffer, maintaining proper hygiene shifts to your outer clothing. Washing outer clothes more frequently, choosing breathable fabrics, and showering regularly aren’t extra steps, they’re the baseline once you remove the underwear layer. What used to get caught by a pair of cotton briefs now goes straight into the denim.
The other hygiene factor worth understanding is what happens when you go commando in new, unwashed clothing. Clothes fresh off the shelf often contain finishing chemicals, sizing agents, and dye residues that have never been washed out. Wearing new clothes commando exposes sensitive skin directly to those chemicals. Washing anything new before wearing it against that skin is always the right call.
Read More: It’s Time To Stop Using Dryer Sheets In Your Laundry. Here’s Why.
Here’s the Honest Answer
Your health won’t fall apart if you go commando, and it won’t transform if you do. What changes is the microenvironment around your genitals, and how that environment behaves depends entirely on what you replace the underwear with.
For women prone to yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, sleeping commando and choosing loose, breathable outer fabrics during the day can genuinely reduce recurrence. The issue was never underwear as a category. It was non-breathable, moisture-trapping underwear specifically. Remove that and replace it with nothing, and the problem often goes with it. Replace it with tight synthetic gym wear and you’ve solved nothing.
For men with fertility concerns, or anyone who runs warm and sweats heavily, less restriction around the groin is likely a modest net positive for skin health and, at least for those actively trying to conceive, for reproductive health too. For anyone who exercises hard or wears tight synthetic clothing most of the day, going commando introduces friction and moisture risks that may outweigh the gains.
The broader point is that underwear was never a universal health requirement. It’s a garment that solves some problems while creating others, and which problems matter depends on your body and your daily routine. When you stop wearing it, the responsibility for what underwear was doing shifts to everything else: the outer fabric against your skin, how often you change, how carefully you wash. Pay attention to those things and most bodies will feel exactly as good, or a little better, than before.
Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and is for information only. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions about your medical condition and/or current medication. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking advice or treatment because of something you have read here.
AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.