EA Forums

Study of Factors Influencing Castration Ideation and the

Consequences of Emasculation on the Eunuch.org Members

We invite you to participate in a survey of the Eunuch Archive (www.eunuch.org) community. The survey is for eunuchs, wannabes, and others who may have interests in castration.

This survey follows on a previous survey posted on the Eunuch Archive in 2005. The results of that study have been published in a series of four papers and we would be happy to send copies of any of those papers to anyone who requests them.

The previous study constituted the only research done to date to characterize the modern day eunuch community in the western world. However, it also revealed major holes in our knowledge. We are particularly interested in learning more about the social and sexual background of people interested in castration. Thus, many of the questions in this new survey are quite personal, but they can help us better define the community.

This questionnaire will take approximately 30-45 minutes to complete, but one need not do that all in one sitting.

The questionnaire has the full approval of the board that oversees eunuch.org. The two researchers, Drs. Richard Wassersug and Thomas Johnson, are members of the Eunuch Archive Board. Tom Johnson is a retired professor of Anthropology from California State University, Chico. Dr. Richard Wassersug is a professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also "out" as a medical eunuch because of his treatments for prostate cancer and has published several personal essays on that topic.

Because of the personal nature of the questions we are asking, it is very important that members of the community understand their answers will be completely confidential. At no time will we ask for your name or email address. Your confidentiality will be completely protected and nothing you say or write will be traceable to you individually. This survey has been reviewed by the Dalhousie Health Sciences Research Ethics Board in advance of posting on the surveymonkey website. Before starting the questionnaire, you will be asked to read about this project and give your consent to participate in the study.

We greatly appreciate your help in this study.

[The survey is now closed. Preliminary data will be posted soon. Thank you all.]

On behalf of the Eunuch.Org board of eunuchs I would strongly encourage as many as possible to take the survey. We had nearly 1,000 people respond to the first one. A similar response would go a long way toward greater validity of the data sought. Tom and Richard are great friends to this community, and their efforts, and those of many others seldom seen "out front," go a long way in making this community and its objectives of greater acceptance, especially to the medical and scientific community, a very important consideration.

I am certain that I speak not only for myself, but several others on the board, in strongly encouraging participation in this effort. Please take the time to respond.

Kristoff

There is apparently a problem with the survey. I carefully hit the agree button and when I got all done with it, it said my answers did not count because I did not hit the agree to terms..Please check. I used Internet Explorer and wonderful Vista.. HeHeHe. If that makes a nickel's diffference.

OneBallBoi (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:00 am There is apparently a problem with the survey. I carefully hit the agree button and when I got all done with it, it said my answers did not count because I did not hit the agree to terms..Please check.

I experienced the samething. I emailed Patricia Lindley about it.

Worked fine. Good luck! with your research. At least, I think that it worked.

It told me the same thing as it did OBB and Incuse. It said my results didn't count.

Oh, the joys of computers...

Browser used - Firefox 3, java - enabled.

I've just run a quick check of the first people to take the survey. Of the 28 who logged in, 27 completed the survey and their results are stored for later analysis. The glitch seems to be in the coding for that final page, not earlier, and it has now been corrected. If you got to the final page your results did register.

Sorry for the problem....

Give me a moment, this deserves to be on the front page....

.... There, done.

JesusA wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:22 am I've just run a quick check of the first people to take the survey. Of the 28 who logged in, 27 completed the survey and their results are stored for later analysis. The glitch seems to be in the coding for that final page, not earlier, and it has now been corrected. If you got to the final page your results did register.

Sorry for the problem....

er ... final page? how would i know? I pressed -next- (had typed an answer to something about feelings in youth) at about 17:25 CDT and got what appeared to be the cover (?) page.

drat.

Maybe again tomorrow when i get past being peeved,

markle

We've figured out the source of this problem. Having the time when it occurred was the key. It happened once before when we were having a series of friends and students run through the survey answering questions at random to make sure it all worked, but we couldn't repeat it. Whenever the survey administrator opens the innards of the survey to make a change or correction, whoever is taking the survey is bounced back to the beginning page. This second occurrence of the problem was the clue we needed. At 17:25 CDT we were correcting the problem with the final page! I apologize for the time that you've wasted on your first attempt, and hope that you will try again. ----J.A.

By all means complete the survey. This may be the only way we have of getting proper research done. Our entire community stands to benefit from this survey. --FLO--

I completed the survey. I wish I had Mr. Peabody's Wayback machine for some of the questions. I think I answered them as well as I could remember. I hope everyone takes the time to fill it out.

i filled it out and i encourage everyone else to take the time to do so also. i hope my submission went thru, i was one of the first to fill it out.

I completed it and I enjoyed it.

Where it says to identify yourself (optional), I wasn't sure if I spelled "IEunuch" correctly

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:26 pm Where it says to identify yourself (optional), I wasn't sure if I spelled "IEunuch" correctly

Just a quick reassurance, in case someone doesn't understand Mac's joke:

The university required clear proof that there was absolutely no way to trace any individual from his responses to the survey. It was designed that way from the beginning, but the number of hoops they made us jump through to provide proof was pretty daunting. It took a couple of months of work to manage it to their satisfaction.

On the other hand, in the first survey several people wrote their email addresses in the final question asking if there was anything else they wanted to add, suggesting that they be contacted directly.

The abuse portion of the survey bothered me. D:

twaddler (imported) wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:28 am The abuse portion of the survey bothered me. D:

I wouldn't be surprised if it bothered a lot of the members here. It did me. But think of the bigger picture. The information we provide to the university the better things will be in the end for all eunuchs and our unique community. Try to endure it.

The point of the survey, at least ONE point of it, is to relate the desire for voluntary castration/emasculation to the amount and type of abuse received in childhood.

It's not pretty, but it's a known factor.

It bothered me too.

A lot of the things we endured as children stay with us into adulthood. For example, I am still deathly terrified of dentists, as Jesus can attest. I recently had a split molar repaired, and during the initial injection of anesthetic into my jaw, I seized up and stopped breathing. All of this from my next-to-last encounter with a dentist when I was 12, and the last being when I was 18. Both of them were extremely traumatic and would have resulted in a huge lawsuit today.

I know that's not a very good example, but I'm sure you get the point.

Perhaps a better one is the fact that I panic whenever a man introduces himself as "Mickey", one of my early childhood abuser's names.

ok....took the survey...hope it's helpful

I enjoyed the survey and was glad to help. A couple of questins could have had a box for DNA (Does not apply) s I had to leave them blank.

Hope the info helps. Will we get to see any results from the survey?

Bob

I want to thank all of you who are taking the time to complete the survey. As of a couple of minutes ago, 220 people had opened the first page and 96 had completed the survey. We plan to leave it up for a month or more and to encourage as many people as possible to complete it. The first round survey had 996 people complete it.

It takes a while to analyze the results, but interim items will be posted as we go along. The papers that eventually get written based on it will be available to anyone who requests them.

The four papers published based on the first survey are available in PDF format to anyone who sends me a <Private Message> (just click on my name on this post, if you are logged in to the Archive) and gives me an off-Archive email address that will accept PDF attachments. The Archive mail system does not allow them.

For non-members who want copies, send a message to me at:

JAzevado-at-gmail-dot-com

and I will get them off to you.

Just completed the survey, I hope that it helps. Good luck with it!

What really bothered me was that at least THREE separate times I was asked "How old were you when you first became interested in castration?"

OK, I understand that is a good and valid question, but I HATE reading the same question over and over again.

I thought about including contact information in the "anything else?" box, but decided the pages of junk I'd wind up writing would be neither interesting nor helpful.

Though, the more I think about things I want to add here, the more I reconsider that...

Survey was interesting, but I don't think it asked enough questions. (Don't ask me to suggest any, though....) At the end it blew me out of the achive and I had to log in all over again.

Kangan (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:58 am Survey was interesting, but I don't think it asked enough questions. (Don't ask me to suggest any, though....) At the end it blew me out of the achive and I had to log in all over again.

Suggest you request and read the previously published papers from Jesus. That survey asked a great many questions, likely many of those you wish had been asked here. This survey is a follow-up to the previous questionnaire.