Andropause (male menopause) vs. female menopause

A fascinating article this week in Time magazine (link below) about the slow and gradual decline in testosterone production as men age, which causes weight gains, aches and pains, impaired vision, hearing loss, reduced muscle mass, depression, cancer, and diminished sex drive & erectile dysfunction.

Indeed, whether you are a female or a male, as the machine ages (think car, computer), parts and functions become sluggish or broken.

Sound familiar to the female readers?  Of course!  Do women suffer too? Without a doubt!  But, women are used to the cyclical ways of their bodies (think menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth), and thus can handle their menopausal journey matter-of-factly, and with better acceptance.  Men, on the other hand, have come to depend on their reliable, unchanging body throughout life; the ‘unexpected’ breakdowns of aging are often perceived as ‘my body betrays me’  and ‘I am now less of a man.’

Male or female menopause, the fact is that we are a complex machine with an intricate yet harmonious interrelation between the body, the mind, the emotions,  and the environment.

Excerpts:

• A growing number (of aging men) have come to believe that hormone therapy is the answer;
• US prescription-testosterone sales hit $2.4 billion in 2013, and the market is expected to swell to $3.8 billion by 2018;
• Some endocrinologists recall a similar moment not too long ago.  Female hormone-replacement therapy was hailed as a time-stopping cure for the effects of menopause.  But the estrogen boom stalled when a large-scale, well-funded study proved that raised the risk of stroke and heart attack in many women;
• The changes that men experience as they age are not simply expressions of hormone levels.  Genes play a potent role, as do psychology and environment… Weigh gain happens for all sorts of reasons, and each one demands a different solution;
• Erectile dysfunction (ED) can be an expression of boredom, chronic or acute illness, reduce blood flow, anxiety – the list goes on;

Feeling Deflated? The low-T industry wants to pump you up.  The promise.  The science.  The risk (August 18, 2014)