In today’s news that nobody wants to hear, researchers discovered that men who were castrated lived significantly longer than their brethren who retained ownership over testicles.
It should be noted, however, that these findings come from studying records from centuries ago comparing the life spans of 81 men who were castrated either by accident or on purpose with men who were not castrated.
The Guardian (of course) reports:
The evidence comes after careful study of genealogy records of noble members of the Imperial court of the Korean Chosun dynasty (AD 1392-1910).
Kyung-Jin Min, of Inha University, said: ‘This discovery adds an important clue for understanding why there is a difference in the expected life span between men and women.’
…By poring over those records, Min and his colleague Cheol-Koo Lee, of Korea University, found that eunuchs lived 14 to 19 years longer than other men did.
Thoughts?
Image of close-up of a gold door courtesy of Shutterstock
“By poring over those records, Min and his colleague Cheol-Koo Lee, of Korea University, found that eunuchs lived 14 to 19 years longer than other men did.”
But women only live 5 to 7 years longer than men on average. There would have to be a lot more eunuchs or if Rush Limbaugh is correct feminist men. It’s the chickification, but a word of caution to the ladies. You should give your man his balls back. It seems to be shortening your lives. I’m kidding. 🙂
Sorry in advance for the kneejerk goose/gander switch, but here goes: Imagine finding very limited circumstantial evidence, from a very small population size, that determined that women with clitorectomies lived longer than other women. (I know, not exactly comparing apples to apples, so to speak.) Would it go over very well for a man to post that on a Good Women Project website? I’m guessing not so much. It would probably come across as insensitive (so to speak) and even interpreted as a little bit aggressive. Then again, now that I think about it, there’s already a similar issue that… Read more »
It ain’t the years in your life, it’s the life in your years….
This is news?
I thought it was established years ago that married men live longer.
They don’t. It only feels that way… 😉
::rimshot::
The obvious question: What were the general life conditions of the eunuchs, compared to those “other men”?
Were they better fed, clothed, and harboured? Better protected from dangers, diseases and war, etc, than the control group?
OK let’s reread this …
1392-1910?
So my grandfather was born in 1898…
And the Chosun dynasty was what? Put out of business in 1910? So were they still rolling out castratti in 1910?
Sheesh! This really isn’t the sort of methodology that one expects of the hard sciences. While there is quite possibly something to this, it would be nice to be relying upon something firmer than Korean Imperial genealogical records.
Not worth it, right?
We thought not long ago that a restricted calorie diet would result in longer life spans (i.e. the Wisconsin study) but it turns out not to be true. Even if it were, I’d say it wasn’t worth it.