My Life as a Eunuch

Why would a man choose to have himself castrated? That's a question best answered by a fellow known as Gelding.

Comments (0) By Bob Whitby Thursday, Jun 29 2000

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The cord is snipped and the gloved hands display the testicle for the camera. Another way to achieve the same result is with a burdizzo, essentially a large clamp used to castrate bulls, sheep, or goats without having to cut into the scrotum. Each cord is placed in the jaws of the clamp, which cuts off the blood supply to the testicle. Done correctly, the procedure hurts like hell, says Gelding. “You don't want to hear the scream an adult male makes when he has the sudden realization he should have asked for a local anesthetic instead of being a brave boy.” But using the burdizzo lessens the risk of infection. The testicles are left in the scrotum to wither into useless pebbles.

For the record the safest way to get castrated is to visit Dr. Felix Spector, a kindly, 82-year-old Philadelphia physician who has carved out a special niche for himself. He's probably the only doctor in the nation who will handle voluntary castrations, very few questions asked. Most balk at removing healthy tissue, believing it to be a violation of the Hippocratic oath: Do no harm. So if you want them off, and you want a licensed physician wielding the scalpel, Dr. Spector is your man.

Some men are #179;smooth,#178; and some, like Gelding, are hairy #179;bears#178;

Preston

Some men are "smooth," and some, like Gelding, are hairy "bears"

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“I don't attempt to make up their minds one way or another,” Spector says. “They have their minds made up by the time they come to me. I do demand that they be serious about it.”

Serious enough to put up a $300, nonrefundable deposit against the $1600 fee. For that you get a guy who performed his first transsexual operation in 1957, knows anatomy, can prescribe real pain killers, and knows what to do if things go wrong. The procedure takes about an hour, and the patient can go home the next day. Spector performs about seven orchiectomies a month. “None of my patients has ever had any problems that I know of,” he says.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Spector frowns on home castrations. “I absolutely speak against such a procedure by someone who doesn't know the anatomy or all the rest of the workings of the body. They can cause great pain and great danger.”Given the cost of castration, the potential danger, and the fact that most modern cultures consider eunuchs freaks, the obvious question is: Why bother? Gelding and his brethren have a hard time answering that one. “I've heard a hundred different reasons,” he says. “And I always ask: “Is that it? Is that reason enough to cut off your balls?'”

After several years of counseling would-be castrates, he does make an effort to distinguish the serious from the frivolous. But as to motive, he knows better than to seek a definitive answer.

“I really don't know,” says Bob Capeheart, an amiable 60-year-old from Gainesville who traveled to Mexico this past March to have his testicles removed, his penis shortened by four inches, and a new opening creating in his urethra. “It just got to the point where I said, “To hell with it; I don't want to put up with it anymore.' I had been thinking about it for a long, long time anyway.”

Capeheart is divorced, has two grown children, and works as an automotive technician. Plumbing his subconscious for some Freudian insight into motive is a wild goose chase, because he seems happy as schoolboy with his new genital arrangement. “It probably goes back to my childhood,” he surmises. “But I never liked having balls. And I never liked the fact that I was circumcised. I blame that on my parents, but back then it was the thing to do.”

He set up the operation through a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who has contacts in Mexico. Individually the three procedures would have cost $11,500, but Capeheart got a deal: a package price of $6000. Thus far the only downside has been the hourly hot flashes he has to endure. “I was warned about it,” he says, “and they are not real comfortable, I'll tell you that. They last about three to four minutes, and from your waist up you are very hot.” In a few months, once those subside, he anticipates settling into a peaceful, urge-free life: “I figure if I'm crazy, I'm crazy. I don't think I am. It is just something I wanted to do for a long time. My kids are grown, I had the money, so I just had it done.”

Robert, a 40-year-old resident of Palm Springs, California, who didn't want his last name used, also is at a loss to explain why he's desperately seeking castration. For him it began with a simple vision. “When I was in high school, I used to fantasize about having a vasectomy and it kind of progressed from there until I finally realized what I wanted.”

He got married and divorced. He took a male lover, but the thought of castration never left his mind. It's the presence in his underwear that he can't stand. Or something like that. “The testicles hanging between my legs, they are just annoying to me. I don't like the weight. They are uncomfortable. I prefer when it is lighter and smoother and cleaner. I want to keep my penis, I want to keep my scrotum, but I just don't want them down there.”