Menopause is still a taboo phase for women, but men can also be affected by this period of life. This is called andropause. Guest of the show Well done for you Tuesday, Doctor Jean-Marc Bohbot, andrologist, takes stock of this biological phenomenon at the microphone of Julia Vignali and Mélanie Gomez. The specialist in female and male genital infectiology at the Institut Fournier in Paris first explains that not all men are necessarily affected by andropause.
“Unlike menopause, which is mandatory for women, andropause is not mandatory for men,” he said on Europe 1.
A decrease in testosterone levels
Doctor Jean-Marc Bohbot adds that “from the age of 40-45, there is a decrease in testosterone levels in all men. This decrease is highly variable from one individual to another, depending on the genetics, or according to a certain number of pathologies such as obesity, liver disease, etc”. When this rate “really reaches a very limited threshold, symptoms occur”, warns the doctor, and this is the beginning of the andropause phase.
The different symptoms of andropause
Concretely, this is manifested “by libido disorders, that is to say that there is no more sexual desire, there is no more morning erection”, indicates the andrologist. Also, “there is everything that can be found in women, that is to say hot flashes, problems with memory loss, changes with the loss of muscle mass, and then the development abdominal fat,” he says. One can also encounter “a more or less depressive aspect which accompanies the drop in testosterone”.
What treatment for this phenomenon?
Faced with this biological phenomenon, treatments exist. “When the dosed testosterone is very low, we can supplement with testosterone injections or a gel, which allows us to reboost all this a little”, assures the specialist in female and male genital infectiology.
According to the specialist site Santé Magazine, andropause remains a minority phenomenon. About 2.1% of men suffer from it, and this statistic depends on age. They are 0.1% to develop andropause between 40 and 49 years old, and 5.1% between 70 and 79 years old.