What it’s like to be chemically castrated

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Shit - if more men took this, imagine how much work we could get fucking done?

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“Can you remember your first injection?”

“Sure. It was in the butt.”

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no work would get fucking done. The work would simply get completed.

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I was on a medication for a couple of years that reduced my (regularly quite vigorous) libido to next to nothing. I liked not being driven by meaner impulses, but it felt a little unnatural. Instead of putting out all the energy put into maintaining FWB relationships, including the emotional energy required keeping things honest and healthy, I was directing that time and energy into intentionality and spiritual and intellectual growth. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the trade-offs. It’s a tough one. I don’t like feeling out of control of myself, feeling like I am doing/saying/looking (even subconsciously) certain ways because I am going to get laid. But it’s also uncomfortable feeling like you are intentionally suppressing a very important and joyful part of what it is to be a living breathing thing. Once I stopped taking the medication and my libido returned (with a vengeance), I landed on trying to reduce my libido moderately through meditation and self-talk. Which works pretty good actually. Ironically, after being celibate for a long time (when on the medication), the thing I really craved was just G-rated snuggling. The smell/skin/hair/shape/voice of a woman. I’m probably weird about all this though, the whole monastic/celibate life of the mind thing always appealed to me, although I really don’t think, come go-time, I could pull the trigger on a life with no female contact. Sorry if any of that is TMI. :blush:

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Other people haven’t enjoyed being chemically castrated.

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when sexual appetite is compared to a food appetite, or a thirst for water, its conveniently forgotten that you can’t (safely) take a drug that makes you forget about those things. Most men seem to want to believe that life without sex is unthinkable. And when I’ve e gone through a long unmedicated dry spell, I thonk a lot aboit the spiritual aspects of celibacy. Much of it is merely a social control mechanism, I still think. Mostly, though, I think its people(men) who sublimate all their spiritual urges into sexual ones. It erases the divide between sensual pleasures and sexual pleasures. And next thing you know, women are excluded from the clergy because distractions, and mothers aren’t allowed to breast feed their children because boobies.

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And vice-versa!

Yes, that’s the idea.

Quite the opposite, so far as I am concerned.

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Meanwhile I’m upset if I don’t wake up pitching a tent - not because I want to be but because I take it as a sign of aging.

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Or because – finally! – your bladder isn’t full in the morning.

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What the fucking shit!?

The drug Lupron tricks the hormone in the brain that tells the pituitary gland to produce testosterone.

Don’t undermine your physical health in order to combat a psychological problem you fucking idiots!

All I can think to say is ‘get a grip’ or ‘get a hold of yourself’ but… well maybe that would work too!

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Not always that easy.

And even if it’s not that bad and you manage, bitterness lies that way.

Well don’t aim for your face, obviously.

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To be honest, it sounds rather peaceful.
One could sit down at a computer and do actual work.

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I imagine there’s a pretty big difference in side effects depending on what drug is used. Turing was treated with a synthetic estrogen, not Lupron.

And of course Turing also didn’t undergo the treatment by choice.

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To be honest, that sounds like torture.

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Depends on the kind of the work.
If you get to the zone, the work becomes its own reward.

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Having been through testicular cancer I wonder if the Lupron prevents some of the nasty side effects of decreased testosterone.

For someone whose sex drive is so intense it becomes a distraction I can definitely see the advantage of chemical castration but I doubt the payoff is worth the migraines, hot flashes, muscle loss, and other problems. In short I hope he gets the benefits but has found a way to deal with downsides too.

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Lupron is used frequently to treat prostate cancer as part of Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT), particularly when the cancer has metastasized and radiation and/or surgery are not effective. Prostate cancer cells feed on testosterone, so the idea is that if there is no testosterone, the cells can’t live/replicate. As someone who is just finishing a 6 month course of ADT (or as my wife and I call it - The Evil Lord Lupron), I have to say it’s no picnic. I opted for ADT to boost my chances from 85% to 95% of a cure after radiation. Hot flashes, muscle loss, depression, joint pain - I got 'em all. And, I feel pretty much dead below the waist which has had a big impact on my physical and emotional relationship with my wife. Some days I wonder if it’s all worth it. But, as my wife says a future with no sex and me alive is better than no sex and me dead. Now that my 6 months are up, I’m hoping that will all reverse (at least my doctor tells me so), but it could take a couple of months to a year or more for the effects to wear off. I think the article paints too a rosy picture of the treatment. I understand why it is effective, but I think this particular man could have used more psychotherapy than drug therapy (and still does). You could read many stories of men (and their wives) who fear having to go back on Lupron when they have a recurrence. The fact is that most men will have prostate cancer to some degree if they live long enough. If you are over 80 and don’t have prostate cancer, odds are that you are a woman. :wink:

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Whoa. Just imagine typing two-handed…

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