Oz men turn to libido-lowering drugs to avoid sex-related crimes

Sydney, April 10(ANI): Australian men with high sex drives are using testosterone-lowering drugs in order to avoid committing sex related crimes.

Health Department figures in Australia showed an increase of 1150 patients each year from 2004 to 2007, who have been undergoing the medication, cyproterone acetate, for sexual deviance.

However, Stephen Allnutt, a forensic psychiatrist in private practice and conjoint senior lecturer at the University of NSW, briefed, "a lot of people aren't comfortable taking them ... Clinicians aren't comfortable prescribing them."

Also he mentioned that it is under-prescribed.

The American Psychiatric Association describes sexual deviance, or paraphilia, as "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours generally involving non-human objects, or the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner, or children, or non-consenting persons".

Allnutt said the testosterone-lowering treatment can help "separate personality from sex drive".

"Just because you have a sex drive that would be regarded as deviant, you don't necessarily have a bad personality. [But] if you've got an interest in children, sex drive is a strong thing and can sometimes overwhelm or influence your decision-making," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.

John, a 44-year-old man with women's underwear fetish, who has served a three-year prison term, shared his experience with the drugs.

He said: "I've tried coming off. If I come off it leads to reoffending ... Freedom's better than jail, isn't it?

"It can make you light headed if you get up quickly. I'm a bit tender in the breasts but I wouldn't worry if I ended up staying on them indefinitely." (ANI)