Male Menopause: Hormones & Health Problems

Hormonal changes greatly affect men going through male menopause. Lowered levels of hormones at midlife are central to the changes associated with male menopause.

Recent research indicates that lowered levels of the following hormones may decrease sex drive, increase depression and weight gain, and contribute to a general decrease in well-being and health: Dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, growth hormone, melatonin, DHEA, pregnenolone, thyroid hormone, and testosterone.

Although these hormones tend to decrease with age, each man is unique and individual levels vary widely. Some researchers now believe that giving men replacement hormones may allow them to remain vital and healthy into their sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond.

Since significant research on hormone replacement therapy for men is new, men should be cautious about taking hormones and should only do so under supervision of a physician trained in this medical specialty. Men, like women, experience complex hormonal rhythms that affect their sexuality, mood, and temperament. For instance, researchers have found five different testosterone cycles in men:

• Rhythmic fluctuations three to four times an hour.
• Daily changes with testosterone higher in the morning and lower in the afternoon.
• Monthly fluctuations that are rhythmic, but different for each man.
• Fluctuations throughout the year with levels higher in October and lower in April.
• Decreasing levels associated with male menopause that occur as men get older.

Men have physical and emotional reactions to hormonal fluctuations throughout the month, similar to PMS in a woman.

In a recent study, when men were given the same checklists of symptoms from a typical PMS questionnaire--omitting the female specific symptoms, such as breast tenderness--men reported having as many premenstrual type symptoms (reduced or increased energy, irritability, and other negative moods, back pain, sleeplessness, headaches, confusion, etc.) as women do--when the symptoms aren't called PMS.