Man Made: A Memoir of My Body

— Prolactin level of a nursing mother = 100 ng/ml

— Prolactin level of the author on October 16, 1997 = 1,578 ng/mlOn the surface, Kenny Baker seemed a model man. He was a nationally ranked hockey goalie who played for Colgate on a full scholarship; girls threw themselves at him and his teammates; professional scouts regularly came to see him play; fans cheered him on. Inside, though, Kenny didn't feel like a "man".

Unlike his macho teammates, Kenny found that despite his attraction to women, he had little sex drive and even less of a sex life. To his great anguish, he repeatedly found himself unable to perform sexually. Despite strenuous workouts, his body remained flabby and soft, earning him the locker room nickname "Pear". After graduation and well into his career as a hotshot journalist, Ken's secret problems and confusions grew worse.

As a Hollywood correspondent for People magazine, Ken found himself challenged and tormented by the sexually charged atmosphere of Tinseltown. Perpetually confused over the workings of his mind and body, Ken's relationships with women repeatedly fractured. Physically, matters would grow more bizarre as he would one day find himself lactating.

The macho culture that reared Ken made it agonizingly difficult for him to seek medical help or even to discuss the true nature of his condition. Eventually other health problems forced him to see a doctor who revealed something that would suddenly lift years of pain, frustration, and confusion.

Ken was suffering from a rare, chestnut-sized brain tumor thatflooded his body with massive amounts of the female hormone Prolactin. Although he was a male by nature, Ken's biochemical make-up was increasingly female. Six hours of brain surgery would finally accomplish what years of therapy, rumination, and denial could not. Finally, Ken Baker would be able to feel — and function — like a man.

At a moment of heated debate over the powers of nature versus nurture, Man Made — like no other book — illuminates the biochemical nature of sexuality. Moreover, it is a fascinating chronicle of growing up sexually as a male in America — and an agonizingly blunt and honest recollection of the pain that accompanies sexual abnormality in our post-sexual revolution culture.