What Medical Experts Are Saying About Male Menopause

Male Menopause (Andropause) is the stage of life that prepares a man to move from the first half to the second. Just as adolescence is a transition period and ideally prepares a child to become an adult, male menopause helps men to move from first adulthood to second adulthood. For those who have the courage to make the journey, the second half can be even more fulfilling than the first.

However, I see too many men who get lost at this stage of life. Women have a specific biological marker that tells them they are moving into a new stage of life. For men, the change is less clear and often more troublesome. We are really 20 years behind in our study of Andropause than we are in studying menopause. Medical experts are just now beginning to recognize the reality of male menopause.

What The Medical Experts Are Saying About Male Menopause (Andropause)

• Dr. Ronald Klatz, President of the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine says, “One of the best kept secrets is that men go through a male form of menopause called Andropause .

• Marc Blackman, M.D., chief of endocrinology and metabo-lism at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center says, “The male menopause is a real phenomenon and it does similar things to men as menopause does to women, although less commonly and to a lesser extent.”

• Theresa Crenshaw, M.D. author of The Alchemy of Love and Lust says, “In the case of male menopause, we are still in the Dark Ages. Men have fewer guideposts to help them today than women had a generation ago. Only recently have we begun to understand the biochemistry of these events, tilting the scales toward a physiological explanation.”

• Aubrey M. Hill, M.D., author of Viropause/Andropause, The Male Menopause says, “My experience has now convinced me that most men undergo what could be called male menopause and that many men suffer acutely and needlessly.”

• Malcolm Carruthers, M.D., author of Maximising Manhood says, “Andropause is a critical health concern for men and the women who love them. Itʼs often insidious onset can be at anytime from the age of 30 onwards, though typically it is in the fifties. One of the reasons itʼs often missed is that it is usually more gradual in onset than the menopause in the female, although it is more severe in its long-term consequences. It is a crisis of vitality just as much as virility, even though its most obvious sign is loss both of nterest in sex and of erectile power.”

• The majority of participants at the 2nd World Congress on the Aging Male which was held in Geneva, Switzerland in February, 2000 believed that Andropause was an important life transition for men. I was one of over 800 researchers, scientists, and clinicians representing over 50 countries world-wide attending the Congress. When asked whether they thought there was a significant hormonal aspect to Andropause, over 80% said they did and would prescribe testosterone or other hormones for men who needed them.

• Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Lane Lenard, Ph.D., authors of Maximize Your Vitality & Potency say, “Although the ideas has been around in one form or other for thousands of years, until very recently the existence of a hormonally driven male menopause analogous to that experienced by women was widely denied by the forces that rule mainstream medicine. Officially in this country, it still does not exist, although incontrovertible scientific evidence to the contrary has finally begun a slow shift in attitude .”

Male Menopause or Andropause: Whatʼs In A Name?

The term “male menopause” is obviously inaccurate. The term “menopause” was introduced by French doctors in the 1870s, combining two Greek words—menses (“periods”) and pausis (“stop”). Men donʼt have a period, so they donʼt stop having one. I chose to use male menopause when I wrote my books on the subject because I found there were so many similarities between what women and men experience. The major difference is that men can continue having children following this change of life, where womenʼs reproductive life ends.

There have been a number of names which have been used to describe this important life transition: male menopause, Andropause, viropause, the male climacteric, penopause, and andropenia. All indicate that there is a change or ending that occurs in male functioning. Increasingly I am using the term Andropause (andro from the Greek word meaning “male” and pausis from the word meaning “stop.”)

The name indicates there is an ending of a certain aspect of maleness, and the beginning of a new stage. It also focuses on the fact that there is a drop inmale hormones, particularly the androgens (andro, “male” and gen “to give), like testosterone at this time of life.

The above is an excerpt from my E-Book: Andropause (Male Menopause): What is This Crazy Thing We Are Going Through? You can register for the full version of the E-Book by visiting my website: http://SurvivingMaleMenopause.com