Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Andropause - Male Menopause

NOTE: I get a bit wordy in this posting. But you've arrived here seeking to overcome a challenge, so take the extra minute or two to read it through. You need all the information and understanding you can get.

Men and women are the same but different. Overall anatomy, physiology – the function of anatomy – and biochemistry are almost identical. An aspirin, antibiotic, or diabetes treatment in men will work basically the same and as well as in women.

Even some of the sex organs are more similar than most people recognize. Women have as much erectile tissue as men, it’s just inside rather than exposed. The nerves that give that special sensation to the head of the penis are wired to the exact same place in a woman’s brain from her clitoris. The sensation of orgasm is the same in women as in men, though women do have a distinct advantage in the rapidity with which they can recharge for a second, third... you get the idea.

But when it comes to reproduction, men and women are distinct – almost to the point of being different creatures. If you’re old enough to be reading this, you understand the contribution men make to reproduction, and the greater contribution to the species – gestation – borne by women.

Newborn humans are the only animals brought into this world in a state of complete disorientation. All other animals can walk, cling to mothers, or feed independently from the moment of birth. Only human babies need to be nurtured for several years – a significant percentage of their lives – before achieving a state of independence sufficient to allow them to survive to also reproduce. With this reliance on maternal care – especially in pre-industrialized society where breast milk was the only food on which an infant could survive – one can clearly see that the survival of a child depended entirely on the survival of the mother.

In the 21st century, ninety year old women should not give birth as the likelihood of them living long enough to nurture their child to independence is small. But back when the biology of the mother-child relationship was being established, women over thirty should not have born children for the exact same reason.

Tens of thousands of years ago, when the life expectancy of humans was perhaps thirty-five years, nature learned to turn off the reproductive machinery in women above a certain age because the metabolic burden on a woman’s body of menstruation became too great for her aging body. She needed to live longer – but without new reproduction – to assist in the survival of her children to pubescence and the beginning of their own reproductive lives. The cessation of the monthly cycle has evolved to occur later in life, as life expectancy increased. Now, most women experience menopause near fifty years of age.

Men, on the other hand, can reproduce until their death. The number of people in a population is determined by the number of women – active uteri – not by the number of penises. It just doesn’t matter whether a man can or can’t reproduce. The biological burden of sperm production is negligible and has no downside.

So, why is there andropause? Within the medical community there is a debate as to whether andropause even exists. The promoters – those who consider it a distinct condition – point to reduced levels of testosterone and loss of activity in cells that produce a spectrum of male sexual hormones. The symptoms include loss of libido, depression, nervousness, inability to concentrate, fatigue and a few others. In this regard, symptomologically, andropause is a close parallel to menopause.

The opponents of considering andropause as a distinct condition cite most often the failure of andropause to shut down the male reproductive system as menopause does in women. A woman that is still producing eggs and menstruating at eighty will be elevated to a level of a very special oddity in the medical community. A man who sires a child at eighty, is just a very rich old man.

I side with those that do not accept andropause as a condition, and I take it one step further: Those symptoms that proponents would identify as male menopause are the exact same symptoms as are found in much younger men who are just not healthy.

Poor eating habits, a lifestyle devoid of physical activity, and the cumulative effects of taking prescription drugs to deal with other health issues take their toll. People take medication to address metabolic issues brought about by their terrible diets and lack of exercise. By themselves, testosterone levels will be reduced, adrenal glands – that direct almost all hormone production in the body – will be impacted, and brain chemistry is tilted out of balance causing the symptoms some wish to identify as andropause. The drugs taken to adjust cholesterol, blood sugar, heart rate, blood density and chemistry, all stress the adrenal glands and put the body further out of kilter.

And these all occur later in life, when men are at about the same age as women who experience menopause. Our egalitarian bent in the Western world is to make men and women equal. Men and women are the same but different. And this is one of those differences. Women have a biological, genetically defined cessation of reproductive ability to which medical science has applied the moniker "menopause." To try to twist the symptoms that men experience that are the result of entirely other causes – lifestyle not genetics – is scientifically wrong. Women have their menses. Men do not. No amount of political correctness or negotiation is going to change that.

But men still experience “andropause.” While women have an advantage in the orgasm department, we have an advantage when it comes to our libido. We don’t have to lose our desire or ability to enjoy sex. As an aside, women don’t have to either and they don’t need HRT; they just need to work a little more at it, but that’s a topic for someone else's blog.

I have written a manuscript describing what men can do to prolong their desire and ability to perform – and admirably at that – in the bedroom. It is a cafeteria plan of lifestyle alterations. Within that list, every man can find some small concessions that will stave off erectile dysfunction, or restore ability lost to diminished erectile function. I also suggest some simple exercises, just 10 minutes a day, which will promote erectile health.

Read the book and avoid the pitfalls of a make-believe disease, andropause, which can lead to complete erectile dysfunction.


2nd Edition updated May 2012 is "NOT just for those with Erectile Dysfunction"

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is for all men who want to keep functioning well  throughout their life. This concise and powerful men’s health guide provides a protocol for how to do everything right.

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in iBooks, Kobo, Sony and all eBook formats for immediate download:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.




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