In 1889 a distinguished physiologist injected himself with testicular extract and told a Paris society he felt thirty years younger; he was sincere and wrong, having found the placebo effect. The episode follows the rejuvenation craze to the isolation of testosterone in 1935 and the diagnosis invented nine years later to sell it. The claim that Nazi Germany issued testosterone to soldiers is a myth.
Who's who
- Charles-Edouard Brown-SequardPhysiologist whose 1889 self-injection began organotherapy
- Eugen SteinachVienna physiologist who promoted vasoligation as rejuvenation
- Sigmund FreudUnderwent the Steinach operation in 1923
- W. B. YeatsPoet who underwent the Steinach operation in 1934
- Serge VoronoffSurgeon who grafted primate testis tissue into patients
- Leo StanleySan Quentin surgeon who implanted testicular tissue in prisoners
- Ernst LaqueurAmsterdam pharmacologist whose group isolated and named testosterone
- Adolf ButenandtChemist who synthesized testosterone and shared the 1939 Nobel Prize
Where it happens
- Paris, France+5 more episodesSite of Brown-Sequard's 1889 announcement
- San Quentin State Prison, CaliforniaWhere testicular implants were performed from 1913 to 1951
- Amsterdam, NetherlandsHome of the group that isolated testosterone
- Vienna, AustriaBase of Steinach and site of the 1954 world championships
Timeline
- June 1, 1889Brown-Sequard announces his self-injection to the Societe de Biologie
- 1913Leo Stanley begins testicular implants on prisoners
- May 1935Testosterone is isolated and named in Amsterdam
- 1939Butenandt and Ruzicka share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1944Heller and Myers publish 'The Male Climacteric' in JAMA
- November 29, 1990Anabolic Steroids Control Act is signed
Still debated
Operation counts for Voronoff and Stanley are disputed, and Butenandt's conduct during the Nazi period remains argued by historians. The claim that Nazi Germany issued testosterone to soldiers is documented as a myth.