Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis (19 page)

Men disrupt their hormone economy to such an extent that their own testosterone production decreases or completely stops. This is because the hypothalamus, the centre in the brain that regulates and adjusts testosterone production, receives the signal that more than enough testosterone is circulating in the body. The problem is that anabolic steroids differ from testosterone in that they cannot regulate sperm production, with the result that men become infertile. All men produce a small amount of female hormone, though in a healthy body that is only a tiny fraction compared with testosterone, but if an indi vi -

dual’s own testosterone production stops, the female hormones increase in importance, resulting in shrinking testicles and breast formation.

Male hormonal contraception

The concentration of testosterone is many times greater in the testes than in serum. Unlike in other androgen-dependent organs, such as the prostate and seminal glands, a multiple of the serum concentration in the testes is also necessary for normal functioning (spermatogenesis).

Grateful use is made of this phenomenon in research into a male contra -

ceptive. If testosterone is administered to a man the secretion of, for example, luteinizing hormone (lh) by the hypophysis will be greatly inhibited. Testosterone secretion by the Leydig cells is brought virtually to a halt. A dose of 200 mg of testosterone per week, injected into the lumbar muscle, results in a doubling of testosterone levels. Partly through the inhibition in the Leydig cells and the accompanying fall of the testosterone level in the testes, sperm cell production virtually ceases.

As a young man the Groningen-based researcher Pek van Andel devised a method of measuring sperm production in rats: he severed 93

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the seminal ducts as far downstream as possible and implanted them directly into the bladder. In this way it was possible to monitor exactly how many sperm cells a rat produced daily, a process that Pek des -

cribed in his first publication. He was later to win the alternative Nobel Prize for his idea of using an mri scanner in which couples could have intercourse as a research tool.

In the spring of 2006
The Lancet
, one of the world’s most authoritative medical journals, surveyed the state of research. It had been shown that the male version of hormonal contraception was safe and reversible. The study concerned had involved over 1,500 men. The researchers found that the average time required for sperm to recover to a level of 20 million spermatozoa per millilitre (the level at which one speaks of a ‘normal’ sperm count), was between three and four months.

Older men, men of Asian origin, men with a high sperm level at the start of the study and men who had used hormonal contraception for only a short time, recovered quickest. The figures: 67 per cent recovered within six months, 90 per cent within twelve months, 96 per cent within sixteen months and 100 per cent were back to their original level after two years. According to the authors of the article in this leading publication their study had proved that the previously demonstrated efficacy of hormonal contraception was accompanied by a high degree of sperm recovery. New research is underway in which an androgen like testosterone is combined with a progestagen.

Testosterone and women

Testosterone production in women, as in men, is variable in several respects. Just after birth girls produce relatively large amounts of testosterone. Production declines throughout childhood and increases again with the onset of puberty. Testosterone levels peak around the age of 30, after which there is a steady decline. Women of around forty produce only half the amount of testosterone produced by those in their twenties. Testosterone production also fluctuates with the menstrual cycle: around ovulation the concentration is obviously highest, which is also when women feel most like having sex. It has also been shown that women have small day-to-day fluctuations: testosterone concentration in the blood is highest at about ten in the morning, and falls again through the day.

In his book
De Mietjesmaatschappij
(The Sissy Society, 2000), science journalist Marcel Roele writes that housewives produce on average less male hormone than career women. If one compares different kinds of working woman, women who are employed as pas, nurses or primary schoolteachers have less testosterone than women 94

t e s to s t e ro n e a n d s p e r m

doctors, lawyers or managers. The more testosterone, the greater the competitive urge? Who can say? In
De Pikorde
(The Pecking Order, 2006) Marleen Finoulst and Dirk Vanderschueren report that years ago a British gynaecologist had prescribed testosterone to five of the then 118 female mps, in the hope that this would help them compete better with their male colleagues on committees and in parliamentary debates.

The female politicians gave this idea short shrift and protested that they had no need of testosterone!

In the menopause, when activity in the ovaries slowly fades, the production of testosterone also declines. Yet after the change women often have to deal with unwanted hair growth, for example on the upper lip and around the chin, while the hair on their head tends to thin. That is mainly because the liver produces less transport proteins, so releasing more free testosterone. The free form is the ‘active’ one, so that despite the falling hormone production the relative quantity of active testosterone in creases. This is why unwanted masculinizing features occur.

In the United States menopausal women are regularly prescribed testosterone. Over 30 per cent of older American women take hormone pills and in half of these cases the pills contain testosterone. In many other countries that is still highly unusual. A drop in normal testosterone levels may, as has been said, be the result of the menopause, but also, for instance, of the removal of both ovaries and chemotherapy. In such cases women may suffer acute listlessness, a reduction in muscle power, loss of pubic hair, loss of sexual appetite and may find it difficult or impossible to achieve orgasm. Giving testosterone supplements only makes sense if there really is a deficiency. Similarly, menopausal problems like vaginal dryness and hot flushes are not treated with testosterone; oestrogens are used for this purpose. The same phenomenon is found in those taking the contraceptive pill: taking extra female hormones leads to a decrease in testosterone production.

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chapter five

Castration

Today, when most people hear the word ‘eunuch’, their first associations are with weakness, sexual impotence, inadequacy as a man, etc.

That has definitely not been the case throughout history. To judge by the alarmed reaction to the very word, you’d never think that castration was once a popular practice. But it was: for centuries men had themselves voluntarily castrated, for a whole variety of motives. The eunuch, originally imported as a slave, gradually transcended his image of bondage. Eunuchs were considered to be very loyal: after all, they had had no other family than their master, they had been abducted from parents and homeland and could not father any descendants of their own. In general eunuchs proved extremely faithful and devoted, but there were many potential rewards for their servitude. Eunuchs worked as opera singers, choristers, generals, theologians, philosophers, chamberlains, prophets, harem guards, tutors to imperial children, tax inspectors – the list is endless. In this way they served imperial families, the aristocracy and religious institutions and were certainly neither puny nor pathetic.

Archaeologists believe that the castration of animals began in around 4500–4000 bc. Animal husbandry, which had begun with sheep, pigs and goats, was extended to cattle. Bulls were not only an important source of meat, but also provided muscle power for pulling ploughs and carts. The only problem was that bulls could not be kept together. The magic solution turned out to be castration, and the ox was born. Increased manageability was a motive for the castration of many domesticated animals. Castration of tomcats prevented them from spraying urine all over the house and also had a calming effect on their behaviour.

No so long ago, in order to help dogs deal better with the psychological effects of their castration, an American company (cti Corpo-96

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ration, Bruckner, Missouri), brought out a product called Neuticles: testes prosthetics for dogs. The manufacturer stressed that with this product a dog would look just the same after the operation as before, while the animal would feel the same and wouldn’t really know that it had been castrated. Bumper stickers carrying the slogan ‘I love Neuticles’ were printed for the cars of proud dog-owners! In the case of a number of domesticated species of animal special names were devised for castrated individuals: a stallion or a male donkey became a gelding, a boar (male pig) a barrow, a ram a wether and a cock a capon. As has been said, primitive man soon realized that castration of his animals could prove beneficial. It made animals easier to fatten and easier to handle. Castrated animals usually abandoned their normal behaviour: geldings proved more suitable for riding and driving, capon meat was more plentiful and juicier, and schnitzels made from barrows were tastier. Over the centuries oxen were used less and less as draught animals, but because oxen store more fat in their muscle tissue, castration remained in vogue, since once slaughtered they provided better beef.

Nowadays male piglets are castrated when they are two weeks old.

Before then the piglets are too young to survive the procedure, and if one waits too long, only a vet can carry out the castration. The set of forceps used for the castration is called an
emasculator
. With calves and lambs the seminal cords may be severed using a so-called
burdizzo
up to the age of two months – all without anaesthetic.

The term castration is probably derived from the Latin
castor
, beaver, since the latter is said to bite off its own testicles when in danger.

It was as if beavers were surrendering their
castoreum
, and so saving their lives. By the middle of the nineteenth century the beaver had been all but wiped out in Europe because of the castoreum secreted by their anal glands, which commanded extraordinarily high prices. It was used to treat not only impotence, but toothache and heart problems, and it was also smeared on beehives to increase the honey yield.

Gary Taylor has written an amusing history of castration (
Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood
), based on religion, biology, anthropology, etc. One can forgive Taylor for becoming slightly ponderous when he tries to situate castration theoretically, but having read his book, one thinks: all things considered, the balls on the Christmas tree are the ultimate symbol of the international annexation of pagan ideas by Christians.

The human fear of castration is very deep-seated, more so than most people think. In Greek mythology it is referred to a number of times, for example in the story of Uranus and Melampus. The noble parts of Uranus, having been thrown into the sea, brought forth Venus, and 97

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Melampus was later involved in curing a prince (Iphiclus) who suffered from impotence and was unable to father children – an affliction also caused by castration anxiety.

The myth of Melampus and Iphiclus

Melampus means ‘black-foot’. His feet were black because although his mother had placed him in the shade shortly after his birth, she had carelessly left his feet exposed to the sunlight. From an early age Melampus was fond of all animals. In front of his father’s house was a large oak and a hollow at its base was home to two snakes. The creatures were quite harmless and Melampus was fascinated by them, espe cially when he noticed that there were young on the way. These had no sooner been born than his father’s servant beat the two adult snakes to death. The grief-stricken Melampus burned the dead snakes and carefully reared their orphaned brood. One day, when they were fully grown, the snakes slid to his bedside and licked his ears with their tongues. The startled Melampus sat bolt upright . . . and immediately could hear what birds flying overhead were saying to each other. From then on he could foretell the future, since the birds told him everything that was about to happen. On the banks of the River Alpheus he met the god Apollo and became an accomplished seer.

As luck would have it, Melampus’ brother Bias had set his sights on the delectable Pero, but her father refused to give her in marriage to anyone but the man who could bring him Phulakos’ herd of cattle. The problem was that the herd was guarded by a dog too fierce to be approached by man or beast. At his wit’s end, Bias asked his omniscient brother for help. Melampus agreed to try. He foresaw that he would be caught in the act and put in prison, but would return with the herd.

Things turned out just as he had predicted, and a married couple were appointed as his jailers. The husband treated him with great kind-ness, while the wife behaved viciously towards the shackled prisoner.

Then something very odd happened! Up in the wooden roof Melampus heard woodworm talking to each other. From their conversation he gathered that they had very nearly eaten their way through the main roof beam. Melampus hurriedly called his guards, claiming that he felt ill and preferred not to remain in the low-ceilinged room. They lifted his bed, with the husband at the head and the wife at the foot. As they were carrying him outside the woman was struck a fatal blow by the falling beam.

Of course the husband reported the incident to Phulakos, the owner of the herd. Phulakos went to see the prisoner with his son Iphiclus and asked Melampus who he really was. When Melampus 98

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replied that he was a seer, he was immediately released from his shackles and invited to the royal citadel. The king asked Melampus to cure his son, who was unable to sire children. Melampus agreed, on condition that if he proved successful he would be rewarded with the herd.

The seer then sacrificed a bull, cut the meat into small pieces and invited all the birds except for the reclusive vulture to come and eat.