sullster

The Baby Boom Generation is getting old,(I am one), and there is a lot of stuff out there about menopause, the female kind.

But, us boys don't want to be left out, so I see there is a Male Menopause being mentioned. Even though the term is absurd, because the termination of menstruation certainly does not occur in men, is being bandied about and even being diagnosed by doctors!

Of course,our version of menopause, is essentially concerned with the performance of a particular "member". That member just won't function the way it did back at Woodstock, so we must be experiencing something which requires just as much attention as the women are getting with their menopause.

Question to those who are scientific. Is male menopause just another Baby-Boomer life trauma or is it a real quantifiable event? Is it whining or is it a problem? Is it in any way analagous to female menopause?

I say it all nonsense, but am interested in other views.

Jane Bovary

Sullster, I don't know about male menopause specifically, but there is apparently a condition known as Irritable Male Syndrome, which relates to dropping testosterone levels. As men age, I presume their testosterone levels drop, so they would perhaps be more prone to IMS.

Dr Gerald Lincoln, a researcher at the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh, claims:
The condition is not limited to men suffering the so-called male menopause. Men of all ages are increasingly suffering testosterone swings, a condition scientists had thought affected only male primates and other animals, but not men. The cause, he said, is stress.

Dr Lincoln first noticed the syndrome in Soay sheep. In the autumn, the rams' testosterone levels soar and they rut. In the winter, testosterone levels plummet and they lose interest in sex.

By monitoring the activity of eight rams, Dr Lincoln found they were more likely to injure themselves when testosterone was low, even though high testosterone levels cause more aggression.

As testosterone levels fell, the rams changed from competent males who addressed each other in a ritualistic fashion, to nervous, withdrawn animals that struck out irrationally, he said.
The Telegraph

[ September 05, 2002: Message edited by: Jane Bovary ]</p>

Thor Q. Mada

It exists. One of the characteristic symptoms is that the subject buys a motor cycle.

One of the last sane

That explains those fat old dudes with gray hair and their asses oozing off the sides of Harleys.

Thor Q. Mada

Absolutely

The Lone Ranger

Male menopause? Not in a literal sense, of course.

However, testosterone levels of the typical male begin to gradually decline sometime in his later 30s or thereabouts. Also, male fertility typically declines fairly steeply by the time he reaches his 50s or so. While a man of 70 is typically still producing sperm, he's not doing so at anything like the level he was when he was 20.

So, I guess the answer depends on what, exactly, is meant by "menopause."

My general impression, though, is that "male menopause" often really is "just another Baby-Boomer life trauma".

Cheers,

Michael