For and against: The male menopause---does it exist? • For • Against

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7238.858

BMJ 2000;320:858-861 ( 25 March )

Education and debate

For and against

The male menopause $---$ does it exist?

For

Against

The male menopause $---$ does it exist?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Be it "andropause" or "climacteric," do men undergo some kind of hormonal change akin to the female menopause? Adding to thegrowing debate about men's health, Duncan Gould and Richard Pettyargue that some patients need investigation and treatment withtestosterone. Howard Jacobs, however, is notconvinced.

Duncan C Gould, consultant, Richard Petty, medical director.

The WellMan Clinic, 32 Weymouth Street, London W1N 3FA

Correspondence to: D Gould, Goldcross Medical Services, 20 Harley Street, London W1N 1AL

The term "male menopause" is inappropriate as it suggests a sudden drop in sex hormones such as occurs in women in the perimenopausalstate. It is not an inevitability but may occur mainly in middleaged and elderly men when testosterone production and plasma concentrationsfall. There seems to be a threshold plasma concentration belowwhich symptoms may become apparent. Testosterone concentrationsfound to be critical for sexual functioning in men lie around10.4 nmol/l (300 ng/dl), though there is variation between individuals.¹While some have found that differences in plasma testosteroneconcentrations within the normal range in young healthy men donot correlate with . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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