Aug 14, 2012

Andropause




The state of Andropause, also commonly known as male menopause, is when a man reaches his late forties or early fifties and reaches a time in his life when his hormones start to decline. It is a gradual process and symptoms vary from person to person. What usually happens is that the man fails to have an erection or has difficulty getting one, feels grumpy, is more fatigued than before, has night sweats and sometimes even palpitations. Mood changes are also known to occur and the man is usually edgy, depressed, anxious, nervous, or any one of those.  


Symptoms of male menopause

·                     One of the first signs that a man is menopausal is that he becomes clingy and takes more interest in family life and being at home. He is losing interest in certain things and with his inability to perform his manly duties he feels almost incapacitated.

·                     There are mood and other changes and he is nervous and irritable and also depressed. He can’t articulate his distress as he is embarrassed about his erectile dysfunction. He also turns more to his wife than he did before.

·                     He has night sweats and palpitations worrying about his testosterone levels and so slides deeper and deeper into depression. He is difficult to approach because he cannot accept that he no longer is that virile 30 year old he used to be. 

·                     Men have a hard time dealing with the fact that they are getting older. They do not want anyone to know and don’t want to discuss their inability to have sex with a doctor. This makes the condition harder to treat as he has now also become sullen.

·                     An andropausal man loses his love of adventure and takes few chances now. He errs on the safe side. His razor sharp wheeling and dealing in business is a thing of the past.

·                     A decrease in body hair and an increase of fat around the organs. This is not true for all men, and all men also do not experience Andropause.

·                     A decrease in lean body mass and bone density.

·                     He starts to forget things, misplaces the keys, or forgot that he turned on the stove. He puts this down to normal aging when in fact he is in the grip of male menopause.


Treating Andropause

Some doctors recommend vitamins and herbal and natural cures. There is also testosterone replacement therapy which is often very effective. Treatment includes restoring sexual function, increasing libido, an increased sense of well being and the prevention of osteoporosis by optimizing bone density and improved muscle strength and mental functioning. Treatment should not only aim for normal testosterone levels, but also aim to normalize levels of secondary hormones affected by testosterone levels. Present options include oral tablets, capsules, injections, slow release pellets and patches and gels. These last two are easy to apply and fairly safe with a very low incidence of side effects. Andropause affects a man’s ego and he rues that he no longer is the king of the pride that can leave his scent anywhere; that’s a hard blow for a man. Go online if you want to know more about Andropause and treatment.


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