'Male menopause' relatively rare, study suggests
CTV News
Wednesday June 16, 2010
Scientists have, for the first time, identified the symptoms of 'male menopause,' noting it's nowhere near as common as popular culture -- and perhaps drug companies -- would have us believe.
The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that only two per cent of older men have "late-onset hypogonadism" or male menopause, which is marked by a steep drop in testosterone.
The findings, from University of Manchester researchers and other European partners, are based on tests on 3,369 men between the ages of 40 and 79 years from eight European centres. The researchers measured the men's testosterone levels asked details about their sexual, physical and psychological health.
While the men described 32 symptoms that they assumed were due to "male menopause," only nine were actually associated with low testosterone levels. The most important of these were three sexual symptoms:
While the men described other symptoms they thought were due to "menopause," such as difficulty with vigorous activity, an inability to walk more than 1 km, loss of energy, sadness, and fatigue, these symptoms were only weakly related to low testosterone, the reserachers found. Other symptoms had no relation to low testosterone, including: changes in sleeping pattern, poor concentration, anxiety and difficulty getting up from a chair.
The new findings should provide new guidance to physicians prescribing male testosterone therapy -- a practice that has increased by 400 per cent in the United States, since 1999.
"Our findings have, for the first time, identified the key symptoms of late-onset hypogonadism and suggest that testosterone treatment may only be useful in a relatively small number of cases where androgen deficiency is suspected," wrote lead author Prof. Fred Wu, from The University of Manchester's School of Biomedicine. Wu noted that it's often been difficult to diagnose true "male menopause," since a long list of non-specific symptoms have been somewhat linked to testosterone deficiency.
As well, even the three specific sexual symptoms of androgen deficiency mentioned above are relatively common among men with normal testosterone levels.
"It is therefore important to specify the presence of all three sexual symptoms of the nine testosterone-related symptoms we identified, together with low testosterone, in order to increase the probability of correctly diagnosing late-onset hypogonadism," he said. "The application of these new criteria should guard against the excessive diagnosis of hypogonadism and curb the unwise use of testosterone therapy in older men."
CTV News
Wednesday June 16, 2010
Scientists have, for the first time, identified the symptoms of 'male menopause,' noting it's nowhere near as common as popular culture -- and perhaps drug companies -- would have us believe.
The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that only two per cent of older men have "late-onset hypogonadism" or male menopause, which is marked by a steep drop in testosterone.
The findings, from University of Manchester researchers and other European partners, are based on tests on 3,369 men between the ages of 40 and 79 years from eight European centres. The researchers measured the men's testosterone levels asked details about their sexual, physical and psychological health.
While the men described 32 symptoms that they assumed were due to "male menopause," only nine were actually associated with low testosterone levels. The most important of these were three sexual symptoms:
- decreased frequency of morning erection
- decreased frequency of sexual thoughts (sex drive)
- erectile dysfunction
While the men described other symptoms they thought were due to "menopause," such as difficulty with vigorous activity, an inability to walk more than 1 km, loss of energy, sadness, and fatigue, these symptoms were only weakly related to low testosterone, the reserachers found. Other symptoms had no relation to low testosterone, including: changes in sleeping pattern, poor concentration, anxiety and difficulty getting up from a chair.
The new findings should provide new guidance to physicians prescribing male testosterone therapy -- a practice that has increased by 400 per cent in the United States, since 1999.
"Our findings have, for the first time, identified the key symptoms of late-onset hypogonadism and suggest that testosterone treatment may only be useful in a relatively small number of cases where androgen deficiency is suspected," wrote lead author Prof. Fred Wu, from The University of Manchester's School of Biomedicine. Wu noted that it's often been difficult to diagnose true "male menopause," since a long list of non-specific symptoms have been somewhat linked to testosterone deficiency.
As well, even the three specific sexual symptoms of androgen deficiency mentioned above are relatively common among men with normal testosterone levels.
"It is therefore important to specify the presence of all three sexual symptoms of the nine testosterone-related symptoms we identified, together with low testosterone, in order to increase the probability of correctly diagnosing late-onset hypogonadism," he said. "The application of these new criteria should guard against the excessive diagnosis of hypogonadism and curb the unwise use of testosterone therapy in older men."
