Thanks, everybody. I need to clarify that I am still at the stage of musing and asking others about their experiences, rather than making any specific plans. But I would only want to have my balls removed if I did, and keep the empty sac and reduced penis as a mark of my emasculation.
You can find a few papers in medical journals describing studies comparing the use of a burdizzo against conventional surgical castration, mostly as a treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Two links are at the bottom of this post. The things I take away are:
1. No one died, or suffered any permanent injury other than the obvious.
2. Anesthetic is definitely necessary.
3. The reduction in T varies between studies, evidently depending on whether blood supply is cut off completely.
4. The testes will atrophy but not entirely disappear.
Between points 2 and 3, this isn't as simple as it may seem. So I won't be doing this on my own, or with the aid of someone I meet on the internet, any time soon. That means looking into the amount of counseling, travel, and $$$ needed to do this at a clinic, which I somehow suspect may be more difficult in the US than in Canada.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...ChAWegQIFhAB&usg=AOvVaw3UPrsN1P9sjevyd1YFzIOA
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...4QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw26faQ_t8BdGAgoS2aVwRcf