That mid-life crisis may have a physical cause. It’s called andropause. Just as women suffer menopause as hormones in the body decrease, a lot of men also suffer declining hormone supplies.
Symptoms caused by andropause can vary from depression to weight gain, from loss of libido to hair loss, from libido dysfunction to low energy levels. Many middle aged men experience several of these symptoms to some degree or another. Fortunately, many doctors are now starting to recognize the symptoms and cause of andropause.
Andropause is like puberty in reverse. Changes in hormone levels wreak havoc in a man’s life. Characterized by a dwindling supply of the male hormone testosterone, andropause symptoms seem uncontrollable. But this is not just a lack of testosterone, which might be handled by replacing the lost testosterone.
The body produces many hormones that interact with each other and as age progresses, the body begins to produce less and less of each of them. With male andropause symptoms present, it makes sense to administer testosterone. But if that were the only hormone prescribed it may fail to produce results, because other hormones are needed, too in order to bring the body back into balance. Other hormones might include female hormones progesterone and estrogen, for example, and/or thyroid hormones and growth hormone.
A sudden drop in the female hormone estrogen characterizes the female experience of menopause. Andropause is more likely to sneak up on a man and some men have more problems and symptoms than others, because the loss of hormones is gradual. It can affect men as young as 35.
Most often in traditional medicine, men are treated for one symptom. For example, a man may be treated for depression and prescribed an anti-depressant. However, if the man has other male menopause symptoms, the anti-depressant will not only not handle the problem, but it can exaggerate such symptoms as loss of libido.
Doctors who are trained in hormone replacement therapy should interview a patient at length to find all symptoms and then order laboratory testing to discover hormone levels for that individual. The tests would not just be for testosterone, but for other hormones as well. DHEA, growth hormone, thyroid hormone are a few of the hormones that should be tested. From the outcome of the tests and the information from the patient, a plan for that particular individual can be prescribed.
Changes in diet and exercise can improve the results of any prescriptions, but most importantly exact amounts of missing hormones can be prescribed at gradually increasing levels to replace those hormones that the body no longer produces in sufficient quantity. The replacement hormones must be bioidentical. Bioidentical means that the hormones used for replacement must be molecule for molecule exactly like those hormone produced in the body. A more youthful body will be the result.
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