‘Manopause’ myth may lead to problems in the bedroom
Expert debunks male fertility issue
MEN who fear they are going through the ‘manopause’ could be at risk of problems in their love lives, an expert claims. Middle-aged men who simply believe low testosterone will hit their libido could end up less interested in sex.
They may also suffer erectile dysfunction as a psychological response to worrying about the male menopause.
Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: ‘This label of the male menopause creates the expectation that every man will go through it. Some of the symptoms are hormone-related but some are influenced by psychology.’
Speaking at an event on male fertility organised by the Progress Educational Trust in Edinburgh this month, he added: ‘A common question that I am often asked is about the existence of the male menopause.
‘In this regard, let me be quite clear – it doesn’t exist.’
The fertility expert used Charlie Chaplin, who had his youngest son at 73, as evidence that the male menopause is a myth, saying that men latch on to the idea because they are getting older and ‘clearly do not like it’.
His comments come amid warnings that men taking testosterone to regain their youthful energy could increase their risk of heart attack and stroke. Prescriptions for male hormone replacement therapy (HRT) leapt by 20% between 2012 and 2016 – but this can damage men’s fertility.
The British Fertility Society conference heard last year that testosterone is being increasingly misused as a ‘lifestyle drug’ by men who are convinced that they have hit the ‘manopause’.
Prof Pacey said the insistence that men who suffer fatigue, depression and low libido in middle age are going through a type of menopause gives men the ‘wrong idea’.
However, the term has grown in popularity with some men now asking their GPs for ‘male HRT’ in the form of testosterone jabs.
Profe Pacey said: ‘If you give men the expectation of these symptoms, you almost preprogramme them to experience them.
‘The loss of erectile function, or impotence, is hugely influenced by psychology and if you tell men they are going to be less interested in sex, they will be less interested in sex. I think the menopause term is unhelpful for this reason.’
His comments follow warnings that men taking testosterone to regain their youthful energy could be putting their health at risk
Prof Pacey raised the issue at a discussion event on male fertility organised by the Progress Educational Trust in Edinburgh this month.
Only about one in five men are estimated to have low levels of testosterone, which might constitute the symptoms described as the ‘manopause’.
Prof Pacey said: ‘Women may be unhappy that men are now talking about going through the menopause and feel they are jumping on the bandwagon.
‘The menopause is a real thing – women run out of eggs, their whole body changes, their hormones change – and every woman will go through that at some point.
‘With men, some may suffer from the medical condition of hypogonadism, but many more will not,’ he told delegates at the conference.
‘Male menopause doesn’t exist’