‘Manopause’? It’s all in your minds, gents

MEN are being put at risk of problems in the bedroom by the ‘myth’ of the male menopause.

A fertility expert has warned that the ‘manopause’ does not exist, but could become a selffulfilling prophecy.

Middle-aged men who 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 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’.

But the term has grown in popularity, with some men now asking their GPs for ‘male HRT’ in the form of testosterone jabs.

Prescriptions for the male hormone leapt by 20 per cent between 2012 and 2016, and this can damage men’s fertility.

Professor Pacey said: ‘This label of the male menopause creates the expectation that every man will go through it. Some of the “male menopause” symptoms are hormone-related, but some are influenced by psychology.

‘If you give men the expectation of these symptoms, you almost pre-programme 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 increase their risk of heart attack and stroke.

The British Fertility Society conference heard last year that the hormone is being increasingly misused as a ‘lifestyle drug’.

Professor Pacey raised the issue at a discussion event on male fertility organised by the Progress Educational Trust in Edinburgh this month.

He told the audience: ‘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 the example of Charlie Chaplin, who had his youngest son at 73, to illustrate his point that the male menopause is a myth, saying men latch on to the idea because they are getting older and ‘clearly do not like it’.

Only about one in five men is estimated to have low levels of testosterone, which might constitute the symptoms described by the ‘manopause’.

Professor 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.

‘With men, some may suffer from a medical condition... but many more will not.’

‘Jumping on the bandwagon’