Can Space Marines have sex?

[Rissan4ever]

I'm putting together a Deathwatch RPG campaign, and the question of Space Marines having sex came up. I've read that Marines get "chemically castrated," but it's unclear exactly what that means. I know Space Marines can't produce children, but is the sex drive still there? Can anybody shed some light?

[bfmusashi]

Space Marines don't come with the Chem Geld talent so a temptation for nooky could still work. One the other hand it takes them a while to get their armor on and off so for this to be an issue the seducer would have to have some kind of tech use and armorer skills and probably some familiarity with astartes armor to be effective.
It's also worth noting, in the current fluff, space marines are grabbed just before girls become neat and thrust into an all male society devoted to killing things. Most likely, they'd be into dudes and that makes some people oogy. I'd use that to shut it down if you don't want to deal with it.
I think there was supposed to be a mention in one of Ragnar's books that he still likes the ladies, but it was a divergence supposedly unique to the Space Wolves.

[Rissan4ever]

LOL! You have a point about possibly liking dudes. Unless the gene-seeding process completely retards puberty, which wouldn't work if you need big strapping lads, those sexual impulses have to go somewhere. And there's no girls around, so...

It may never come up in game, but my group can get a bit pervy at times, so it's something to think about.

[Paul]

Chemically castrated usually means "chemically unable to produce sperm"

It has nothing to do with the existence or use of a penis.

So they COULD have sex, in that they have the gear.

But how this "chemical castration" affects their hormones and sex-drives is anyone's guess.

[Wildeybeast]

I would think that they are too devoted to war, duty, honour etc to worry about such things. I also question when they would find time for wooing. SM's get very little downtime and that would usually be when they are transporting between warzones. Such downtime is usually spent trianing, maintaining equipment etc, it's not like they get/need shore leave. Also, who would they have sex with? There aren't any female SM's, so they are stuck with normal women. Assuming that the gene enhancing increases the size of their penis in proportion to the rest of the body, even the most, ahem, 'generous' porn star is going to struggle to handle what a marine is packing. So unless they are taking the bromance with each other to another level, I would say no, both because of the chemical castration and the practical implications I have mentioned.

[bfmusashi]

Their bodies don't increase in size proportionately. You can not fit human proportions into Astartes armor. Additionally, if memory serves, only their bones and muscle tissues increase in size. The penis, contrary to the wisdom of Tenacious D, is not a muscle and would likely look comically small. Again, hasn't seen ladies since he was going through his special time and now he has a wee member that is likely the size of his finger. He's an eight foot death machine afraid girls are going to laugh at him.

[Magus]

Space Marines don't come with the Chem Geld talent so a temptation for nooky could still work. One the other hand it takes them a while to get their armor on and off so for this to be an issue the seducer would have to have some kind of tech use and armorer skills and probably some familiarity with astartes armor to be effective.
It's also worth noting, in the current fluff, space marines are grabbed just before girls become neat and thrust into an all male society devoted to killing things. Most likely, they'd be into dudes and that makes some people oogy. I'd use that to shut it down if you don't want to deal with it.
I think there was supposed to be a mention in one of Ragnar's books that he still likes the ladies, but it was a divergence supposedly unique to the Space Wolves.

"My... Holy Passage? Noooo!"

[Deadlift]

"My... Holy Passage? Noooo!"

Lol, are you then going to tell us about your day ?

[Dumah]

Regardless of weather *they* want to or not, *I* certainly don't want them to... Without getting too graphic, I imagine it would create quite the mess and not in the usual way.

[Dlatrex]

<---- works in hormone replacement.

To take a slightly different slant on it, the original writers may have explained the space marines lack of sexuality (intentionally or not) via the biological process to create the space marines.

::WARNING: SCIENCE CONTENT::

The space marine creation process seems takes place concurrently with puberty, with the majority of the implants being administered between the ages of 10-16. Of the implants 2-3 seem to have an endocrine function serving as new "glands" which contribute to the astartes physical development. Foremost in this discussion would be the Ossmodula and Biscopea. The former seems to contribute and direct the actions of somatotrophins (growth hormone), and the Biscopea adds to anabolic performance and development.

If the physiological changes of the space marines had gone a stimulatory route or replacing the signaling of the hypothalamus and pituitary, it would probably result in their bodies being flooded with naturally occurring hormones, with increased effect on mood, disposition, and libido as one would expect to find in a man (or woman!) with huge levels of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. It would probably also produce enormous testicles.

However, this does not seem to be the direction the Emperor took: instead he effectively injected little steroid-producing factories in the initiates body which take over the role of causing the androgenic effects on their physiology. Since this is effectively an exogenous replacement rather than a stimulatory endogenous replacement, all things being equal the body would attempt to down-regulate the production of their innate hormones. Just like a body builder who's taken high doses of anabolic steroids for years, the astartes would probably have completely (or at least severely) atrophied testicles which have retreated into the abdomen. Whether or not this counts as the 'chemical castration' (which I cannot find the actual reference for anywhere) is debatable, but the end result would likely be a similarly atrophied capacity for both sexual function and sexual libido.

In short, the implants should leave them in a state where they are not thinking about having sex, and their body is not in a good position physiologically for intercourse.

Now this assumes that the kids are not particularly precocious, and are still experiencing puberty around the same time as now in M02. It also assumes that the hormones that the glands release do not mimic the role that the missing DHT and Testosterone have in sexual arousal. Heck if the Emperor wanted it to only effect certain aspects of their physiology, and not others, I am sure he could do it.

Far from a clear-cut case, but it certainly is a possibility....