Aging poses changes for men and women. Imbalanced hormones can significantly affect your quality of life. It is common to assume that these symptoms are just the expected signs of aging and that nothing can be done to address it. The good news is, there are options. 

When estrogen and progesterone levels become deficient, menopause or perimenopause begins, marking the end of childbearing. 

For women, menopause can begin as early as their 40s and can affect all facets of life. The most notable symptoms of menopause are hot flashes, night sweats, and low sex drive, to name a few. However, menopausal symptoms are person-specific and can vary across the board. Many women will note that their friends and family notice a shift in mood, anxiety, or irritability. It is common to become forgetful or experience ‘brain fog’, along with a lack of sleep. Experiencing these symptoms affect interpersonal relationships and even career. As a lack of sleep presents itself, it isn’t easy to function during the day, especially for activities like going to the gym and keeping active. Some women describe this as a snowball effect; if you can’t work out, you gain weight and risk becoming unhealthy. Gaining weight can result in low self-esteem, and so on. 

Women are not the only ones dealing with low hormones in life; men can experience severe changes and symptoms as well. When men’s bodies stop producing sufficient testosterone, they may notice a loss of sex drive, inability to sustain an erection, loss of muscle tone, fatigue, to name a few. 

The excellent news is bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can help both men and women restore their vitality. BHRT is a well documented and accepted way to replenish hormone levels by using plant-based pellets that are compounded specifically for you, under strict supervision of State Boards of Pharmacy. You will need to begin by finding a clinic that specializes in BHRT and making an appointment for a consultation. Be prepared to discuss your symptoms, healthy history, and make sure to bring an up to date list of any medications that you take, including supplements and over the counter medications. A complete record of this information is vital for the practitioner to evaluate and ensure proper dosing of your hormones. 

It is essential to discuss your symptoms thoroughly. A journal is an excellent way to keep up with the changes in your body, as it is easy to lose track of them. Once your blood is drawn, it is sent away to a lab to analyze the levels of hormones. After your practitioner evaluates the report from the lab, an appointment will be made for you to come back in to discuss your treatment plan, review the expected benefits and potential side effects.  Your hormone pellets will be ordered for your specific needs, as there is no one size fits all approach to hormone replacement. 

The next step is a small area on your hip is prepped and numbed, and then the pellets are inserted. Most patients report little to no discomfort and can carry on with their typical day for the most part. You will notice soreness over the next day or so, similar to a bruise. You will be given a follow-up appointment for another lab draw to help establish your baseline. 

It will take a few months to feel the benefits of BHRT. Keep in mind, you experienced a depletion in hormones over years, so no treatment will become effective immediately. It is vital to keep your appointments and a close track of your symptom relief along with any other changes so you can accurately report your progress at your follow up visits. 

As Sophia on ‘The Golden Girls’ would preface her famous stories, picture it, you are at your PCP office for your yearly physical. Your doctor asks you how you are doing. Instead of saying the inevitable, “fine,” you decide to disclose the truth. You feel awful, and something seems off. You have found yourself snapping at your spouse and coworkers over nothing. One moment you think life is sustainable the next moment you feel like the walls are caving in and nothing is going right. You get hot for no reason, and you have gained weight that you can’t blame on the holidays. Your friends suggest cautiously, “could it be your hormones?” How offensive is that? The thought of the people you thought cared most about you making you feel like you are old or even worse menopausal. Wait. Maybe they are right. So you ask your doctor to check your hormones to consider the possibility. And in a flash, you receive a quick, “Nope, we don’t do that.” Or worse, you get the old, “here is a prescription for an antidepressant, you’re probably just depressed.” Nothing feels worse than feeling discounted or that you are overreacting. Any time you feel like your body is telling you something, you have a right to ask. An empathetic doctor will at least hear you out.  If your doctor does agree to order a hormone panel, likely when the results come back, you will get very little explanation as to what the levels mean or told that your levels are all within a normal range. Why?

Doctors are trained to read the lab’s suggestions on what ‘normal range’ is. The interesting thing is that different labs have different ‘normals.’ There’s a fun fact for you! The labs determine the normal ranges. Now, most of the ranges across the board of different labs are similar but not identical. The problem is that what is normal for you may not be normal for the next person. The normal range also does not mean that your hormones are balanced across the board, either. Hormones work together, and if one level is on the high end of normal and the other is on the low end of normal, that is not going to create a balance. 

The other issue with normal ranges is that your hormones change a lot, so checking your hormone levels just once only gives you one piece to a much larger puzzle. If you are peri-menopausal, ovulating or menopausal will all play a part in where the lab values fall as well, without considering where your cycle may be (if at all). The lab results don’t mean much, if anything at all. Have you had a hysterectomy? Do you still have any periods? When was the last time? Have you had an ablation? Do you have an IUD? These are all factors that need to be considered alongside your actual lab values. If your PCP doesn’t specialize in hormones, he may not consider these factors. 

Another huge factor in evaluating lab results are the symptoms. Your body is responding to changes, and that can look like many different things. You may have extreme changes in body temperature with little to no warning. You may notice that you are easily agitated, and things that bother you now aren’t things that used to bother you. Your sex drive could be down or gone and follow that with vaginal dryness, just to name a few. 

The takeaway from all of this is not to encourage you to disregard your PCP. Just consider that if you had a heart condition, you would want to be seen by a heart doctor. If you break a bone, you probably won’t call a kidney doctor. Hormone replacement is no different. Hormone replacement is a specialty, just like other practices of medicine. Find a hormone specialist that can discuss with you safe options like bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. You have one life to live, don’t settle for being told you are ‘normal’ when you know your body better than anybody else could. Meet with the experts, and what you find may surprise you. 

My wife starting going through ‘the change’ two years ago. Needless to say, it changed our lives. We had always had a very close relationship and fought rarely. We were always considered to be ‘that couple’ that other people wanted to mirror. We are married for over 30 years, two kids, a house with a fence. We are pretty simple people. We mind our own business and just live our lives as best we can. We are both hard workers and really enjoy our vacation each year. Our vacation is something that we saved for throughout the year, and since being empty nesters, it is our splurge. Two years ago, when she began exhibiting signs of menopause, we were on our coveted vacation. She felt awful and was very sensitive just about everything. We ended up in an argument that resulted in us not speaking for the remainder of our trip, which was about five days. Needless to say, it was a memorable trip in the worst way.

When we returned, my wife decided to go to a clinic that specialized in bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. Within a few months, she began feeling better, and it was great to see her happier. It’s easy, as a man, to chock everything up to blame on menopause and take no responsibility for a bad experience. As much as I would love to take no blame, I was to blame as well.

There is no way that a woman goes through this massive change in her life, and men are left unscathed. Granted, I firmly believe that menopause is much worse than anything a man experiences with age, but there had to be a direct result of aging for men as well. The answer is Andropause. When a man starts to decline in testosterone production significantly, noticeable changes can take place. Sure, I stopped working out as much as I used to, but why? I didn’t have the energy or mental motivation to go anymore. Also, my cholesterol was through the roof, and my doctor started me on a statin.

After reading about the side effects and risks of taking statins, I knew my lifestyle needed a change. I knew that there had to be a more natural way of treating what was going on. If my wife needed hormone replacement therapy, why wouldn’t I? After I visited our local bio-identical hormone replacement clinic, I found out that I also needed to address severely deficient hormones. After I got my labs drawn, the doctor called me and said that he had no doubt I felt awful. The funny thing is, I knew I wasn’t my old self, but I didn’t realize I was as bad off as I was. I had gotten used to feeling sluggish and less libido. I figured that my belly getting bigger is just part of life; my dad did it, my brothers did it. Accepting negative health changes only made sense to me. After my BHRT began, I finally realized just how bad I really did feel! Once I noticed my energy increase and my waistline decrease, I knew that I could never go back to where I was before BHRT.

Understanding that women go through far worse symptoms of low hormones is mind-blowing. What I don’t understand is why do we accept these negative changes as ‘normal’? Who sets that standard? My PCP told me that the midsection weight gain was genetic, and to cut back on having a few beers on the weekend. Never once was the topic of my hormone levels brought up.

Watching bio-identical hormone replacement change my wife’s quality of life and then experiencing the very same thing for myself makes me want to scream this from the rooftops! I feel like too many people are told that aging and decline is normal and to deal with it. If I have an issue, I don’t want to be told to accept it or put a bandage on it like buying elastic waistband pants! This is my health, body, and I do have the right to hear all of the possibilities as well as the options for treatment. Instead, my PCP didn’t know enough about BHRT; therefore, it was left out of our conversation. I feel bad that so many others live in misery like myself and my wife did for the remainder of their lives. This is a golden time in our life, kids are gone, and we get to live life more. I am so thankful for BHRT; it has given us both a second chance at life. We are closer than we have been in years, and we are happy. I love to tell my story because if it reaches even one person that didn’t know about BHRT, I feel like I have shared my wealth!

What is andropause?
Testosterone is a type of androgen, which is where the name “andropause” comes from. Known mainly as a sex hormone, testosterone also affects the tenor of a man’s voice, how much or how little facial hair he has, and his overall muscle mass. As men age, testosterone production drops at a rate of about 10 percent each decade starting at age 30. It’s a gradual decline that doesn’t affect every man in the same way. Some men experience little difference in everyday function while others experience extreme symptoms, which are classified under andropause. If you’re affected by andropause, you might experience:

• Hot flashes and trouble sleeping
• Mood changes, including irritability and depression
• Low sex drive and trouble getting or maintaining an erection
• Fatigue, muscle weakness and loss of strength
• Increased body fat and lack of energy

For women, the decline in hormone production is drastically different. Eventually, the ovaries stop producing reproductive hormones altogether, making women infertile after menopause. Men are still capable of producing testosterone well into their 80’s and even later. This is why doctors are hesitant to classify a “male menopause.” There isn’t a defined time parameter for male infertility or loss of reproductive capabilities.

Still, andropause primarily affects older men as they enter a new transition period in life. Libido lessens, sexual prowess diminishes and muscle mass weakens. You are more likely to experience extreme symptoms of testosterone depletion if you’re overweight or you have other medical problems, such as diabetes. About 30 percent of men in their 50’s suffer from andropause symptoms. Your doctor can determine if there are underlying problems affecting your physical and mental health.

Are there treatment options?
Low testosterone levels don’t affect every man, but for men who are suffering, andropause can cause other health problems as well, particularly osteoporosis and heart disease. It’s important to talk to your doctor about options for dealing with symptoms that interfere with your daily life. You may be advised to try lifestyle changes, such as exercising more, or dietary changes, such as avoiding certain foods that make problems worse.

There’s also hormone replacement therapy, which reintroduces testosterone into your body to boost your levels and level out your symptoms. Synthetic and natural versions exist, but natural hormones can be a better long-term option since they get released in steadier doses over time, effectively mimicking your body’s natural production levels before middle age. You don’t have to let andropause impact your ability to enjoy growing older. Start the conversation with your doctor about symptoms to find relief.

Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/men/guide/male-menopause
https://www.medbroadcast.com/condition/getcondition/andropause