Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome.
(Male Menopause)
All men as they they grow older have a gradual decline in their testosterone levels. This is a natural part of the ageing process. After the age of about thirty years this natural decline in testosterone levels progresses at a rate of about 2% per annum. Thus it can be calculated that at the age of 50 testosterone levels will have declined by some 20% and that by the age of 70 these levels will have fallen to almost half what they were at their youthful high tide.
But just because all men experience a gradual and inevitable age-related decline in their testosterone levels, this does not mean that all men will suffer any noticeable symptoms arising from this fall such as Impotence (erectile dysfunction) . Many men can go deep on into their eighties and even longer and still enjoy a full sexual life even in some cases to fathering children at a ripe old age.
Other men, perhaps as many as 25 to 30% percent of us will experience symptoms and complaints of varying degrees of severity such as Impotence (also known as Erectile Dysfunction). These may include:
- Mild to severe depressed mood and loss of zip.
- Decrease in muscle strength and increase in body fat.
- Poor quality erections sometimes not cured by Viagra etc.
- Little or no desire to take part in any sexual activity.
- Few or no spontaneous morning erections.
- Reduced mineral bone density with increase risk of fractures.
- Reduced cognitive powers and raised cholesterol.
Some men are quite prepared to live with many or all of these things and see them as ‘natural’. That of course is their prerogative and it would be quite wrong for any doctor or anyone else to attempt to persuade them otherwise. Other men however may seek to rid themselves or at the very least to reduce the severity of these age related symptoms such as Impotence.
Perhaps the optimum form of TRT at the moment is a gel called Testogel which, when applied to an area of skin on a daily bases, raises testosterone in the blood to levels similar to those of much younger men.
Another very popular form of testosterone replacment is via a long-action injection that needs to be given every 10 weeks. Some men prefer this to the gel because of its convieniance of use. The injection is called Nebido in case you'd like to look it up.