The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) recognized eunuchs (men who wish to remove their testicles) as a gender identity group in its most recent report, recommending them castration as a medical treatment option. The WPATH is the association that sets the medical standards for transgender people
For the purposes of the standards of care, we define eunuch as an individual assigned male at birth, whose testes became non-functional, and who is identified as a eunuch.
In its guide "The Eighth Edition of the Standards of Care for Transgender People," the WPATH added eunuchs to the same gender category that features "non-binary" and "intersex." It also stated that these groups need "gender affirming care" that may include physical and chemical castration in order to live with their respective identities.
As with other gender-diverse people, eunuchs may also seek castration to better align their bodies with their gender identity. As such, eunuchs are gender non-conforming individuals who have needs that require medically necessary gender affirming care.
World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Releases the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8.https://t.co/xRQX1uIhKD
- WPATH (@wpath) September 16, 2022
"Castrate for safety"
According to the association, eunuchs experience "minority stress," as few have publicly identified as eunuchs. WPATH recommends medical treatments for these groups to improve physical and mental condition, including:
- Hormone suppression or replacement with testosterone or estrogen.
- Orchiectomy (removal of the testicles) to stop testosterone production.
- Penectomy to alter the body to match their own image.
The organization argues that health care providers should castrate people for their own safety if they believe that person is likely to seek chemical or surgical castrated outside of a formal medical setting:
They desire a body that is compatible with their eunuch identity, a body that does not have fully functional male genitalia. Some other eunuchs feel great discomfort with their male genitalia and need to have them removed to feel comfortable in their bodies. Others are indifferent to having male external genitalia as long as they are only physically present and do not function to produce androgens and male secondary sexual characteristics.
The eunuch category does not include men who have had their genitals removed for medically necessary procedures, such as treatment for prostate cancer.
"Castration fantasies"
WPATH has been criticized for basing its guide heavily on anecdotes of self-castration shared on a website called Eunuch Archive, which it called "the greatest wealth of information on contemporary people identified as eunuchs."
The site hosts thousands of members who discuss their erotic fantasy stories about castration, child castration, pedophilia, sexual torture, medical experiments on pre-teen children, bondage fetishes and racial abuse. Along with these posts, the site features an FAQ page where users describe becoming a eunuch as a fetish and encourages users to "ask for a cutter" or ask for "partners to play castration." It also displays pornographic images.
