I need to know what men did before the invention of synthetic testosterone. What they did to stay healthy and deal with the effects of living testosterone free. I can only find information about ancient times and that is theoretical and not fact based and conjecture.

This sounds like a job for Jesus A.

I'm living the classic eunuch life without testosterone or any other hormones so this information is personal. This is the life I have to live because I can't take synthetic testosterone and the medical professionals won't give me estrogen unless I have prostate cancer.

Looking at historical eunuchs will probably not give you the information that you want. Most eunuchs were castrated before puberty and that does make a great difference. We have good information about their health status (mostly good) and length of life (about 15 years longer than the uncastrated).

For those castrated after puberty, the information is much slimmer. We do have Hamilton’s information on those castrated in the State of Kansas, though he included only those castrated by age 39. They gained an average of 4 to 5 years of life over the uncastrated control group. Another study found them much less subject to inflammatory disease (probably a major cause of the increased longevity). There is some information about the health of the Russian Skoptsy, although it is primarily in French, German, and Russian. Most of them became hard-working and successful farmers and seemed to be healthier than their uncastrated neighbors. Physical labor and healthy lifestyle may be part of the reason.

Your best information will probably be from those men castrated as treatment for prostate cancer. In North America, it’s generally chemical castration; in Europe about 10% are surgically castrated. (It’s much cheaper and much more effective, though not reversible if the cancer goes into remission before the chemicals permanently damage the testicles.)

For the best current information, I highly recommend Richard Wassersug’s book Androgen Deprivation Therapy: An Essential Guide for Prostate Cancer Patients and Their Loved Ones. The list price is under U.S.$20 and it’s available for less through Amazon and other on-line booksellers. Wassersug tries to cover all of the important questions that you might have and he’s good about answering emails (with his address listed in the book) for anything he didn’t cover.

Thank you for your help

I ordered it off Amazon last night.

Anecdotal information from modern Eunuchs may be just as scarce and confusing as historical data. The problem is that so many factors come into play and generally castration has been a taboo subject among men. Those men who have undergone it for medical reasons seldom wish to share their status with others. Four years ago I started a personal blog for the very reason of sharing my experience with others after finding virtually no comprehensive information on the web or in medical texts. In an earlier post on the blog I discussed things I was led to believe about my own bilateral orchiectomy (when on and off TRT) that were both true and false. Keep in mind everyone is different and each experience varies much the same as it does in post menopausal women. What we do know is that a lack of testosterone - or more precisely when it would be converted in to estradiol - has a significant impact on bone density leading to osteoporosis. One interesting fact I learned is that castration was an often used therapy for chronic BPH around the turn of the 20th century, so there were actually a lot of men without testicles in modern times than one might think.