Health Information Blog

Lucky woman. They have always known that sometime in the mid-40s they begin to experience the changes in hormone levels that lead to uncomfortable symptoms and lead to the change of life: menopause. It may seem strange to consider the certainty of the menopause a lucky thing, but being able to speak openly about a medically documented case is liberating. Women can commiserate with each other and consult with their doctors to help treat the uncomfortable symptoms. Men, however, have not had the luxury of receiving assistance in their mid-life annoyances. In fact, male menopause or Andropause, is not even widely accepted as a legitimate medical problem.

There are several reasons, the idea of male menopause has been received with skepticism. Event is a much more gradual than the female menopause. While a woman will experience a measurable and obvious decrease in their levels of estrogen from their forties, a man with testosterone levels begin to decrease gradually as soon as thirty years. Since the change in hormones occurs so differently in men, the symptoms that accompany them are also more gradual. For example, a woman can suddenly find herself irritable or depressed and recognize that change has taken place. But one man the onset of symptoms takes much longer, so it can not recognize that he is changing.

Andropause is not as final as menopausal women. When a woman enough to decrease estrogen levels, menstrual cycle will stop. She will be unable to bear children. Their ovaries do not produce eggs, and her uterus will not be able to sustain a pregnancy. That really experiences a change of life has gone from being a fertile ground for a human unable to procreate. This does not happen with a man. Men continue to produce enough testosterone in their 80s to be able to father children. Even if a man can not have intercourse and ejaculate to impregnate his partner, with sperm in the semen can be collected and used to fertilize an egg. Perhaps the biggest reason that scientists have discussed Andropause is skepticism that men do not experience the change of life in that women.

Men are expected to be stoic about the symptoms. Women have support groups, literature and medical experts lining up to help with the change of life. Throughout the decades, the country studies on the benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy to treat menopause. Speaking of women, to joke about and complain about their symptoms and discomfort. Men, meanwhile, hold their discomfort in silence. Not manly to whine about problems such as weight gain, thinning hair, difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection, insomnia or depression. And so the man who never wants to talk about their loss of libido? Women talk, men cope silently. The sad thing is, coping is often easier when professional intervention may be addressed openly.