'Dr Steinach coming to make old young!': sex glands, vasectomy and the quest for rejuvenation in the roaring twenties

Abstract

In the 1920s, research on the endocrine glands--especially the sex glands--was widely expected to lead to revolutionary new ways of improving human life. The medical marketplace was crowded with glandular techniques to revitalize the aged. 'Monkey glands' apart, the Austrian physiologist Eugen Steinach's simple, vasectomy-like operation was perhaps the most popular of these. Steinach was one of the leading endocrine researchers of the early 20th century and the Steinach Operation was based on rigorous laboratory research. It was much more than a simple scientific error, and its history shows us how early endocrine research was shaped by broader social and cultural forces.