# Can castrated men have sex? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961 "2003-07-16T19:46:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/41 "2015-07-01T23:05:00Z")
Women don’t have testicles, and they also produce a small amount of testosterone. Anyway, a man does not have to have testicles to have a sex life, normal or otherwise, and that does include ejaculation. Most of that is produced by the prostate, which is in fact what it’s there for - to provide a vehicle for the little swimmers, which don’t take up much room. As with people who haven’t been castrated, the whole sexual experience thing is going to vary widely. I say “people” because that’s also true for women who have had oophorectomies, which is female castration and just as devastating, even though our “parts” are on the inside. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/42 "2015-07-01T23:38:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It was full of statements like (I’m sort of making this up from memory, but along these lines): “While many men do experience some reduction in their libido, they find that they can learn to enjoy the satisfaction of cuddling and caressing with their partners”. > > Translation? Forget it, buster, it’s all over? Hahahaha! You know what this sounds like? It sounds like all the literature and bullshit you get told following a spinal cord injury. 😃 “Sex is _really_ all in the _mind!_” Hahaha. Uh huh. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/43 "2015-07-02T00:07:35Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > _…Panati’s Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody…_ I so totally hope that book title’s anagram wasn’t accidental. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/44 "2015-07-02T00:30:24Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Once upon a time, while waiting in the Kaiser pharmacy for whatever toxic potions they were feeding me, I picked up a brochure that was on a rack there. It was about prostate surgery, and focused on males’ fears about what “life after” would be like. > > Jeez-fucking-shit, what a load of BSDL (Bullshit, Doubletalk and Lies), what a compendium of euphemisms, what a confabulation of weasel-words that brochure was. It was full of statements like (I’m sort of making this up from memory, but along these lines): “While many men do experience some reduction in their libido, they find that they can learn to enjoy the satisfaction of cuddling and caressing with their partners”. > > Translation? Forget it, buster, it’s all over? Yes, well, telling men that a surgeon is about to scoop out their bloated prostate, almost certainly resulting in nerve damage leaving them likely unable to have sex and pissing into their own underwear on a daily basis is probably not the best approach either. I agree, overly pretty glurge is not helpful. Neither is being blunt to the point of inducing panic. Can we try for a happy medium here? Or maybe just “Look, the side effects include no sex and a lifetime of incontinence garments, but at least you’ll have a lifetime. You can either keep your bits and die sooner of cancer or lose them, accept the side effects, and die later of something else.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/45 "2015-07-02T05:54:11Z")
I forget which book Robert Heinlein mentions the story of some guy who was drunken joyriding on the hood of his buddy’s car when a sudden stop while straddling the hood ornament removed some vital parts. (ah, the 1950’s, when hood ornaments were hood ornaments). Presumably Heinlein based this on an incident he heard/knew about, but also mentioned that done after puberty it did not affect anything performance-wise except the risk of pregnancy. I’m wondering of it was _Farnham’s Freehold,_ which did involve threat of castration somewhere in the story line. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/46 "2015-07-02T19:25:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > …"Look, the side effects include no sex and a lifetime of incontinence garments, but at least you’ll have a lifetime. … Yes, a lifetime of no sex and diapers. Excuse me for saying that’s not a comforting narrative. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/47 "2015-07-04T03:05:01Z")
If castratis were banging all the women in the palace, why were they castrated? The point was to have guys who would guard the harem, and not violate the content thereof, no? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/48 "2015-07-04T03:42:03Z")
As the exceedingly large market for Viagra seems to indicate, the desire and the ability to perform are not always bedfellows, so to speak. Since “chemical castration” allegedly works, though, removing the desire seems to remove some of the ability since there seems in many cases to be a cause and effect relationship between desire and an erection. Castrati - both the Asian harem guards and the renaissance church singers - were typically castrated before puberty, thus removing a lot of the hormonal development that produced urges. (My understanding of the Forbidden City was that the Chinese civil service eunuchs were selected since castrati were also less aggressive and less likely to have to ambition to start a palace coup and would not start their own dynasty, feather the nest for their children with corruption, etc. ---
**Author:** ![pianodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@pianodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pianodave)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/49 "2015-07-04T04:53:35Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Hahahaha! You know what this sounds like? It sounds like all the literature and bullshit you get told following a spinal cord injury. 😃 “Sex is _really_ all in the _mind!_” Hahaha. Uh huh. Hi Ambivalid. I was told much the same following my spinal cord injury. I’ve found that the best way to deal with the changes in your sexual function is to buy into the whole “sex is mental” thing. I mean, at first, I doubted that people could have orgasms when their equipment isn’t working. I was wrong. There is a huge mental component there, but you have to be aware and willing for it to happen. I understand that some things “move up”; as in, perhaps your nipples will get extra sensitive when you can’t feel your penis, or you’ll enjoy sensation on your lips or scalp or ears where you didn’t pre-injury. But I wouldn’t underestimate the power of the mind. With the right person, and the right lovemaking, it can be really intense. Like a rush. In fact, I would say a partner of a spinal-cord injury individual can be really stellar in the bedroom. As spinal cord injury is a deep, life-changing event, you and your partner tend to be more closely connected—more honest and open. This heightened caring and honesty can lead to electric, passionate encounters. In regards to castrated individuals, I would posit only that the mind is a powerful thing, and that with a heightened awareness of one’s own body and sexual being, many physical barriers to pleasure, such as a lack of equipment, can be worked around or eliminated. I urge us all not to forget that we are sexual beings no matter what happens to us. We should not forget that special gift we have been given–the ability to share sexual pleasure with another, no matter what form it may take. Dave ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/50 "2015-07-05T03:28:00Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > If castratis were banging all the women in the palace, why were they castrated? The point was to have guys who would guard the harem, and not violate the content thereof, no? If that was a concern, they simply removed the penis as well. Panatti (I have no idea where in my piles of books that book is right now) describes how a full removal was done. I’ll spare you the details. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/51 "2015-07-05T05:03:24Z")
Ok I’m pretty sure castration refers to only removal of the testicles and emasculation refers to removal of both the testicles and penis right? It seems a lot of people don’t know that castration only involves the testicles. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/52 "2015-07-05T18:59:08Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I forget which book Robert Heinlein mentions the story of some guy who was drunken joyriding on the hood of his buddy’s car when a sudden stop while straddling the hood ornament removed some vital parts. (ah, the 1950’s, when hood ornaments were hood ornaments). Presumably Heinlein based this on an incident he heard/knew about, but also mentioned that done after puberty it did not affect anything performance-wise except the risk of pregnancy. > > I’m wondering of it was _Farnham’s Freehold,_ which did involve threat of castration somewhere in the story line. I don’t know about Heinlein, but Larry Niven related that story in his “Known Space” series. It may have even been in more than one place, although the only one I can remember for sure is his short story “Becalmed in Hell,” where a guy named Eric suffered a horrible moon-landing accident and was hooked up to control a spaceship as a disembodied brain (well, the spaceship became his body, I guess). Eric and his still-in-a-human-body friend, the narrator/protagonist, are exploring Venus in Eric’s specially-heat-shielded ship, and Eric starts developing numbness and inability to control his engines. Narrator guy has a theory that it’s all psychological because Eric is freaking out about the harsh Venusian environment. But why would Eric be panicking when he has no glands to dump adrenaline into his blood? Well, the narrator thinks, it must be a leftover habit from when he DID have glands. He thinks: > [@](#): > > I know a girl whose father had an accident when he was forty-five or so. He was out with his brother, the girl’s uncle, on a fishing trip. They were blind drunk when they started home and the guy was riding on the hood while the brother drove. Then the brother made a sudden stop. Our hero left two important glands on the hood ornament. > > The only change in his sex life was that his wife stopped worrying about late pregnancy. His _habits_ were developed. Come to think of it, I think I may have mentioned this years ago in a different thread, but search is being irritatingly slow for me at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/53 "2015-07-05T19:21:44Z")
> [@pianodave](#): > > Hi Ambivalid. I was told much the same following my spinal cord injury. I’ve found that the best way to deal with the changes in your sexual function is to buy into the whole “sex is mental” thing. I mean, at first, I doubted that people could have orgasms when their equipment isn’t working. I was wrong. There is a huge mental component there, but you have to be aware and willing for it to happen. I understand that some things “move up”; as in, perhaps your nipples will get extra sensitive when you can’t feel your penis, or you’ll enjoy sensation on your lips or scalp or ears where you didn’t pre-injury. But I wouldn’t underestimate the power of the mind. With the right person, and the right lovemaking, it can be really intense. Like a rush. In fact, I would say a partner of a spinal-cord injury individual can be really stellar in the bedroom. As spinal cord injury is a deep, life-changing event, you and your partner tend to be more closely connected—more honest and open. This heightened caring and honesty can lead to electric, passionate encounters. > > Dave Oh, I’m sure you’re right. Thankfully, however, I retained full sexual function and sensation. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/54 "2015-07-06T01:17:35Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Yes, a lifetime of no sex and diapers. Excuse me for saying that’s not a comforting narrative. 😛 No, it’s not comforting but it is honest. As the men being told this are, in most cases, of sound mind and adult it is up to them to choose whether they prefer a shorter life with sex and without diapers or a longer life without sex and with diapers. > [@drad\_dog](#): > > If castratis were banging all the women in the palace, why were they castrated? The point was to have guys who would guard the harem, and not violate the content thereof, no? There’s a difference between harem guards (who might have their penis as well as testicles removed) and operatic/church castrati, who had their testicles removed to keep their voices from deepening with adulthood but who retained their penises. The harem guards were supposed to guard the women, not have sex with them, and removal of the penis pretty much prevented that (at least the penis in vagina sort). Since the primary reason to remove the testicles of the singing castrati was to prevent a voice change, not prevent sex, removal of the penis, which probably upped the chances of fatal complications, was not seen as necessary. Thus, the singers could potentially “bang all the women” they wanted if they were still capable of the act. > [@pool](#): > > Ok I’m pretty sure castration refers to only removal of the testicles and emasculation refers to removal of both the testicles and penis right? It seems a lot of people don’t know that castration only involves the testicles. I have never before been told of such explicit definitions of the terms/operations. Well, emasculation as “removal of all male genitals”, yes, but I’ve heard castration refer to a variety of things, from “chemical castration” to removal/destruction of testes to emasculation as a sub-set of castration. Typically, when one castrates a domestic animal one just destroys the function of/removes the testes and leaves the penis intact. ---
**Author:** ![bedazzled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@bedazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bedazzled)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/55 "2018-07-24T04:56:38Z")
It’s been a few years since this thread has been visited, but I did find it useful after all these years, mainly for the purpose of understanding just how complex the whole subject of “having sex” can be. Whether it’s hormones, testicles (one, two, or none), the prostate, or the penis, and whether sex involves a climax, insertion in a vagina, or just playing around with other parts of the body, there does not seem to be any rule that can be applied across the board. And each of us tends to think that what we are experiencing is the same as everyone else. For the record, many years ago I had a vasectomy. It had no effect on my sex life at all… apart from saving concerns about birth control. Then, more recently, I had a prostatectomy, and it took away the ability to have an erection (even with Viagra). It also caused some incontinence, but most of that has been controlled by some fairly aggressive and faithful pelvic exercises. At the same time, it did not take away the ability to have a climax, and, in fact, it has often been every bit as good as before… if you just count pleasure. The main problem, of course, has been that I am not able to give my wife pleasure. So I can appreciate that others who may never have a climax themselves, still feel they have an active sex life if they have been able to find a way to give pleasure to their partners. But still I hear of people (sex offenders in particular) who have had everything possible done to them to eliminate their sex life, and still the re-offend. The theory is that for such people, pleasure comes not through the sex organs but just through a kind of debased enjoyment in hurting others. If there is anything that I am most convinced of as a result of my experience, it is that the real pleasure we experience (MOST of us, at least?) during sex is actually coming from the area around the prostate gland. It is heightened, however, by stimulation of almost any other part of the body, but especially those parts leading toward the genitals. Is that what others have experienced? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/56 "2018-07-24T05:24:02Z")
> **[Testosterone Week: A Short Primer on How T Is Made](https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/health/how-testosterone-is-made/)** > > How testosterone is made in the body According to this cite, only a miniscule amount of testosterone is produced outside the testes. 95% of the body’s total testosterone comes from the testicles. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/57 "2018-07-24T14:33:29Z")
It is at least [theoretically possible](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19448645) to transplant Leydig cells (the testosterone-producing tissue in the testes), but I don’t know if this has actually been trialed in humans. ---
**Author:** ![Hurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecc23a/32.png) [@Hurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hurk)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/58 "2018-07-24T23:45:50Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Good [del]Fucking[/del] Non-fucking Luck trying to find _any_ reliable information on this subject from _any_ source. (Time for **Cecil** to take it up? Has he already?) While any particular source you might find (possibly including the posts in this thread) _might_ be accurate, how would you know what source to believe? The answers, the stories and anecdotes, are so all over the map. > > Once upon a time, while waiting in the Kaiser pharmacy for whatever toxic potions they were feeding me, I picked up a brochure that was on a rack there. It was about prostate surgery, and focused on males’ fears about what “life after” would be like. > > Jeez-fucking-shit, what a load of BSDL (Bullshit, Doubletalk and Lies), what a compendium of euphemisms, what a confabulation of weasel-words that brochure was. It was full of statements like (I’m sort of making this up from memory, but along these lines): “While many men do experience some reduction in their libido, they find that they can learn to enjoy the satisfaction of cuddling and caressing with their partners”. > > Translation? Forget it, buster, it’s all over? > > The whole brochure was full of shinola like that. And this was from Kaiser, a health care organization! > > So where would _you_ turn to get real information that you would feel you could trust? > > Oh, wait, for that we have Teh Internet! What I’ve found about surgeons or other doctors is that they think they can “fix” most anything. It’s like asking a barber if he thinks you need a haircut. I found out I had prostate cancer in early 2012 and had it removed in June of that year. No doctor can accurately predict what the side effects will be for YOU. But the vast majority of men (90%?) will be dysfunctional all the time or most of the time. Pills rarely help. They don’t tell you that, and most men don’t ask because at that point all we care about is not dying. Depending on what stage of prostate cancer you have the surgery can vary, but at the least there is usually some nerve damage, often permanent. And it’s the nerves that control erections. Any questionable tissue around the prostate (where the nerves are) is removed, in the interest of saving your life. Upon visiting the first urologist (whom I fired) I was examined by a female assistant and I was asking about sexual function and continence post-surgery. She said, “Oh, we can fix all that now!” Bullshit. “Yes” they have implants and “yes” they have surgery that supposedly corrects incontinence. Neither are as good as what Mother Nature provides and, as with all surgeries, there are risks involved: They don’t work right and they have to go back in and “fix” it again; you can end up with constant discomfort or pain, etc. leaving you with the rotten feeling of wishing you hadn’t done it, and knowing that it can’t be reversed (implants). There is a drug called “Trimix” which you inject directly into the side of the penis which works quite well on most men, even with all nerves gone. But it isn’t fun to inject as one can imagine, is NOT very romantic, is not spontaneous, and must be planned out ahead of time. And if you’re with a woman for the first time and you pull a syringe out, she’ll run out and you’ll never see her again. Incontinence can be a huge problem for some men, to the point of wearing pads for life. I lucked out there, although one has to be careful. The feeling is like taking one of those cheap plastic party cups, filling it to the brim, and walking around all day with it and trying not to spill anything. Orgasms are nothing like what they used to be, and most of the time aren’t worth the effort. Having no prostate nor the attending structures has NO effect on libido, however. I wish it did; my life would be much more enjoyable. As it is now, I am resigned to living the rest of my life without female companionship. ---
**Author:** ![Cav16](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cav16/32/13743_2.png) [@Cav16](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cav16)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/59 "2023-04-02T16:40:21Z")
I am also a castrated male. I take testosterome injections once monthly. As a result I can have sex and maintain an erection. Most of our sex is oral, my wife gives a fantastic BJ. I definitely have more energy as a result of these injections. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961/60 "2023-04-04T19:36:40Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > I don’t know about Heinlein, but Larry Niven related that story in his “Known Space” series. I would be surprised if a prolific science fiction writer like Niven in the 70’s had not read all of Heinlein’s work in his younger days. To me it sounds like urban legend, “a friend of mine told me once that…” Or as the joke goes: “He died intestate…” “Oooh, sounds painful.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-castrated-men-have-sex/188961.md?page=2)