The surgical removal of the sex glands (testes or ovaries). When carried out in children, secondary sexual characteristics do not develop. In adults, physical changes are less marked, but the individuals are sterile. In contrast with surgical castration, medical castration consists of giving drugs that block the normal effects of male or female sex hormones. It is used in the treatment of some forms of cancer.
Castration (also referred as: gelding, neutering, orchiectomy, and orchidectomy) is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a biological male loses use of the testes.
The term castration is sometimes also used to refer to the removal of the ovaries in the female, otherwise known as an oophorectomy or, in animals, spaying. This is similar to male castration, as it causes females to stop producing estrogen, and makes them infertile.
Castration in humans
The practice of castration has roots before recorded human history. Castration was frequently used in certain cultures, such as in Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa and China, for religious or social reasons. Castration also figured in a number of religious cults, such as the ancient Roman cult of Cybele: see castration cults.
In ancient times, castration often involved the total removal of all the male genitalia.
In China, male castration of a person who entered the caste of eunuchs during imperial times involved the removal of the whole genitalia, that is, the removal of the testes, penis, and scrotum, .
In Europe, when females were not permitted to sing in church or cathedral choirs in the Roman Catholic Church, boys were sometimes castrated to prevent their voices breaking at puberty and to develop a special high voice.
Reasons
Either surgical removal of both testicles, or chemical castration may be carried out in the case of prostate cancer , as hormone testosterone depletion treatment to slow down the cancer. Similarly, testosterone depletion treatment (surgical removal of both testicles, or chemical castration) is used to greatly reduce sexual drive or interest in those with 'deviant' sexual drives, obsessions or behaviors, or any combination of those.. Castration in humans has been proposed, and sometimes used, as a method of birth control in certain poorer regions.
Male-to-female transsexuals, as well as some transgendered people, often undergo physical castration.
Voluntary chemical or surgical castration has been in practice in many countries; In the case of chemical castration, ongoing regular injections of anti-androgens are required.
Unfortunately, chemical castration seems to have a greater effect on bone density than physical castration.
There is also evidence that voluntary castration is used in modern societies for reasons such as control of libido, body modification and, in some cases of extreme sexual masochism, for purposes of sexual excitement (see paraphilia and apotemnophilia).
With the advent of chemical castration, physical castration is not generally recommended by the medical community. Many who desire castration travel to developing countries, where medicine is less tightly regulated, and have the procedure performed by a doctor.
Origen is reported by Eusebius to have castrated himself based on his reading of the Gospel of Matthew 19:12, although there is some doubt concerning this story (Schaff considers the account genuine but cites Baur et. (Corbett was the 19th-century American soldier who is generally believed to have fired the shot that killed John Wilkes Booth.)
As punishment
Ancient Greek writings report Persian forces castrating defeated foes.
Edward Gibbon's famous work Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire reports castration of defeated foes at the hands of the Normans. Castration has also been used in modern conflicts, as the Janjaweed militiamen currently (as of 2005) attacking citizens of the Darfur region in Sudan often castrate villagers and leave them to bleed to death as part of a campaign of terror .
Sima Qian, the famous Chinese Historian, was castrated by order of the Emperor of China for dissent. Another famous victim of castration was the medieval French philosopher, scholar, teacher and monk Pierre Abélard, castrated by relatives of his lover, Héloïse.
Yet another famous castration victim was Bishop Wimund, a 12th Century English adventurer and invader of the Scottish coast.
A temporary chemical castration has been studied and developed as a preventive measure and punishment for several repeated sex crimes such as rape or other sexually related violence [reference needed].
Involuntary castration also appears in the history of warfare, sometimes used by one side to torture or demoralize their enemies.
For religious reasons
Castration was used to maintain high pitched voices for choir boys in service of the church during the Renaissance.
A number of religious cults have included castration as a central theme of their practice. Skoptzy Heaven's Gate (cult)
Medical consequences
A subject of castration who is castrated before the onset of puberty will retain a high voice, non-muscular build and small genitals. Castration prevents male pattern baldness and reduces or eliminates the risk of testicular and prostate cancer.
Castration in psychoanalysis and literary theory
The concept of castration plays an important role in psychoanalysis, see e.g.
Although castration literally means removal of the testes, in psychoanalytic terms the penis is seen having more symbolic significance than the testes, and thus castration refers to the removal of the penis, and more so the removal of the phallus. And since the phallus is not merely the penis but rather the power and authority that the penis represents, any removal of that power is in effect a removal of the phallus even if the penis itself remains intact, and thus is castration.
Women as lacking a penis and a phallus are always already castrated, and yet simultaneously there is also sometimes the idea that they can be castrated by the loss of power and authority.
Castration also 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).
Castration in veterinary practice
Castration is common in animal husbandry and animal fancy, where it is intended for favouring a given desired development of the animal or of its habits.
In animal fancy
Usually domestic pets are subject to castration in order to avoid sexual frustration or sexual contacts and consequent reproduction.
In animal husbandry
In the food industry, cattle and other ruminants are often castrated in order to increase their weight and improve the taste of the meat (with the advantage of relevant economies of scale for the breeder).
A specialized vocabulary has arisen for neutered animals of given species:
Barrow (pig) Bullock (cattle) Capon (chicken) Dinmont (sheep, goat) Gelding (horse) Gib (cat, ferret) Havier (deer) Hog (pig) Lapin (rabbit) Ox (cattle) Stag (primarily cattle) Steer (cattle) Wether (sheep)
Certain animals, like horses and swine, are usually treated with a scrotal castration (which can be done with the animal standing), while others, like dogs and cats, with a pre-scrotal
castration (with the animal recumbent).
Methods of veterinary castration include surgical removal, the use of an elastrator tool to secure a band around the testicles that disrupts the blood supply, the use of a Burdizzo tool or emasculators to crush the spermatic cords and disrupt the blood supply, pharmacological injections and implants and immunological techniques to inoculate the animal against its own sexual hormones.
In veterinary practice an "open" castration refers to a castration in which the inguinal tunic is incised and not sutured.
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