ED, lack of fatigue, shallow sleep… What is “male menopause” that can happen to all men?

The term “male menopause” is now secretly attracting attention among middle-aged and older men.

Menopause is generally defined as the period of about 10 years before and after a woman’s menstrual period. Symptoms include hot flashes, hot flashes, sweating, headaches, stiff shoulders, and hundreds of other symptoms. Dr. Tadao Yamauchi of the ” Kozuei-kai Mamouchi Clinic,” which opened an outpatient clinic specializing in male menopause in June, explains, “Testosterone, which is produced in the male testes, is a major cause of menopausal symptoms.

Testosterone (male hormone) produced in men’s testes reaches its peak in their 20s and 30s. Thereafter, however, the amount secreted naturally decreases with aging and senescence. Among the physical and mental changes that occur when testosterone secretion declines below a certain level, a situation that causes a variety of adverse symptoms is called male menopause or LOH syndrome.

Some of the symptoms that have been described as symptoms of LOH syndrome include obesity, fatigue, depression, insomnia, and ED. This is because the following things are happening in men’s bodies due to a decrease in testosterone.

…muscle and blood volume decreases. This reduces the metabolic rate, so if the same amount of energy is consumed, the excess energy is stored in the body, resulting in what is called metabolic syndrome.

ED and sleep disorders occur.

The brain’s computing power decreases. Cognitive abilities decline, resulting in memory loss and other problems.

In other words, many of the symptoms that we usually lament about getting old are applicable to LOH syndrome. According to Dr. Yamauchi, LOH syndrome can occur to any man in his 40s or older, and the stress caused by these symptoms can lead to a bad loop of male menopause.

When these changes cause stress, the adrenal glands produce steroid hormones, which are stress-responsive hormones. The stress-responsive hormones then further suppress the secretion of male hormones from the testes. In short, once one trigger is removed, we enter a bad cycle in which stress is the center of a progressive decline in male hormones, and male menopausal symptoms worsen.

Thus, stress plays a major role in male menopause, including the stress that middle-aged men experience in their daily lives. It seems that the key to whether or not a person develops the disease lies in the stresses he or she carries in his or her life.

For example, if you have good interpersonal relationships at home and at work, and you are not under a lot of stress, the degree of testosterone decline is more gradual. The COVID-19 crisis has increased the number of situations in which people stay at home, and middle-aged and older men who had been working as company employees suddenly lose the place they had been accustomed to.

Such people are first deprived of a place where they can relieve stress by experiencing success in the collective society of the company. Moreover, there were many cases where they realized that they actually had no place to belong even in the home, and they felt strong stress, which led to a depression-like state. Many people go to a psychiatrist when they become depressed, but when they experience stress like they have never experienced before, their male hormone levels drop incredibly rapidly, so it could be a symptom of the male menopause.

In cases of insomnia, psychiatrists prescribe drugs to help the patient sleep, which can worsen male menopause. However, it is a difficult task to suspect that symptoms that are difficult to distinguish from mere aging may be caused by the male menopause.

I think that many people are convinced that they are getting older and that this is just how it is,” he said. But there is a possibility that it is not like this. Or, is this really aging, or is it a pathological condition that is masked by the word “aging? It could be a symptom of lowered hormone levels, or a clinical condition that is a medical condition.

Treatment involves blood tests to check testosterone levels in the blood, and if they are low, testosterone replacement is administered. Muscle injections used to be the mainstay of treatment, but due to the recent supply of injectable drugs, the company now prescribes an application of a type of drug that is absorbed through the skin. Dr. Yamauchi says that lifestyle advice is just as important as drug treatment.

Before treating with the drug, it is also necessary to give advice on how to eliminate stress-causing factors in one’s lifestyle,” he says. Surprisingly, many people who have experienced an excessively low testosterone level due to stress are able to wean off the disease by improving their blood levels of testosterone and then improving their lifestyle to build up their self-confidence.

I am doing this with the grandiose image that if we can lift men, including myself, who have lost confidence and are feeling a little depressed, out of the disadvantageous state of menopause, we may be able to bring a little cheer to this country where everything has become rather stagnant (laughs).

Perhaps it is too early to give up and blame everything on “old age.