The Male Menopause, Andropause or Viropause
FACT OR FICTION
The reasons that the 'male menopause', otherwise known as the 'andropause', is still neither recognised nor treated by the majority of general practitioners, urologists or even andrologists can be grouped together as historical, medical and image problems.
Historical Factors
Early treatments resulted in the dubious "monkey-gland" image of testosterone treatment which persists to this day, and the oral form methyl testosterone, which unfortunately is toxic to the liver and heart, and has adversely coloured the thinking of physicians.
Medical Factors
Total testosterone, which is all that is usually measured in men complaining of Andropausal symptoms, is only low in relation to the standard laboratory "normal range" in 13% of cases. However, more detailed blood analyses show that the bio-available Testosterone as represented by the the Free Androgen Index (FAI) is decreased in 74% of cases.
Image Factors
The name of the condition, even if dignified with the medical title of Andropause, appears an unacceptable threat to masculinity, and the condition is often incorrectly confused with the psychological traumas of the "Male Mid-life Crisis".
Andropause as a "state"
The impact of low levels of testosterone has been previously reported. In 1944, Heller and Myers identified symptoms of what they labeled the "male climacteric" including loss of libido and potency, nervousness, depression, impaired memory, the inability to concentrate, fatigue, insomnia, hot flushes, and sweating. Heller and Myers found that their subjects had lower than normal levels of testosterone, and that symptoms improved dramatically when patients were given replacement doses of testosterone.
Andropause has been observed in association with alzeimer's disease..
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This is very interesting and informative as well.
ReplyDeleteI would say that this article about andropause is very well written. All the statements are true and it is a must read article. I am thankful that I found and read this post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! Andropause symptoms may be different for every man and you do not have to be experiencing all of the symptoms to be suffering from Aging Male Syndrome.
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