Is Castration the Answer to Longevity?

Genetic studies by Cynthia Kenyon—at the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at the University of California San Francisco—with flatworms, and Richard Miller—at the Geriatrics Center of the Medical School, University of Michigan—with mice, show that having a diminished growth hormone production (or reception) seems to increase longevity. Having stunted growth increases longevity. The body seems to know that it needs to live longer to pass on its genes since its growth is stunted.

Which is exactly what happens with Michael Rose’ s experiments—at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine—with flies. Collecting eggs produced by older mothers produces offspring that lived longer.

There seems to be an expiration date stamped on our genes.  If we are stunted in growth or our parents delayed producing us, then our body seems to know that it needs to live longer in order to pass on its genes.  The best way to explain this is through the disposable soma theory. This theory which was first developed in 1977 by a biologist named Thomas Kirkwood—who now heads The Institute for Ageing and Health in its School of Clinical Medical Sciences, at Newcastle University—states that the body protects itself just enough so that we are able to pass on our genes.

What if we cheated our body? As in these experiments cheating the body into thinking that it is developing really slowly and therefore needed more time. What if we were castrated? The Cumming Manuscript Collection of the New York Academy of Medicine Library contains more than 1200 references, abstracts, and documents concerning the early history of human castration.

But the first time that eunuchs—boys who had their testicles and sometimes their penis removed surgically—featured in longevity debates was with the observation by Serge Abrahamovitch Voronoff in the early 1900s.  And it was not a positive observation.

Voronoff—a French surgeon of Russian—worked at a hospital in Cairo from 1896 to 1910 where he had the opportunity to observe eunuchs. He noted their obesity, lack of body hair, and broad pelvises, as well as their flaccid muscles, lethargic movements, memory problems, and lowered intelligence. He concluded that the absence of testicles was responsible for aging and that their presence should prompt bone, muscle, nerve, and psychological development. He saw aging as the result of the lack of substance from the testicles and ovaries. This is all before we knew about hormones. Voronoff gained fame for his technique of grafting monkey testicle tissue on to the scrotum of men for anti-aging purposes. Voronoff and his predecessor and mentor Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard—although ridiculed at the time—developed the field of endocrinology, the study of hormones. 

Coming back to the observation about eunuchs, Voronoff observations was that castration had retarding effects.

But then a new study in 2012 by Kyung-Jin Min from the Inha University, and his Korean colleagues, reversed this finding. In their study the authors reported that during Chosun Dynasty between 14th to early 20th centuries Korean eunuchs lived 14 to 19 years longer than other (intact) men. Researchers were able to identify 81 eunuchs, who were castrated as boys, and determined that they lived to an average age of 70, significantly longer than other men of similar social status. Three of the eunuchs lived to 100. This is a centenarian rate that's far higher than would be expected today.

Historically, and as recent as the 19th century, eunuchs were common across the world. Castrati boys—castrated before puberty—were among the most prized singers especially in catholic churches in Italy (the Sistine Chapel retained the last of the castrati singers) and Opera houses in Vienna. Elsewhere eunuchs were hired staff in harems and imperial palaces in China, Korea, Japan, and the rest of Asia and the Middle East. As well as in Europe and Russia.

In the 18th century there was a Christian sect called the Skoptzy, also called the White Doves, whose male members—in order to attain their ideal of sanctity—subjected themselves to castration. They believed that the Messiah would not come until the Skoptsy numbered 144,000 (Rev. 14:1,4).

Further East, in China, eunuchs played a more central role in government The emperor maintained approximately 2,000 in his service, the imperial princes and princesses each had about 30, and various family members were allowed 10 or so eunuchs each. Although in this context, castration was mostly as a punishment, some subjected themselves to the procedure in order to gain employment. At the same time, during the Ottoman period, especially from the 16th century on, black eunuchs from Ethiopia or Sudan were in charge of the harem in the Ottoman court. Many of these boys were castrated at a monastery in Upper Egypt by Coptic priests. The practice was pervasive and endemic.

In 1999 Jean Wilson and Claus Roehrborn investigated the long-term effects of castration. These included the enlargement of the pituitary gland, especially among those with an earlier castration. Skeletal changes included thinning of the bones of the skull and decreased bone mineral density. Although an increased incidence of fractures does not appear to have been reported in the eunuchs. Some reported growth of breasts in the Ottoman court eunuchs, which is also evident in photographs of Skoptzy men and Chinese eunuchs. Shrinkage of the prostate was common among eunuchs. However the authors could not resolve whether life span differed in their study.

A study on life span difference was done earlier in 1969, by James Hamilton and Gordon Mestler from the Department of Anatomy, State University of New York College of Medicine. They studied the mortality of patients in a mental institution with a population of 735 intact White males, 883 intact White females, and 297 White eunuchs. It was common practice to castrate mentally challenged children at the turn of the century, part of the eugenics movement. They reported that survival was significantly better in eunuchs than in intact males and females. This survival advantage started at age 25 years and continued throughout their life. The life expectancy for eunuchs was 69.3 years compared to 55.7 years in intact males. Males castrated at 8-14 years of age—before sexual maturation—were longer lived than males castrated at 20-39 years of age—after sexual maturation. Castration reduced the age of death by 0.28 years for every year of castration from age 39 and younger.

There are many changes that happen as a result of castration. The world was very different 600 years ago, or even 100 years age. In most cases it was a very violent world where men suffered early mortality through wars, famine, and daily trauma.  Eunuchs, because of their demeanor might have escaped all of that onslaught of violence. They might also have had more nurturing qualities that extended to looking after themselves better. We will never know.

Pragmatically we know that sex, and the activity surrounding sex, increases longevity. Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin in the Longevity Project longitudinal study provided our first glimpse into female orgasms and longevity. The study which was begun by Lewis Terman of Stanford University, California in 1921 on 1548 children with high intelligence born around 1910 was continued after his death in 1958. Now in their nineties, the study morphed into a gerontological study. One of the interesting and pertinent findings was that women who had a higher frequency of orgasm tended to live longer than their less fulfilled sisters.

No data on men was collected from this study. But a separate study in in the town of Caerphilly in South Wales, England, provided evidence for males as well.  George Davey Smith from Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol,, England, and his colleagues interviewed nearly 1,000 men in six small villages about their sexual frequency,, then followed up on their death records ten years later. The authors determined that men who had two or more orgasms a week had died at a rate half that of the men who had orgasms less than once a month. And importantly there was a dose effect, where the more times these men had orgasms the longer they lived.

These observations have been replicated in Sweden and in the USA for both male and female.

The most conclusive evidence however comes from the masters of longevity themselves—centenarians. In the Blue Zones the cluster of centenarians teach us about the pragmatisms of living longer and sexual activity is a significant part of their life. In some cases they also carried out extra marital affairs.

Perhaps there are better ways to cheat the body to tell it that it is not quite finished yet. Perhaps if you behave like you are still sowing seeds, the body will still support your endeavors. It is likely then that you do not need to cheat the body. It seems that enjoying its great capacity, in all its wondrous glory, is enough to increase longevity. Castration might cheat the body to stay around longer, but sex will make it want to stay longer. 

© USA Copyrighted 2014 Mario D. Garrett