Andy_McKenzie comments on Request for suggestions: ageing and data-mining - Less Wrong Discussion
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Whether male eunuchs actually live longer is controversial to say the least. Eg, the effect is not seen in dogs. In humans there are clear confounds.
Also, t levels don't seem to clearly correlate with decreased or increased lifespans. And as your last link points out, lower levels of t (ie hypogonadism) are correlated with increased risk of CVD mortality.
Yes, you're right about that. The paper says that:
However, the paper also says that:
In fact, since there is a tradeoff between health and reproductive ability, we might expect the development of health problems in previously healthy males to cause testosterone levels to drop, as a means of offsetting some of the negative effects of said health problem. This could account for why lower levels of testosterone are correlated with increased CVD mortality.
However,
is a statement which I emphatically disagree with.
In my view there is reasonable evidence for a trade-off between health and reproduction between species, but not within species. Am I wrong on this?
On eunuch lifespan, you are basically relying on three studies, each of which are historical, ie the Mental Health studies in the mid 20th century and the historical Korean eunuch study. I think there are big problems in interpreting these studies. For example, it's not like the eunuch lifespans in either sample is as long as men in wealthy countries, which makes things like infections and generally risky behavior a much stronger candidate for the mechanism, which wouldn't generalize to lifespan today. What am I wrong about here?
Again, why don't we see the effect in dogs? http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3068/does-castration-longer-life
Let me be clear that I want you to be right. It suggests a clear mechanism to increasing lifespan in men. I just don't think that there's very strong evidence for it.