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Docs Debate Male Menopause

Low testosterone can make you grumpy, impotent—and a great target for drugmakers

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 10, 2009 8:38 AM CDT

(Newser) – If you’re a guy in your late 40s or 50s, and you’ve been feeling unusually grumpy, borderline impotent, and all around miserable lately, you might just have male menopause, ABC News reports. Many physicians believe men experience a drop in testosterone as they get older, which can result in something called “andropause” or “T-syndrome.” Indeed, ads for drugs to treat it been cropping up across primetime TV. Which is just what annoys some docs, who think it's a drug-company hoax.

One doctor says andropause is “largely promoted by industry, accepted by a handful of physicians, and embraced by some patients who are looking for an antidote to aging.” But another doctor calls that an “absurd view” that “conveniently ignores medical observations going back 500 years.” Most studies on it are relatively recent, however; one estimates that by 2025, 6.5 million Americans will be suffering symptoms of low testosterone.

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Feeling grumpy? Is your libido missing? You could have male menopause. (Shutterstock)

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Male menopause is real. I describe it as adolescence, the second time around. Everybody goes through it, just as no one can say I didn't go through puberty. - Jed Diamond, psychologist and author of Irritable Male Syndrome.

Men are more in denial about this than women. It's taken guys a little longer for the medical evidence to come out and for doctors to find ways to treat this. But more men are getting help. - Jed Diamond, psychologist and author of Irritable Male Syndrome.

A lot of women come in and say, 'Fix him, or I'm not
taking him home.' - Dr. Robert Gitlin

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Docs Debate Male Menopause