One of the classic articles, and one that I have long neglected to add to the Non-Fiction Articles board, is a study of the comparative life spans of castrated and uncastrated inmates of an unnamed Kansas mental institution. Over a period of 56 years (1895 to 1950), 322 inmates were castrated – over half (164) of them in the years 1923 to 1934. Despite repeated inquiry and extensive research, the authors of the study were unable to discover the criteria used to determine which inmates were castrated and which were not. In addition to the 322 males who were castrated, 23 female inmates received oophorectomies (removal of the ovaries). The female number was too small for significant statistical reporting.

The castrated males were compared with 735 uncastrated inmates, matched for year of birth and type and severity of mental disorder. Those castrated were separated into age cohorts by age of castration and the average age at death was compared to that of the uncastrated set (and to that of the female population of the same institution). The younger the age of castration, the longer the average life span.

The age of castration ranged from EIGHT (3 boys) to 59 (1 man).

32 boys (10% of the total) were castrated at ages 8 through 14;

130 (41%) at ages 15 through 19;

92 (29%) at ages 20 through 29;

54 (17%) at ages 30 through 39; and

12 (4%) at ages 40 and above.

Median length of life for the uncastrated male inmates of the same mental institution in the comparison group was 64.7 years. The average life span for the group of intact female inmates of the same institution was 65.2 years, which was identical to the average for the 23 oophorectomized female inmates.

Median life span for those who had been castrated was

76.3 (castrated at ages 8 through 14)

72.9 (castrated at ages 15 through 19)

69.6 (castrated at ages 20 through 29)

68.9 (castrated at ages 30 through 39)

Hamilton, James B. & Mestler, Gordon E.

1969. Mortality and Survival: Comparison of Eunuchs with Intact Men and Women in a Mentally Retarded Population. Journal of Gerontology, vol. 24, pp. 395–411.

Great article.

Thanks Jesus for this information.

Do you know anything about osteoporosis in 'early-made' eunuchs ?

Greetings,

Vesal!

Phooey! I should have been castrated at 14! :-\

Deosn't look like I'll get much benefit from castration in my old age as regards to longevity....

According to several different sources that I've read quoting the study, including one published scientific article, it was stated that the average life expectancy for the uncastrated group was 55.7 years, whereas it was 69.3 for the castrated group. The reported difference between the groups was at about 13.6 years.

You cite a figure of 64.7 for intact men. Considering that 55.7 was cited by at least 3 independent sources, I wonder if there might be some error involved. Are you absolutely certain that Hamilton et. al. cite 64.7 (instead of 55.7) for the control group?

The article is filled with tables of numbers and statistical tallies (16 statistical tables and 5 figures*). The commonly cited life spans of 55.7 for the uncastrated male inmates and 69.3 for those castrated are given in their Figure 1 ("Survival curves for intact and castrated white males"), but the authors prefer to use the numbers that I’ve cited above. The lower figures include ALL of the boys and men who were castrated and ALL of those who were matched with them for year of birth, time of admission to the institution, and type and severity of illness. This meant that some of those who were in the uncastrated data set actually died BEFORE the castrated person they were paired with had been castrated – twenty-one of them died before they became teenagers.

The numbers that Hamilton and Mestler preferred, as more accurate a reflection of the study, were of those individuals who had survived to age 40 in both categories. Those are what I have cited and what they used for most of their article.

One number that they thought significant that I did not include was that “for survivors after the age of 40 years there was a loss of 0.28 years of potential life for each year of delay in orchiectomy from 8 to 39 years of age.” [page 403]

They also note in the final paragraph of the article that if all of the non-white individuals are exluded from the data, the mean duration of life was 13.5 years longer, for for those who survived until forty, among those castrated than those who were intact. For the non-white population of the institution (too small a number for most statistical tallies), the difference in duration of life for those castrated was only 3.0 years longer than for those not castrated and life expectancy was much lower for both the castrated and uncastrated. The final sentence of the article is that “the benefit from orchiectomy, may prove to be more in white than in non-white males.”

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* Table 16, for example, is titled “Similarities in Sequelae of Orchiectomy in Man and in Outbred Cats. Data for Man Were Exclusive of Deaths Due to Trauma. Data for Cats were for Animals Examined or Autopsied at Death and Excluded Deaths Due to Trauma, Poisoning, and Panleukopenia.”