Andropause: is it real?

Believe or not, as men age they do experience andropause. But it appears more subtle and gradual than menopause in women. As we discussed before, many hormones peak around age 20. These hormones decline slowly afterwards. Testosterone usually is low enough around age 45 that many men experience problems. The symptoms tend to be vague such as fatigue, insomnia, amnesia, exercise intolerance, decreased muscle mass, dejection, depression, anxiety, anger, paranoia, impotence or lack of strong erections, premature ejaculations, decreased libido, etc. Your primary care doctor and even your endocrinologist may tell you that your testosterone level is normal. New research and common sense show that "normal" may not be the same as "optimal". One good example is men's height. From 5-foot 5 inches to 7-foot 5 inches may be considered "normal", but the "optimal" height may be around 6-foot. For testosterone level, the optimal level may be the high normal among the 20-year old men: 800. For free testosterone, it's 244. The current laboratory normal ranges, 280-800 for total testosterone and 47-244 for free testosterone, are almost certainly too wide to be clinically useful. Please note: different laboratories adopt different standards of testing and thus different ranges. Ask people at www.BioIdenticalHormoneSociety.com to locate a doctor to help you in your community.