Understanding Male Menopause
By Kiki Tan
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2009
IT IS GENERALLY accepted that a man's sexuality changes as he ages — with the instant erections of, say, 18-year-olds replaced by diminished sexual urges, erections that take time to come on (and less rigid erections at that), and feebler ejaculations, among others.
Wht not many realize is that these signs, often seen as "normal," may actually be signs of male menopause.
“Andropause is a normal condition that all men experience as they age,” says urologist Dr. Jose Reyes III, president of the Philippine Society for the Study of the Aging Male (PhiSSAM), to refer to male menopause/andropause, also known as male clamacteric, viropause, ADAM (Androgen Deficiency in the Aging Male) and PADAM (Partial Androgen Deficiency in the Aging Male). “It is used to describe any of the changes a man experiences as a consequence (when) the testes no longer, or only partially, secrete testosterone.”
For the majority of the male population, natural andropause usually occurs at the ages of between 40 and 55 - although it can occur as early as 35 or as late as 65, with some men “acquiring menopause due to trauma, cancer or congenital reasons,” some of the factors established as contributory to the condition. Others include obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, previous vasectomy, smoking, hypertension, hernia operations, mumps, prostatitis, prescription and non-prescription medications, poor diet, lack of exercise, varicocoele, poor circulation, and psychological problems.
ALL GENDERS
For Reyes, andropause is similar to women’s menopause, particularly since both menopauses are characterized by a marked drop in hormone levels—estrogen in women and testosterone in men. “However, there are no clear-cut signs (for men), thus, the difficulty in diagnosing it. Unlike women, men do not have a clear signal to mark their transition into andropause, such as the cessation of menstruation and, thus the ability to become pregnant, since men can continue to father children even after the age of 40. Instead, the onset of andropause occurs gradually, and is often accompanied by attitudinal and mood changes, as well as a decline in physical agility, and, perhaps more pronounced, in a man’s sex drive."
Noted symptoms include some degree of lethargy, depression, increased irritability, mood swings, hot flushes, insomnia, loss of both lean body mass and bone mass (which increases the susceptibility to hip fractures), and difficulty in attaining and sustaining erections (impotence). All these are expected to affect approximately 40% of men from 40 to 60 years old, according to www.andrology.com.
MID-LIFE CRISIS
A more accepted occurence in life among men—and also among women—is the mid-life crisis, described by Wikipedia.org as “an emotional state of doubt and anxiety in which a person becomes uncomfortable with the realization that life is halfway over. It commonly involves reflection on what the individual has done with his life up to that point, often with feelings that not enough was accomplished. The individual may feel boredom with their lives, jobs, or their partners, and may feel a strong desire to make changes in these areas."
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