LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Castration: Males
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Castration ... plays an important role in psychoanalytically-influenced literary theory, for example Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence. Poetry can also be seen as castrating, with male poets either being castrated through being outdone by their male predecessors (as in Bloom), or male poets (and even mere readers) being castrated by the force of the female sublime as conveyed to them through poetry (as in Maxwell). Catherine Maxwell identifies Philomela as being castrated by Tereus when he rapes and mutilates her.
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This study demonstrated that castration in canine model could induce prostate gland cells apoptosis. This study suggests that testosterone stimulates vascular growth in the prostate gland indirectly by increasing epithelial VEGF synthesis and that this is a necessary component in testosterone-stimulated prostate growth. Castration reduces VEGF mRNA expression in benign prostate tissue and generally in those prostate tumors where castration ... induces tumor cell apoptosis. This suggests that a therapy-induced down-regulation of VEGF could be important for tumor cell death. Castration induces the expression of caspase-1 transcripts in the epithelia of ventral prostate and seminal vesicle. These observations suggest a possible role of caspase-1 in apoptosis in male accessory sex organs.
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The aforementioned Web site, Eunuch.org, gives castration rare public exposure. These days, it has gone underground in the Western world. You rarely hear about the removal of human testes, except perhaps in male-to-female sex changes, certain cancers, religious cults, and the edgiest S/M or B&D play. Yet castration has been around as long as there have been balls to cut off. Ancient Persians used it to torture enemies, the Greeks and Romans to domesticate slaves. The Muslims cut off both the balls and penises of the men who guarded the sultan's harem.
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Male rat copulatory ability decreases dramatically following castration. This may be due in part to the impairment of medial preoptic area (MPOA) dopamine (DA) release. Previous studies showed that extracellular DA levels in the MPOA of castrates were lower than in intact males, both during basal conditions and in the presence of a receptive female. However, tissue levels of DA in the MPOA were higher in castrates than in intact males, suggesting that DA synthesis may be normal or increased in castrates, but that release may be compromised. The current study found that neither long term (2 months) nor short term (2 weeks) castration had any effect on the number of neurons in the DA A(14) area that were immunoreactive (ir) for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate limiting enzyme for DA synthesis. Therefore, castration may not affect DA synthesis in the MPOA.
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The preceding information highlights some of the more common reasons males seek castration. However in the world of human diversity there are other reasons as well. Some males believe castration will reduce impulses to crossdress. Others may be lacking in sex education and believe that castration is the answer to problems otherwise resolvable. Occasionally males become obsessive-compulsive regarding castration. This means they constantly think about or self-inflict castration and mutilation.
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For prostate cancer patients whose tumors have continued to grow despite medical or surgical castration, a new drug candidate that inhibits production of male hormones anywhere in the body is showing promise in early trials. Two poster to be presented at the ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU) show the drug results.
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