The Taiwanese Association of Andrology (TAA) yesterday encouraged men to seek professional medical attention for andrological issues, adding that getting a proper diagnosis and treatment could help improve their life quality and sometimes also reveal other underlying health conditions.
Raising public awareness of men’s health issues, the TAA yesterday held a seminar in Taipei with several doctors giving public education talks on men’s health issues, while offering a free testosterone blood test and body composition analysis for attendees.
TAA president Tsai Wei-kung (蔡維恭), a urologist at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, said that a Health and Promotion Administration survey suggested that men on average have a shorter life span and poorer management of obesity and the “three highs” — high blood pressure, blood lipids and blood sugar — than women, but more men than women believe they are healthy.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwanese Association of Andrology
Three important indicators of men’s health issues include testosterone levels, prostate health issues and hardness of penile erections, and these are often also the warning signs for other underlying health conditions, he said.
A study has suggested that in patients with erectile dysfunction, about 29 percent of study participants also have diabetes, 33 percent have hypertension, 27 percent have a testosterone deficiency and about 50 percent have hyperlipidemia, Tsai said, adding that they also have increased risks of cardiovascular disease and strokes.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital physician Huang I-shen (黃奕燊) said after age 30, men’s testosterone levels might decline by 1 to 2 percent per year, and a testosterone deficiency could cause reduced sex drive, fatigue, insomnia and other symptoms that affect quality of life.
TAA deputy secretary-general Lee Wei-chang (李威昌), a urologist at New Taipei Municipal Tucheng Hospital, said erectile dysfunction is linked to several cardiovascular diseases and have the same risk factors, so the association encourages people to seek professional medical attention as early as possible.
The association said its survey found that over half of patients with erectile dysfunction had first sought solutions on their own, such as adjusting their diet or exercising, while many also tried supplements or medicine purchased on their own; less than 20 percent sought professional medical assistance.
TAA secretary-general Chang Yi-kai, a urologist at National Taiwan University Hospital, said sometimes men with andrological issues have come to the outpatient clinic, but were embarrassed and reluctant to state their problems until a female nurse left the room temporarily, but he encourages men to seek medical assistance and assured them that healthcare workers would respect every patient and keep their health conditions confidential.
Hsu Chih-chen (許志呈), a urologist at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taipei Hospital, said that apart from getting medical attention as early as possible, getting sufficient sleep, gaining muscle and losing fat, and managing stress are also ways to improve andrological health.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS