Eunuch Archive Survey

[JesusA (imported)]

There have already been THREE surveys of the Eunuch Archive community.

The first was by long-time member Farrell Squire. It was posted on 30 different Internet discussion groups involving castration and/or eunuchs between May and September 2002. It had 134 replies, including 30 from individuals who were already castrated. One publication resulted from that survey, although Farrell Squire did not live long enough to see it in print:

Wassersug, R. J., S.A. Zelenietz, and G. F. Squire. 2004. New age eunuchs: Motivation and rationale for voluntary castration. Archives of Sexual Behavior 33(5): 433–42.

The second survey was posted on the Eunuch Archive for three months from February 20 to May 20, 2005. It had a total of 902 respondents, of whom 92 were surgically castrated and 43 chemically castrated. Four papers resulted from that survey and PDF copies are available on request:

Johnson, Thomas W., et al. (2007). Eunuchs in Contemporary Society: Characterizing Men Who Are Voluntarily Castrated. Journal of Sexual Medicine 4: 930-945.

Brett, Michelle. L., et al. (2007). Eunuchs in Contemporary Society: Expectations, Consequences and Adjustments to Castration. Journal of Sexual Medicine 4: 946-955.

Roberts, Lesley F., et al. (2008). A Passion for Castration: Characterizing Men Who are Fascinated with Castration, but Have Not Been Castrated. Journal of Sexual Medicine 5: 1669-1680.

Wassersug, Richard J. and Thomas W. Johnson (2007). Modern Day Eunuchs: Motivations for and Consequences of Contemporary Castration. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 50: 544-56.

A third survey of over 500 questions was posted on the Eunuch Archive for four months in 2008. There were over 3,000 respondents to the survey and analysis and publication are still going on, though we are nearly finished with it. Abstracts of all of the articles have been posted here as they have been published and PDF copies have been sent to all Archive members who have requested them. Data from this third survey has formed the core of several articles and has also been used in a number of articles on castration and eunuchs in general and in several articles aimed at counseling prostate cancer patients who have been castrated as part of their treatment. The data is central to major articles on “castration” and “eunuch” to be published early next year in the Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality by John Wiley and Sons. The encyclopedia is written at high school level and the goal is to get it into as many high school and college libraries as possible in the English-speaking world.

One article based on the third survey was influential in broadening the definition of target gender in the latest edition of the Standards of Care of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. “Eunuch” is now a possible gender for transitioning. While the new edition of the DSM will not be out until May, a position paper based on results from the third survey is (according to feedback from the committee) going to have an impact on the definition of gender in that important volume, broadening the definition of gender and allowing “eunuch” as a choice for transition. (We’re still fighting to get BIID accepted, with the ICD published by the World Health Organization as the current target.)

We have just about completed our analysis and publication from this third survey. We may be getting a bit too old to contemplate a fourth survey. From beginning, through questionnaire design, to approval of the relevant Institutional Review Board (required if results are ever to be published), to posting the survey for three or four months will require a year-and-a-half to two years. Then there is the data analysis, writing, and publication (with multiple revisions usually required by journals).

While I would be happy to start the process for a fourth survey, I’m already 70 and I need to finish the book that I’ve promised on the history of human castration. My main research collaborator is now 66 and has just received a major grant to work in prostate cancer counseling for the next five years. He’s not likely to have much time for any survey. Completion of a fourth survey will require finding a young scholar or two willing to devote time to bringing it all together. While we have involved a number of undergraduate and graduate students in the process so far, I don’t think any of them would like to continue with this work. They are, however, ending up in professions where they will have an impact on the community as medical doctors (2 so far and more in training) and psychiatrists (one nearly finished with his training). Another is currently completing his PhD dissertation on hormones and prostate cancer and will probably continue research in that field.

We need to find someone who wants to continue the research and publication!

If we are, however, to post a FOURTH SURVEY, what topics should we cover? What questions would you like to ask? We can start the process now….

Questions can be multiple choice or short answer/essay.

What would YOU like to know about the eunuch community? What information do we need to provide to the larger community to explain castration and eunuchs? Give us some topics you’d like to see covered. Design some sample questions for us to work from.

[Milkman (imported)]

I was molested twice as a child and have always assumed that my interest in castration is somehow related to these incidents. Did any of the previous survey's ask if the respondent had been molested? On the S&M sites the eunuchs and eunuch wannabe's are mostly men who are HIV positive ( not the case on EA , I am sure) but I wonder if the stigma and guilt influence the decision or desire for castration

[Losethem (imported)]

I think what is important is that the work you've started doesn't end. I would understand your desire to retire from it with your age, all people deserve a good retirement. I think as a eunuch who got there by non-medical community means, that having someone else pick up the work and continue is a good thing. I hope you are able to get someone to do that. Heck, I'd do it myself if I had the scholarly background to do so. I do have a 4-year degree in a non-related major, I've also had medical training, but I'm also 42. While that is several years younger than yourself I do have to take into consideration if it is practical for me to get into it now when I need to concentrate on securing my own comfortable retirement?

I think an important part of getting the medical professions attention more than has been done to date (which has been quite a bit compared to several years ago), is to keep surveying over a standard interval if possible. Follow the people like me who have been castrated, get the younger ones that are coming up and are interested in it for themselves, etc.

Like I said, I'd love to do something, I'm just not sure I have the educational background to be taken seriously. I was very serious when I offered to come to your presentations and offer myself as an example of someone who had gone down the path. It's one thing to read about it, it's entirely another to interact with an individual(s) that are living the subject of the presentations and study. It's showing people what the reality is vs. the academic exercise.

In a fourth survey I think you should provide questions that determine if the respondent has participated in other surveys, what their status was at the time of those surveys, and what their status is now. For me, the first two surveys you've indicated would classify me as an intact, wannabe, male. The third survey would classify me as a eunuch/castrated. Ability to segregate those respondents would enable research into the subset of people who have made a transition during your period of research and enable you to hopefully compare their answers with what came before, though I'm not sure if you have markers in the survey that would allow you to do that given the anonymous nature of most legitimate data and research.

I'm rambling, but hopefully you have a better insight into what I was thinking. I do give you credit for the hard work and research you've done. I think my response was more a fear that with an upcoming retirement, it will end.

--LT

[tugon (imported)]

I used to wonder if my childhood sexual abuse caused my interest in castration. Of course at a young age I never felt comfortable as a boy. Then I wondered if my not being a normal boy was the reason I was abused. So I have always wondered was there something about me my father did not like and so he could mistreat me? I guess it is a circular question for me was I abused because I was different or became different due to the abuse?

I understand now that my early sexual abuse and the role I accepted in sexual situations was programmed by the sexual abuse. The sexual addiction was at the time the major component of why I wanted to be castrated. After castration I realized being a eunuch was a more natural state for me.

I do wonder how many of us felt we were different at a young age. Was there a percentage of boys who did not want to be boys but knew they were not girls either?

[JesusA (imported)]

I was molested twice as a child and have always assumed that my interest in castration is somehow related to these incidents. Did any of the previous survey's ask if the respondent had been molested? On the S&M sites the eunuchs and eunuch wannabe's are mostly men who are HIV positive ( not the case on EA , I am sure) but I wonder if the stigma and guilt influence the decision or desire for castration

These are both interesting thoughts. We did ask about HIV status, and you are very right that the EA population is different from the S&M sites. We had only TWO individuals indicate that they were HIV positive. Much lower than I would have expected.

For abuse, we asked a question of all participants as to whether or not they had been abused as a child. For those who gave a positive answer, there were 17 follow-up questions seeking details. All of our categories had been abused (sexually, physically, verbally, and/or emotionally – all asked as separate categories) at a rate higher than reported for the general population. On sexual abuse, for example, 15.8% of the wannabes reported that they had been sexually abused, as did 21.0% of those who had been surgically castrated. There are no accepted statistics on childhood sexual abuse,but these numbers are higher than anything I've seen in the literature.

Even more interesting to me (and with NO comparable statistics available for the general population) are how many of the survey respondents stated that they had been threatened with castration by a parent or other adult while they were children – 18.1% of those who had already been castrated and 14.6% of the wannabes. We never expected such a high number and had no follow-up questions on the survey for it.

[Milkman (imported)]

Jesus,

Thanks for your thoughtful response. That does indeed answer my question

[Dave (imported)]

I'm not sure how to say this.

If BIID is not recognized as you would want it, wouldn't it be a good idea to start building the statistics and asking the questions that would form a foundation or add to the structure that would permit that recognition? Wouldn't it be good to include those questions and hopefully gain the data?

Is that too basic a suggestion or too obvious a suggestion? OR has it already been done?

[JesusA (imported)]

If BIID is not recognized as you would want it, wouldn't it be a good idea to start building the statistics and asking the questions that would form a foundation or add to the structure that would permit that recognition? Wouldn't it be good to include those questions and hopefully gain the data?

Is that too basic a suggestion or too obvious a suggestion? OR has it already been done?

The third survey provided some of the information that we need (and what we've used to promote better care for BIID so far), but we need to design some better questions to clearly separate BIID, from Male-to-Eunuch, from Male-to-Female, from ....... (There are certainly more categories that we need to be concerned with.)

We would then need to design some questions to better understand each of the categories that we can distinguish.

I am definitely open to suggestions.

[Losethem (imported)]

I would enjoy helping you formulate a survey if you have something from which to start. Since other surveys have been conducted, I would think re-asking some questions on a new survey would be important so you can see if trends hold. I'd also be better able to suggest further questions if I have a survey to look at from the past. I'm sure all questions on previous surveys are in the mix for consideration.

I guess this is a long way of saying if you have the most recent survey questions available, I'd be happy to receive them and offer suggestions for a new survey. Contact me privately if you're interested and we can set up a file transfer.

--LT

[transward (imported)]

From listening to a lot of trans folk, I know that we have a high rate of depression, which is reflected in our suicide statistics. It might be worth exploring whether the same is true of M to E people. I realize this is a "chicken or egg" question; are people depressed because they can't get themselves castrated, or do they desire castration because they are depressed and want to punish themselves. Might be worth asking about depression treatment and suicide attempts and ideation.

Transward