After the ages of 50 to 60, some 60% of men suffer from a prostate affliction. However, among these afflictions only 10% to 15% are prostate cancers. For these cases there are various treatments, including hormone therapy, radiotherapy, surgical intervention and so on. Then, there are permanent solutions for prostate cancer and chemical castration is one of them. The connection between prostate cancer and chemical castration lies in the hormones.



Specialists have proven that the secretion of testosterone in the male body favors the growth and development of prostate cancer tumors. As such, solutions include stopping the action of the hormones on the tumor and in the body, as well as preventing the secretion of these hormones. Testosterone is mostly secreted by the testicles. If you want to stop secretion, you must remove the testicles or cancel their actions. Here, chemical castration comes into play.



But, as I have said, there are many forms of treatment against prostate cancer. In such cases, the surgeon may completely remove the prostate, also removing the capsule containing the prostate. When faced with non-cancerous adenoma, the surgeon only removes the core of the gland, as if it were the central part of an orange, namely they remove the interior part that pressed on the urethra, leaving the prostate container, the capsule, in its place.

This removal of the prostate core can be performed endoscopically. Another possibility for intervention is radiotherapy, represented by radioactive capsules introduced through needles into the prostate, which destroy the cancer cells through the rays they radiate. These methods are used in the cases where the doctor notices the disease in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, most prostate cancer patients come in late, so they can only receive palliative treatment.

This category includes hormonal treatment, consisting of castration, namely the removal of the testicles (which secrete testosterone which, in turn, acts as a catalyst for the division of the cancer cells). There have also been discovered drugs which have results similar to castration, the treatment called chemical castration. These drugs inhibit on a central level the production of circulating testosterone, and they have the same effect as a castration operation. In the early stages of the non-cancerous prostate adenoma, the doctor may also use medicine, alfa blocking drugs and others, which block the production of testosterone. Chemical castration is an irreversible process and it is also taken into consideration for the punishment of repeated sex offenders.



The administration of hormone injections to sexual predators is one of the legislative proposals for the reduction of crime in the U.K.. Those who came up with this strategy believe that the injections, which are the equivalent of “chemical castration”, of sexual predators, would prevent potential attacks, by eliminating the aggressive tendencies in the offenders. In Denmark, sex offenders are already receiving this treatment, in Switzerland authorities give heroin instead of meth to drug addicted patients while in Texas the prisoners are forced to wear pink shirts. Other ideas include wearing microchips by patients with mental problems in order to track their conduct and transmit messages to parent, warning them that there is a pedophile in the area.