UK expands chemical castration pilot programme for sex offenders – but what are the risks?

By Daniel Kelly, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, Sheffield Hallam University

The UK government has announced plans to expand its trial of using drugs to reduce the libido of male sex offenders. The approach, often described as “chemical castration”, is controversial. But how does it work – and what are the risks?

Castration traditionally meant removing or disabling the testes, a man’s main source of testosterone, to blunt the hormone’s masculinising effects. Historically, this was done to create castrati – singers castrated before puberty to preserve their high voices – or eunuchs, often…

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