Secrets of "Wannabe Eunuchs"
Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 9:36 pm
Secrets of "Wannabe Eunuchs"
Posted August 24, 2004
World Science Staff
Some men yearn to be castrated, and the reasons why may be surprising, researchers have found.*
It's long been documented that a tiny percentage of men harbor, often secretly, a desire for neutering. Richard J. Wassersug of Dalhousie University, Canada, and colleagues used the Internet to drop in on discussion groups among these individuals, and posted questionnaires to them to understand their thinking.*
"Our survey identified a population of well-educated, adult men fascinated with the idea of being castrated and, in some cases, [they] have evidently held such fascination for decades," the researchers wrote in the October issue of the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Most of the 134 survey responders had college degrees, and 12 had doctorates, they wrote. Seventeen percent claimed to have already been castrated.
The most common reason responders gave for wanting to be castrated was to get their sexual urges under control, the researchers wrote. Forty percent of responders cited that as their reason. The next most common reasons were because they thought it exciting, because they thought their private parts would look better that way, and because it would help them become more submissive to a sex partner, in that order.
These reasons weren't previously known among the wider public or medical communities, except for the first, Wassersug and colleagues wrote.
The authors speculated that the pop-culture fad of tattooing, body piercing and body mutilation might be influencing some of these "wannabe eunuchs," especially those who wanted castration for cosmetic reasons.*
Medical professionals should be aware of the risks that these people are taking, the researchers wrote, especially considering that many of them don't want to discuss the subject with their doctors.*
"People who are not medically qualified offer their services via the Internet to eunuch wannabes for free or at costs below those of medically qualified personnel. Some of the would-be eunuchs end up in emergency rooms as a result," they wrote. Also "many of the people who undergo voluntary castration are neither informed, nor prepared, for the plethora of additional long-term side effects of castration. These include osteoporosis [loss of bone strength], loss of lean muscle mass, increase in body fat, changes in body odor, and loss of body hair."
Posted August 24, 2004
World Science Staff
Some men yearn to be castrated, and the reasons why may be surprising, researchers have found.*
It's long been documented that a tiny percentage of men harbor, often secretly, a desire for neutering. Richard J. Wassersug of Dalhousie University, Canada, and colleagues used the Internet to drop in on discussion groups among these individuals, and posted questionnaires to them to understand their thinking.*
"Our survey identified a population of well-educated, adult men fascinated with the idea of being castrated and, in some cases, [they] have evidently held such fascination for decades," the researchers wrote in the October issue of the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Most of the 134 survey responders had college degrees, and 12 had doctorates, they wrote. Seventeen percent claimed to have already been castrated.
The most common reason responders gave for wanting to be castrated was to get their sexual urges under control, the researchers wrote. Forty percent of responders cited that as their reason. The next most common reasons were because they thought it exciting, because they thought their private parts would look better that way, and because it would help them become more submissive to a sex partner, in that order.
These reasons weren't previously known among the wider public or medical communities, except for the first, Wassersug and colleagues wrote.
The authors speculated that the pop-culture fad of tattooing, body piercing and body mutilation might be influencing some of these "wannabe eunuchs," especially those who wanted castration for cosmetic reasons.*
Medical professionals should be aware of the risks that these people are taking, the researchers wrote, especially considering that many of them don't want to discuss the subject with their doctors.*
"People who are not medically qualified offer their services via the Internet to eunuch wannabes for free or at costs below those of medically qualified personnel. Some of the would-be eunuchs end up in emergency rooms as a result," they wrote. Also "many of the people who undergo voluntary castration are neither informed, nor prepared, for the plethora of additional long-term side effects of castration. These include osteoporosis [loss of bone strength], loss of lean muscle mass, increase in body fat, changes in body odor, and loss of body hair."