Entire Web sites are devoted to nude people missing their arms or legs. Most aficionados are men who love to gawk at female amputees, Bruno said. But there is also a gay community and groups for those turned on by leg braces, deformed feet and bunions. Wannabes are similar to people who suffer from gender-identity disorder and want to change their sex, Bruno said. Apotemnophilia is the result of individuals believing that the only way they can be loved is by being an amputee.
Some sufferers do appear to be sexually frustrated.
A documentary that aired this month on the Discovery Health Channel profiled a Los Angeles woman named Corinne who wants both her legs amputated above the knee. Corinne admitted she's never had a normal sexual relationship. There is just an overwhelming sense of despair sometimes. I don't want to die, but there are times I don't want to keep living in a body that doesn't feel like mine. Everybody's projecting their stuff into it, and they don't understand.