Why self castration

A couple of hours previously he had castrated himself, removing the entire scrotum. When he came into the hospital his appearance indicated that he had lost considerable blood, and the severed vessels were still bleeding.

Examination revealed that the scrotum had been amputated close to the urethra, and the spermatic cords were retracted into the external abdominal rings. The vessels of the cords were ligated and the cutaneous flaps of the wound were sutured in the median line.

A week subsequently the wound had healed by first intention; and when cicatrization and contraction are complete there will remain only a median raphe, in close contact with the penis. For a day or two after admission the man was reticent, and it was difficult to induce him to.

Stroch D. Coronavirus Resource Center. Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to use our site, or clicking "Continue," you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy Continue. However, the report by Wu and Gu that the prostate was completely impalpable in 21 of 26 Chinese eunuchs and very small in the other 5 25 , 26 was unexpected and implies that viability of the gland throughout life requires the continued presence of gonadal hormones, presumably androgens. It is possible that very small prostates were missed on physical examination by Wu and Gu 25 , Alternatively, it is possible that disappearance of the prostate is a function of time after castration, as the duration of castration in their study was much longer than that in any other report, recognizing that the duration of castration in the subset of men with barely palpable prostates 55 yr did not differ from that of the group overall 54 yr.

It is to the credit of the pioneering physician scientists involved that useful medical information was obtained about the long term effects of castration, under circumstances that must have been difficult, from the study of these now extinct groups of castrated men, and it is impressive that all their findings osteoporosis, failure of closure of the epiphyses, reactive pituitary hyperplasia, shrinkage of the prostate, and development of gynecomastia have been confirmed subsequently by studies of individuals or small groups of individuals with various forms of hypogonadism.

One question of interest concerning castration in men cannot be resolved from the available data, namely the issue as to whether the life span of men is shorter than that of women because of the presence of testes or the absence of ovaries and menstruation 5. Indeed, there are no valid data indicating that castration has any effect on life span of men. It is of some interest that no mention appears to have been made of the relation between castration and singing in any of the literature concerning the Chinese, Ottoman, or Skoptzy eunuchs, whereas there was a long tradition in Italy that associated the castrated state with phenomenal singing by men both in choirs and the opera 2.

The probable reasons for this apparent discrepancy are several. Consequently, it is difficult to interpret the literature on the subject in medical terms. Second, in the instances in which castration was performed, only boys with extraordinary singing ability were chosen for such a procedure, and it is likely that singing ability would be no different in men selected for castration using other criteria than in the population at large.

Cindy Karolikowski, Reference Librarian of the Shiffman Medical Library in Detroit, provided invaluable assistance in the initiation of these studies, and the assistance of Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Reference Librarian in the Historical Collections of the New York Academy of Medicine Library, made it possible for us to broaden their scope.

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Correspondence to Mustapha Ahsaini. MA was the principal author and a major contributor in writing the manuscript. MFT analyzed and interpreted the patient data and review of the literature. AB and KL both provided medical and surgical support for this case, and contributed to the writing of the paper.

RSW contributed to the writing of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. Reprints and Permissions. Ahsaini, M. Bilateral testicular self-castration due to cannabis abuse: a case report. J Med Case Reports 5, Download citation. Received : 12 December Accepted : 23 August Published : 23 August Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. View archived comments 1. Skip to main content. Search all BMC articles Search. Download PDF. Abstract Introduction The self-mutilating patient is an unusual psychiatric presentation in the emergency room.

We present a unique and original case of bilateral self-castration caused by cannabis abuse. Case Presentation We report a case of a year-old Berber man, who was presented to our emergency room with externalization of both testes using his long fingernails, associated with hemodynamic shock.

Conclusion The clinical characteristics of self-mutilation are manifold and there is a lack of agreement about its etiology. We report an uncommon case of a man with self-castration resulting from cannabis addiction. Case Presentation We describe the case of a year-old Berber man, originally from Morocco, who presented to our emergency room with self-inflicted testicular injuries.

Figure 1. Unilateral scrotal laceration. Full size image. Figure 2. Both testis after externalization. Figure 3. Long fingernails. Figure 4. Ecchymosis skin extended from his scrotum to the inguinal region. Figure 5. Ligation of both spermatic cords. Discussion Self-mutilation, a very unusual situation in routine urology, is a direct and deliberate harm to one's body without conscious intent to die.

Conclusion Self-mutilation behavior is increasingly observed in emergency departments, but the relationship between genital injuries and substance addiction, particularly cannabis abuse, has to the best of our knowledge never been described.

Consent Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this manuscript and accompanying images. References 1. Article PubMed Google Scholar 5. Article Google Scholar 6.

Article PubMed Google Scholar PubMed Google Scholar Article Google Scholar View author publications. Additional information Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions MA was the principal author and a major contributor in writing the manuscript.