What is Andropause and what can you do about it?
Men, there comes a time when we start hearing age-related comments like “you’re just getting older,” or “you’re not as young as you used to be.” Issues of masculinity can be a sensitive topic and no man wants to hear that he’s losing testosterone, the very hormone that makes him a man and helps him feel masculine. In years past, the symptoms of low testosterone were attributed to normal changes associated with aging, often called a mid-life crisis. Doctors typically instructed patients to accept their plight because they weren’t ‘spring chickens’ anymore. So things like hair loss, paunchiness, or erectile dysfunction were either not discussed or symptomatically treated with anti-depressants or male enhancement drugs.
Andropause, the male version of Menopause
Every man experiences a gradual decline in hormone production as he gets older. Beginning at age 30, his body starts to manufacture less and less testosterone, losing roughly one to 3 percent per year. Then, sometime between age 40 and 55, testosterone levels drop dramatically and signal the onset of Andropause, the medical term for the male equivalent of Menopause. Throughout this process, men find themselves putting on weight, losing muscle mass, feeling sluggish, feeling depressed and becoming increasingly irritable. They remember a time when they had energy for work and family, but those days are now few and far between. They find it harder to concentrate at work and their workouts are cut short by pain or fatigue that didn’t previously exist. The realization is even more troubling for those men who begin to experience lack of sexual drive and impotence. If the root problem, hormonal imbalance, is not treated properly men can experience a number of physical and mental challenges including health challenges associated with weight gain and abdominal fat.
Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy
For over 20 years, I’ve treated women’s health, including bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. I’ve seen how safely restoring the body with appropriate hormone levels can literally change lives. After much research and evaluation, I’m pleased to begin offering bio-identical hormone therapy to men starting this summer.
Our office has chosen SottoPelle® Therapy, developed by Dr. Ginto Tutera. Dr. Tutera is a pioneer and leader in the field of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. The SottoPelle method uses subcutaneous (beneath the skin) hormone replacement pellets. The hormone replacement therapy works in partnership with your body day and night. Hormone pellet therapy provides a steady, low dose of natural hormone that flows straight into the blood stream whenever your body needs it. Hormone pellets are easy to insert and on average last in most patients for 6 months.
Since 1992, SottoPelle Therapy has helped thousands of men achieve the natural healthy balance of hormones their bodies need to maintain optimum well-being. The benefits patients have reported include:
- Enhancement of libido plus an increased sexual drive
- An increase in lean body mass and a decrease in body fat
- An increase in muscle weight, size and strength
- Greater capacity for getting in shape
- Consistency in moods, reduction in anger, nervousness and irritability
- Increased energy, mental focus, clarity of thought and concentration is easier to maintain
- Improvement of memory
- Increased sense of overall well being
To your health,
James Mirabile, M.D.
