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Secrets
of
"Wannabe
Eunuchs"
August
24,
2004
Special to World Science
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."
—EJL
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