When a man experiences abnormal fatigue, decreasing libido and starts to gain weight around the middle, often the cause is a deficiency in the male sexual hormone testosterone.
Though this is typically a problem among older men, it is being diagnosed increasingly in younger men. Sometimes, however, the cause of the symptoms is unclear and a treatment is not necessary.
The problem affects a lot of men. The testosterone level in an estimated 20 percent of German men being treated by their general practitioner is too low.
“We have determined that 30 to 40-year-old men also can have low testosterone when certain factors combine,” said Harald Joern Schneider, an endocrinologist at the University of Munich. These include weight gain, particularly at the waistline, and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, elevated blood lipids and obesity.
The reason overweight plays such a role is fatty tissue contains an enzyme that transforms testosterone into estrogen, the female hormone, said Jens Jacobeit, a physician in a Hamburg clinic that specializes in endocrinology.
Stress also enters into the picture as a possible trigger for the condition. The stress hormone cortisone suppresses testosterone production, Jacobeit said. A testosterone deficiency, however, can have other more clear-cut causes such as dysfunction of the pituitary gland or the testicles.
But the diagnosis can still raise questions because the symptoms vary and there is no symptom that without a doubt points to a testosterone deficiency, Schneider said. A series of things come into question, for example a reduction in sexual desire, difficulty in getting an erection, fatigue, a decline in muscle mass and an increase in body fat. There are, however, people with reduced to low testosterone values who live completely without problems.
“When a man wants a prescription for a testosterone supplement just because of low libido or erectile dysfunction, it counterproductive because these symptoms often have entirely different causes,” said Harald Klein, professor of general endocrinology at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. He rejects the idea of using testosterone as a lifestyle and anti-aging medicine. Too much testosterone can cause liver damage and any other risks of taking it are not yet known.
But a man who clearly has a deficiency should take a testosterone substitute. Otherwise, bone density can be affected, causing irreparable damage. A key point is that the patient should see an expert such as an endocrinologist or an andrologist, a physician who specializes in men’s health.
“The diagnosis does not belong in the hands of an internist or general practitioner,” Jacobeit said.
And the specialist must carefully weigh the gains and the risks of a therapy. Often it’s possible to resolve the problems without medicine.
“When the patient loses weight, he has a good chance of getting his testosterone level back to normal,” Schneider said.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS