I call my blog ZEN IN A HOUSE OF HORMONES as my house is full of messed up hormones .It never accrued to me that it wasn't just my daughters and I that are going though hormone changes and infact my husband's own moodswings ,insomnia and lake of energy where not just from living with us women but could be to do with hormonal changes he is having .
A lot of the time we tell ourselfs men and women are very diffrent but sometimes we find we are more similar than we think . Just as teenagers we all went through puberty and middle age is no different as women and men both start to go through changes .
Now don't get me wrong ,what a women goes through with the menopause is nothing like what men go though, I mean really they wouldn't cope . Just think how they handle the common cold sorry fellas but its true , I to was very skeptical about there being any thing like the male menopause , but looking into it and observing my own husband I think it could be possible
The menopause for women is still something women find hard to talk about but we are getting better but most men see this time in a women's life as when women start to sweat everywhere and basically lose the plot and maybe I did untill I become perimenopausal and started looking into it .So for a man to think he is going though anything like that himself it would be unthinkable . When a man does start to experience symptoms its classed as a midlife crisis as a women we sit back and wait for our husbands and partners to come home with a sports car and run off with a younger woman .
We don't think of our men going through anything like the menopause as the menopause is all about us no longer being able to have children and men can go on into their 80's and still conceive a child .
The other thing is every women goes through menopause unlike a man who could experience no midlife symptoms . A womens hormone changes can also be very dramatic were a mans happens slowly
After the age of 30 a man's level of testosterone decreases 1% each year were a womens hormone changes happen between the ages of 45 to 60 but symptoms can come on all at once . Another reason it's true women can handle more than one thing at once . Joking aside middle age can be as bad as the teenage years and understanding what a man and woman go though could benifit how we get on as couples .
Many couples break up around this time and I've always been a strong believer comunication with each other is the key to a long and happy marriage ,understanding whats going on in each others lives can help explain why a person is acting the way they are ,for example the feeling of not feeling close to each other anymore is often nothing to do with not loving that person anymore more on whats going on with that person .
SO here's what I found out about middle age mens changes .
MENOPAUSE Vs ANDROPAUSE
So when looking into the male menopause or andropause as its known their are simular symptoms both men and women experience . The first one is hormone changes , women start in perimenopause this is when hormone levels flutctuate , they drop streadily then spike and dip often triggering menopausal symptoms as the body is loosing estrogen and progesterone and thats when you stop making eggs . This all starts happening from the mid 40's to late 50's .
Men start to have andropause smptoms around the age of 45 to 50 and more dramaticaly after the age of 70 ,this is when testosterone levels go below the normal range for a aging man .
As womens symptoms happen so much faster than a mans the change in a woman is more noticable where a mans is very vague. Also a women has had experience with a lot of the symptoms with hormones changing with the time of the month ,like mood swings ,headaches, aches and pains and nausea . The biggest tell tail sign a woman has that she is entering menopause is the change in her cycle with periods stopping and starting .
SYMPTOMS OF THE LOSS OF TESTOSTERON
When a man starts to loss testosteron one of the first signs is loss in sex drive and most men don't want to acknowledge this along with the low sex drive other symptoms happen that are hard to detect as not just being life .
PHYSICAL AFFECTS
POOR ENERGY LEVELS
Testosteron helps with healthy energy this is why a man feels fatigued and even have no energy to do normal things ,it can also make him not enjoy the things that he used to like to doing which leads to lose in self confidence ,poor concentraion and memory loss .
NOT WANTING TO BE SO ACTIVE
When men start to not want to be active this is when the weight gain happens and when a man loses testosteron he also loses muscle and bone density, which can lead to osteporosis which he may not know he has untill you fracture a bone . Testosteron slows your body build up of belly fat so this is why your man can look a little bigger around the middle .
WARING SIGNS
Breast enlargement
Decreased motivation
Reduced muscle mass and strength
MENTAL HEALTH AFFECTS
There are also mental affects that can run along side all these changes, Some of these symptoms are from loss of testosterone but can also be because of how a man feels about himself physicaly and emotionally
DEPRESSION
You can suffer from depression at anytime in your life but it is becoming more common in men over 40 . The symptoms of depression are often feeling sad and empty for no reason , irritable and angry all the time over the smallest of things, loss of concentration and remembering things become harder and the loss of interest in everything . Infact depression could also be the first signs of low testosterone with men more likely to do something about a physical sign than a mental one man can suffer with depression for a long time and not know it .
INSOMNIA
Not sleeping is something we associate with getting older and more and more of us are suffering with sleep problems testosterone is important for sleep as testosterone starts to lower you can start to see signs by only being able to sleep for about 5 hours the lower the testosterone you get less sleep so if you can up your intake of testosterone by 15% you can gain a hour of sleep it doesn't sound much but sleep is so important to our health as no sleep also adds to trouble focusing ,irritability and being easily angered. On average 7-10hrs is classed as a healthy level but to achive that as we get older we have to look at many things
LOWER STRESS LEVELS
DIET
EXERSISE
can all improve your sleep
LOOKING AFTER EACH OTHER
As you can see some of the symptoms are the same as what us women experience and as helping these symptoms seem to also be the same for example diet and exercise ,how about we help each other by looking at our diets though meal planning as a family ,making meals we all can enjoy together helps changing our food choices easier . Cutting down alcohol can also be done as a couple making the nights you open a bottle of wine into a date night . Exercise is also not only for your body but helps with our mental health and exercising together not only helps you to keep it up but can also bring you closer together as a couple .
Over the last couple of months my husband and I have started walking after work it started as a form of exercise but has turned into a bonding time .We are normally out for about a hour and the first 20 mins we vent about our day which i've found de-stresses my husband ,this is some thing I found we didn't do in the house as are walking time we have no kids or phones to distract us .Also our talks have made us open up ,talking about how we are feeling and finding we are at times having the same feelings it makes us also understand the times when one of us is more snappy than normal . Its like free therapy.
The more I read about middle age the more I see it is a time to start looking at your life and how we live it and exercise and diet play a big part looking after our bodies is so important and how doing something as simple as a daily walk does not only help you physically but helps mentally . So if your husband or partner is not his normal self maybe he is as hormonal as you .
