Sex - Basic Aspects of Human Sexuality

The Role of Hormones: Testosterone

What are the effects of castration on sexual behavior?
Castration before puberty
Before puberty, castration, i.e the surgical removal of the testicles, prevents a boy's sexual maturation. He does not experience a voice change, his sex organs remain underdeveloped, and he remains infertile.

Castrati and eunuchs
In previous centuries, both Europe and Asia had a custom of castrating some young boys, although for different reasons: In Europe the boys were castrated in order to train them as opera stars (so-called castrati), i.e. male singers with very high and very strong voices. Some of them became very rich and famous, and the greatest composers like Handel, Gluck, and Mozart wrote operas for them. In Asia, boys were castrated in order to make them harem guards (so-called eunuchs). They could “safely” be left in the company of women, because they could not impregnate them.

From the left: Italy: 1. The castrato Farinelli (Carlo Broschi 1705-1782) led a fairy-tale life, first on European opera stages and then at the Spanish royal court in Madrid. 2. The “last castrato” Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922) was a member of  the Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome and, in 1902, made some recordings now still available on CD. Turkey: The Ottoman Empire also employed castrated men as harem guards. Shown here is the “Chief of the White Eunuchs”. China: As this early photograph shows, the eunuchs of the imperial court usually had not only their testicles cut off but also the penis.