New Academic Articles on Eunuchs

[JesusA (imported)]

At long last – academic publication seems to take forever – the first two (of four) articles based on the Eunuch Archive survey that many of you completed in 2005 are available. The third article should see print within a month or two in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

There are too many charts and tables in the two articles to be able to post them here, so I am posting the abstracts of each of them below, together with full publication information. Any Archive member who wants to read the complete articles has three alternatives:

1) Head off to your nearest academic library and try to find a copy of the most recent issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine on the shelf. (It will probably take a month or more before it makes it through the internal library system to become available.)

2) Send me a <Private Message> through the Archive indicating an OFF-Archive email address where you can receive two PDF attachments of the articles. They are each about 150 k.

3) Send me a <Private Message> with your snail-mail address, and I will mail you a copy of the article as soon as I receive the reprints that I ordered. Let me know whether or not you want your copy autographed.

I hope that you will appreciate the conclusions that we have drawn from our analysis of the survey data.

See post #17 (page 2) on this thread for a current listing of articles available for any who request them.

[JesusA (imported)]

Eunuchs in Contemporary Society: Characterizing Men who are Voluntarily Castrated (Part I)

Thomas W. Johnson, Michelle A. Brett, Lesley F. Roberts, and Richard J. Wassersug

Introduction. Some males desire to be emasculated for no medical reason. These individuals are often secretive about their desires and little is known about their background and motivation.

Aims. We sought to characterize these modern eunuchs and to identify risk factors for genital self-mutilation or self-administered chemical castration.

Methods. We posted a questionnaire on the Eunuch Archive (www.eunuch.org) that was responded to by 135 voluntarily castrated males. Questionnaire data were supplemented by accompanying narrative responses and several personal interviews.

Main Outcome Measures. Participants answered questionnaire items pertaining to their knowledge about androgen deprivation, the nature of their castration and the length of time between initial presentation of castration paraphilia and castration. These questionnaire data allowed us to compare and contrast voluntary chemical and physical eunuchs.

Results. The physical castrations were largely premeditated, with an average of 18 years from the time that an individual developed interest in being a eunuch to the time of their actual castration. We identified four factors that may promote castration ideations: (1) abuse sustained during childhood, including parental threats of castration, (2) homosexuality, (3) exposure to animal castration during youth, and (4) religious condemnation of sexuality. Chemical eunuchs were more likely to have sought castration for libido control or to advance transition from male to female (P < 0.05). Physical eunuchs had a non-significant tendancy to have masochistic paraphilia involving genital mutilation in advance of their castration (P < 0.1). Both Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) and Gender Identity Disorders (GID) occur among those who self-identify as eunuch.

Conclusions. We present evidence that the majority of self-identified voluntary eunuchs are not male-to-female transsexuals. Whereas the majority identify as male, many view themselves as in an alternate non-male, non-female, gender space. We therefore suggest that male-to-eunuch is a valid transgender identity.

Key Words. Castration; Eunuch; Androgen Deprivation; Gender Identity; Body Integrity Identity Disorder.

Journal of Sexual Medicine 2007; 4: 930–945

[JesusA (imported)]

Eunuchs in Contemporary Society:

Expectations, Consequences and Adjustments to Castration (Part II)

Michelle A. Brett, Lesley F. Roberts, Thomas W. Johnson

, and Richard J. Wassersug

Introduction.

There are men in the Western world who are voluntarily castrated and are not male-to-female transsexuals.

Aims. We surveyed members of this group to understand their responses to androgen deprivation (AD) and how their experiences matched their expectations of AD.

Methods. We posted a questionnaire on the Eunuch Archive (www.eunuch.org) that

received responses from 92 voluntarily orchiectomized males who identified as eunuchs. Data from this questionnaire were supplemented with interviews with 19 of the eunuchs.

Main Outcome Measures. Participants

completed questionnaire items regarding: (1) the side effects they expected and experienced, (2) their current physical and psychological condition, (3) their level of regret, (4) what they appreciated most about their castrated status, and (5) who performed their orchiectomies.

Results. The most appreciated aspect of castration was the sense of control over sexual urges and appetite (52%). The major side effects experienced were loss of libido (66%), hot flashes (63%) and genital shrinkage (55%). The population had high self-rated sociability, and mental and physical health. Although there was an insignificant reduction in depression after castration, the overall level of self-reported obsessive compulsive disorders decreased significantly (P < 0.001). Twenty-two percent of the population reported a change in sexual orientation. Many respondents (60%) took supplemental hormone treatments to counteract the side effects of AD. The use of both supplemental testosterone and high dose estrogen correlated with a significant increase in self-reported sexual desire and activity above the agonadal level (P < 0.001). The majority of the castrations (53%) were not performed by medical professionals.

Conclusion. The medical community needs to be aware of men at risk of unsafe castrations in order to provide them with more information on the side effects of androgen deprivation and access to safe orchiectomies.

Key Words. Castration; Androgen Deprivation; Libido; Depression; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Journal of Sexual Medicine 2007; 4: 946–955

[tugon (imported)]

Jesus I want to thank you for the incredible amount of work getting these articles published to educate the medical community about us. In the future when a young man who is struggling with his identity approaches a newly enlightened doctor he can thank Jesus, our Jesus, Dr. Richard Wassersug and other contributors for appropriate care. Thanks again.

[A-1 (imported)]

Jesus,

Those are very impressive statistical outcomes.

For the statistically uninitiated, .005 indicates 5 chances out of 1000 and .001 is 1 chance out of 1000.

That indicates the chance of the statistics being in error.

The general rule for accepting the results as being statistically significant are 1 chance in 20 of being in error or .05 and .01 is considered almost a certainty, it is 1 chance in 100.

...unless, of course, you are purchasing LOTTERY tickets...

...then all bets are good...

[Kangan (imported)]

Thank you, Jesus!

Let's hope the medical community validates your publications by making M to E surgery more easily available.

[Beau Geste (imported)]

These articles should go a considerable way toward establishing the Archive as a credible platform for sexological research and information, and not just a kinkout site.

[kristoff]

Perhaps, for those who can, make copies of the articles (should I encourage that?), and send them to all the doctors in your arrea that would be consonant with such things. For example, send them to all the urologists in the area. Never hurts to be a bit more assertive on the action.

[JesusA (imported)]

With over 600 hits on this thread so far, I have been surprised by how few Archive readers have requested copies of the two articles. I sent copies to about 20 people whose email addresses I had, but have had only TWO additional requests so far.

All you need is Archive membership (so that you can send a private message to me) and a Hotmail or other anonymous account where you can receive email attachments.

Kristoff is right: your local urologists need to know this information. The Journal of Sexual Medicine is highly respected and a journal that they will recognize, if they don’t already subscribe to it. The goal is to change some minds.

[JesusA (imported)]

At last, article number three based on the Eunuch Archive survey was published today. Article number four (the final one in this series) should be out soon and I will post a notice of it once it is available. I will be sending copies of this article in PDF format to those who requested the first two articles. If you do not receive your copy within the next couple of days, please write to me, as I may have mislaid (or not saved) your address. Anyone else who would like a full copy of the article can send me a <Private Message> here on the Archive and give me an e-mail address that can accept attachments. Let me know if you would like copies of the first two articles as well. I would like to see copies of this article in the hands of physicians and surgeons who might take its recommendations seriously.

The final sentence of the article reads: “Both [castrated prostate cancer patients and MtF transsexuals] are trying to fit into a strict gender binary. To the extent that both are agonadal and non-reproductive, from a strictly biological perspective, any goals they may have to be heteronormative females and males cannot be fully realized. In contrast, the

self-identified voluntary eunuchs

provide a good example of the capacity for individuals to live in a gender space outside the social norm of the male/female binary.”

Wassersug, Richard J. & Thomas W. Johnson

Modern-Day Eunuchs: Motivations for and Consequences of Contemporary Castration.

ABSTRACT: This article compares the motivations for, and responses to, castration between two groups of males: prostate cancer patients and voluntary modern-day eunuchs with castration paraphilias or other emasculating

obsessions. Prostate cancer patients are distr

essed by the side effects of androgen deprivation and typically strive to hide or deny the effects of castration. In contrast, most voluntary eunuchs are pleased with the results of their emasculations. Despite a suggested association of androgen deprivation with depression, voluntary eunuchs appear to function well, both psychologically and socially. Motivation, rather than physiology, appears to account for these different responses to androgen deprivation.

IN: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Diversity, Edited by Alice D. Dreger and Paul L. Vasey. A special issue of:

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine,

Volume 50, Number 4, Autumn 2007, pp. 544-556