On males[ edit ] When used on males, these drugs can reduce sex drive, compulsive sexual fantasies, and capacity for sexual arousal. Life-threatening side effects are rare, but some users show increases in body fat and reduced bone density, which increase long-term risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.
They may also experience gynecomastia development of larger-than-normal mammary glands in males ; full development is less common unless chemical castration is combined with feminizing oestrogen therapy. Also seen is a sudden shrinking in bone mass and discoloration of the lips, [8] [9] reduced body hair, [10] and muscle mass.
But benperidol does not affect testosterone and is therefore not a castration agent. Chemical castration is often seen as an easier alternative to life imprisonment or the death penalty because it allows the release of sex offenders while reducing or eliminating the chance that they reoffend.
Gagne, 48 males with long-standing histories of sexually deviant behaviour were given medroxyprogesterone acetate for as long as 12 months. Forty of those subjects were recorded as to have diminished desires for deviant sexual behaviour, less frequent sexual fantasies, and greater control over sexual urges. The research recorded a continuation of this more positive behaviour after the administration of the drug had ended with no evidence of adverse side effects and recommended medroxyprogesterone acetate along with counselling as a successful method of treatment for serial sex offenders.
However, in animal species where females continue their mating behaviour after being spayed, the males also continue to mate after being castrated. So there are scientists who argue that it makes no biological sense to assume that any treatment that emulates castration would remove sex drive in men but not in women. These scientists argue that these observations, along with the fact that humans are animals and subject to evolution , show that it is flawed to think that male sexuality would be treatable by medication if female sexuality is not.
