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Monday, July 23, 2007

Male Menopause; Is It Real?


Is there really a lot of interest in the topic: Male Menopause? One way to see if there is an interest in the subject is to find out how many books have been written about male menopause.

When searching the popular book Website, Amazon, the following books surfaced:

Hormone Use in Menopause and Male Andropause: A Choice for Women and Men by Sheldon J. Segal and Luigi Mastroianni

The Best of Your Life: For the Rest of Your Life by Devra Z. Hill

You and Your Husband at Midlife by Sally Conway

Menopause: A Positive Approach by Rosie Reitz

Searching Magazine databases reveal that Newsweek ran a cover story on Male Menopause titled: Is Male menopause Real? It ran in their 1/22/2007 issue, Vol. 149 Issue 4, and can be found on p 46 - 48.

A similar article ran in the Mental Health Weekly; 3/14/2005, Vol. 15 Issue 11, p 8 in which it was discussed that the symptoms that crumpy old men exhibit like anxiety, decreased libido, depression and moodiness can all be attributed to the condition known as "male menopause".

In April of 2004 Louisville Magazine ran an article in the Supplement, Vol 55, 0 8 by Katz, Barbara Myserson, titled: A Pause for Men? The article discusses the physical and psychological aspects of aging men and lower testosterone levels and the connection between the two.

Douglas C. Lord wrote a book review of Surviving Male Menopause, which is a Guide for Women and Men, by Jed Diamond. The review appears in the Library Journal on 10/15/2000, in vol. 125 Issue 17, p 87. In the review it is stated that for the most part Americans are uncomfortable talking about the issue of menopause. This perhaps explains why there are material available just not large quantities of it.

When doing an Internet advanced search using the search engine Google and the keywords "male menopause" 233,000 entries pop up. The top Websites on page 1, on the day the search was conducted, revealed that MSNBC, Medicinenet, and Webmd all devoted content to this topic. This would indicate that globally there is an interest in male menopause and curious viewers and readers who want to know if it is real or not. Some of the data is in support of the male menopause and some are voicing their opinion that male menopause does not exist. It would appear that as more studies are conducted and more medical data become available regarding the connection between symptoms and physical evidence, speculation and personal experiences would continue to be discussed by those who are interested. It would appear that both males and females are interested in finding out more about this male menopause. Females are interested because of how it affects their relationship with the males in their lives and males want to know if it will happen to them and what to do about it. You can be sure that as further information is available by book or online, that men and women will be interested to see what develops further regarding male menopause.