I have read a number of the posts here about various ways to achieve low testosterone levels.

Something that I have not seen was castration by vaccination.

From my research, it appears that castration by vaccination is effective in horses, cattle, sheep, mice, and men. In pigs, there must be other pathways involved because castration by vaccination was not successful, though it is possible I misunderstood the article (article not referenced).

http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2004 ... T323.shtml

http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/conte ... 242/3/E201

http://www.reproduction-online.org/cgi/ ... t/104/1/17

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_54506813

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15766804

Three targets that are interesting for our purposes are – Gonadotropic Releasing Hormone, GnRH, the Testosterone itself, and a metabolite of Testosterone, Dihydrotestosterone, DHT.

These anabolic steroids are “self” compounds. The body recognizes them, and does not attack them, because they are necessary to the survival of the species.

The immune system can be trained to attack these compounds by attaching them, or parts of them, to other compounds that the immune system will attack. Subsequently, the immune system attacks these compounds, inactivates them, and transports them to appropriate places for disposal, like the liver.

GnRH is produced by the pituitary gland. Part of the system seems to be a feedback mechanism. As the level of Testosterone goes up, the level of GnRH goes down, and vice-versa. GnRH is a principal hormone in the creation of Testosterone in the Testes.

Vaccination against GnRH results in the inactivation of all GnRH in the body. No more GnRH reaches the Testes. The Testes effectively shut down and stop producing Testosterone. Testosterone levels drop to castrate level.

Similarly with Testosterone, vaccination causes inactivation of the body’s entire complement of the hormone.

Finally, DHT vaccination may become important to men with Prostate Cancer, because it may be that it is DHT that is a principal accelerator for Prostate Cancer growth.

Castration by vaccination is, in many ways, similar to surgical castration.

It is irreversible. It reduces hormones to castrate level or below. The loss of the hormone has the same effects and side effects, good and bad.

The primary benefit is that it eliminates the risk of surgery. In the article on Pony Stallions, referenced above, the authors note that in excess of five percent of Stallions have post-surgery complications.

The one article that we need to follow out of all of the above is:

Joe_Trotter (imported) wrote: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:06 pm http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_54506813

Which talks about chemical castration.

big (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:57 am The one article that we need to follow out of all of the above is:

Joe_Trotter (imported) wrote: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:06 pm http://findart

big (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:57 am icles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DED/is_9_19/ai

_54506813

Which talks about chemical castration.

Keep in mind that none of these vaccines have made it to market yet, This article is close to ten years old...

That could be a dangerous vaccine in the wrong hands. Someone could be immunocastrated if they drank too much and passed out or just held down and injected against their will. Could be a good story idea...?

ramses (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:25 am That could be a dangerous vaccine in the wrong hands. Someone could be immunocastrated if they drank too much and passed out or just held down and injected against their will. Could be a good story idea...?

Very interesting, but the "modus operandi" that comes to my mind would involve a silenced "dart gun" fired a hidden spot. Some unwitting victim would only know he had be stuck with a dart from nowhere...

I read some of the articles on "castration by vaccine" and though it was never mentioned, I do honestly believe that the labs developing these things have two or three OTHER and unmentioned reasons for NOT bringing the stuff to market.

First, there is a general (and completely unjustified) squeemishness about the subject of castration. Even animal castration.

Second, this sort of product in the wrong hands could cause a "landmark case lawsuit." Think about it... some rancher uses the product on his cattle and sees how economical and effective and easy it is... Meanwhile, a hired hand, the rancher's son, or anyone else sees the same ease and effectiveness. People everywhere are ALWAYS having confrontations and conflicts, the temptation to castrate some schoolyard bully with one of these magical shots would be too great. Or maybe some ranch hand would take a few injectors of the castration vaccine and go pay a visit back to a former employer or someone who had stolen from him, or perhaps the boyfriend of his ex-wife... You name it, having this sort of easily used and effective product out there it would be only a matter of (very little) time before someone used it in a criminal way... and the ensuing law suit would be staggering. There is such a squeemishness about castratioin that any civil jury would quickly award an obscene ammount of money to any "victim" no matter what reasons he was castrated for. If I myself had this sort of product and could market and sell it, I would be EXTREMELY careful about who I sold it to, even though the only people who would be interested in buying it legitimately would probably be only ranchers, farmers, vets, and if ever approved for human use MD's specializing in gender reassignment and urology. There would be such a temptation to use this stuff criminally.

Third and final big reason. The vetrinarians, vetrinarians do not make a heap of money, not like plastic surgeons, but they have to go to school for a long time. Many people say that getting that DVM (doctorate of vetrinary medicine) is much more difficult than any of the human MD specialities, which end with lots more money. As it is, castration and spaying is a major part of a vet's income. Unless the product was completely controlled in it's dissemination, and the vet's were allowed to have an extremely high markup on it's retail price, and exclusive marketing of the product, every vetrinarian is going to be very opposed to this product ever getting to market.

Believe me, I am honestly VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about this sort of product. I would love to see it become available. But it would drastically change the livestock world, and the people who would be losing money in that change would be losing a LOT of their income. And any pharmaceutical company would probably not touch it with a ten-foot-pole for fear of the "wrongful castration" lawsuit that is just waiting to happen.

I can se where this is leading

It would change biological warfare and a new meaning to weapons of mass destruction

kennath7 (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:25 pm I can se where this is leading

It would change biological warfare and a new meaning to weapons of mass destruction

Oh yes! If it were known that the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were firing 'castration bullets' wouldn't that be a terrible discouragement for the opposition? Martyrdom is one thing but the 72 virgins waiting in paradise for them wouldn't be of much use.

And who could object? Surely castration is far more humane than killing and wounding?