ANDROPAUSE: FACT OR FICTION?

Lucky women. They’ve always known that sometime in their mid-40s they will begin to experience changes in hormone levels that will lead to uncomfortable symptoms and culminate in the change of life: menopause. It may seem odd to consider the certainty of menopause a lucky thing, but being able to openly talk about a medically documented event is liberating. Women can commiserate with each other and consult with their doctors for help dealing with uncomfortable symptoms. Men, however, have not had the luxury of receiving help for their mid-life discomforts. In fact, andropause, or male menopause, is not even widely accepted as a legitimate medical phenomenon.

There are several reasons the idea of Male Menopause has been received with skepticism. First, it’s a much more gradual event than a woman’s menopause. While a woman will experience a measurable and obvious drop in her estrogen levels beginning in her forties, a man’s testosterone levels begin to drop very gradually as early as thirty years old. Since the shift in hormones occurs so differently in men, the accompanying symptoms are also more gradual. For example, a woman may suddenly...