Endocrine Abstracts

Female menopause is an inevitable condition caused by biological programmed primary ovarian failure and resulting in an abrupt deficiency in estrogens. Men may experience a gradual decline in androgen levels with increasing age but, in contrast to the phenomenon in women, it is questionable whether this is an inevitable biologically programmed event or whether it is related to other age- related changes or to long-term effects of lifestyle factors.

Hormone replacement therapy can indeed relieve many of the symptoms related to the pathological androgen levels seen in the clinical hypogonadal man. However, finding an association between low-normal testosterone levels and symptoms of hypogonadism in aged men is not the same as proving a causation and hormone replacement may not be the measure to reverse the symptoms.

Recent epidemiological studies suggest that changes in health but also in lifestyle and environment may have a greater impact on male testosterone levels than chronological aging has, and management of these factors may play a significant role in sustaining normal male testosterone levels through out life.