As recounted in the biography that Brinkley had commissioned, he struck upon the idea of transplanting goat testicles into men when a patient came to him to ask if he could fix someone who was "sexually weak". Brinkley responded by joking that the patient would have no problem if he had "a pair of those buck glands in you". The patient then begged Brinkley to try the operation, which Brinkley did, for $150. (The patient's son later told "The Kansas City Star" that Brinkley had in fact offered to pay his father "handsomely" if he'd go along with the experiment.)