Male menopause: it’s real!

Menopause. Ask any woman. She’ll describe the hot flashes...the irregular periods...the mood swings...the cruel insomnia...the weight gain...the night sweats...chills...vaginal dryness...and more painful and depressing symptoms.

The point is: for many women; menopause is real, very real. It’s not something that can be ignored or go away on its own. Women’s concerns over this uninvited guest deserve to be heard and treated like the medical affliction it is. “The change of life” is not something to be scoffed at.

But what about men?

Men? Is it true that men also experience male menopause? YES! Often referred to as andropause (male menopause), men often feel the full fury of “old-man aging” in many ways:

• Chronic fatigue
• Weight gain and a steady increase of adipose tissue (aka fat)
• Shrinking muscle mass and a dreadful loss of strength
• Depression
• Irritability
• Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
• Bothersome joint aches and pains
• Plunging libido
• Erectile dysfunction
• Drying, sagging, wrinkled skin.
• Insomnia and trouble staying asleep
• Gynecomastia (aka man boobs)
• And more symptoms, some of which are minor, but they all add up to make life miserable for many middle-aged men experiencing andropause.

These symptoms and developments are real, as real as what women suffer. But for some reason, they are usually downplayed or even ignored. “Man up,”..."Deal with it,”...and “It’s natural, there’s nothing you can do about it” are the “advice” that is all too often given to men who are seeing their manhood fade like the setting sun.

Worse, consider this. The above idiotic cliches are not the only things that frustrate aging men. At a time when the wheels seem to be coming off the world in fits of madness, the added responsibilities that men have, the continual concern over inflation, their family's health as well as their own, and the near-total disappearance of common sense and sanity in contemporary society, men need to be physically, mentally, and emotionally strong, and prepared to adapt to an environment disintegrating at a blistering pace.

If all of this weren’t bad enough, consider this: despite eating healthy, trying to get a good night’s sleep, working out, and calling on their mental toughness and fortitude, these disheartening symptoms continue to advance.

To be fair, a healthy lifestyle will slow down this grotesque encroachment of problems. But the real issue is the loss of a man’s precious hormones like Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Testosterone.

Perhaps part of the problem that might describe why men are reluctant to consider hormone replacement therapy is the bad rap on testosterone. The media portrays men’s concerns over diminishing masculinity as nothing to be concerned about. Men are subjected to a continual bombardment of a media drumbeat that “times have changed,” and so-called “toxic masculinity” is the main problem.

Strong, brave, muscular men are mocked as Neanderthals by dorky, wimpy, cowardly journalists who the former Mr. Olympia, famous actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to as “girly men.”

It’s time for a complete culture shift concerning testosterone

Dr. Jeff Foster, a men’s health specialist and a co-founder of the H3Health company focused on the well-being of 40-plus males, agrees. “The question I get asked the most is, ‘Is the male menopause real?’?” he said. “And my answer is a definite ‘yes."

Dr. Foster explained that the difference between andropause and menopause is that andropause advances slowly, methodically, and stealth-like in men and can develop at different life stages. Testosterone steadily accumulates in men until around 30, gradually decreasing by approximately 10% per decade.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is! Dr. Foster stated that “Some men might have a really high testosterone at 30, and they may not notice a loss of testosterone until they’re 70. A guy’s peak might only have ever been at the bottom end of normal, and then he might suddenly get symptoms – like, ‘Why am I tired all the time?’ – as early as his 30s.”

“As a guy,” he continued, “testosterone makes you what you are. Yes, you can reduce or mitigate its loss by eating well, training hard, and ensuring you don’t have other risk factors in life (smoking and excessive alcohol intake). But if you understand how the male process works, then you also see how it matches with the female process. In just the same way that a lack of estrogen affects women, when you take testosterone out of guys’ bodies, they feel dreadful. Testosterone deficiency in men mimics menopause in women very closely.”

The problem is that many physicians often dismiss hypogonadism (low testosterone, aka “Low-T”). “Most doctors don’t consider testosterone deficiency in their differential diagnosis for men with low energy,” Dr. Foster claims. “Worse still is the fact that many of us [doctors] don’t even know that we should.”

Recently, Foster saw a patient in his late 60s who had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia. “When the testosterone was replaced his brain fog lifted, and the patient’s memory went back to normal.” As mentioned earlier, brain fog is a symptom of andropause.

So what to do? What can be done?

Step one is to acknowledge the problem. Men suffer from andropause as much as women suffer from menopause. There is no reason for men to be ashamed of their diminished manhood. And that goes double for physicians. When men complain about this ebbing of energy and other symptoms of Low-T, the first thing to do is a test for hormone levels.

A blood test is step 2. Before any hormone replacement therapy, it must be determined that low hormone levels are the problem. The challenge is that hormones naturally fluctuate, similar to how estrogen fluctuates in women; therefore, the symptoms may not be attributed to hormone depletion.

“They vary substantially over the course of a day,” explains Dr. Richard Quinton, a consultant endocrinologist. The highest levels occur on waking, with the afternoon and early evening yielding lower levels. “And a big meal suppresses testosterone levels by 20-30 percent.”

Dr. Quinton continued: “Every single form of acute and chronic physical and mental illness is also associated with lower testosterone levels as a normal physiological effect. This is not hypogonadism – decreased functional activity of the gonads when the body is not producing enough of the testosterone hormone – but non-gonadal illness syndrome (NGIS). Symptoms of this include obesity and a metabolic slowdown. “Genuine andropause is actually very rare, affecting fewer than 1.5 percent of older men. Unfortunately, geriatricians and rheumatologists rarely test for it, let alone treat it.”

The message is simple. For men who are experiencing these depressing symptoms, stop complaining about it! Do something about it! Contact our clinic. We will arrange a lab blood test to see if a loss of hormones is the culprit before we begin any hormone therapy.

Contact us for a FREE, no-obligation discussion concerning the benefits of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) or Human Growth Hormone (HGH) Replacement Therapy!

Reference

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/need-start-taking-male-menopause-seriously/

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