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And for men, a story on a related subject - "male menopause."
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Here we go again.
Just as women find themselves flailing about, knee-deep in controversy over the safety of hormone replacement therapy, men are jumping in.
Not into the women's HRT battle. But into a battle of their own. The battle over male menopause, myth or menace?
The July 29 issue of The New Yorker magazine does a good job of outlining the sides in this battle. Basically, reporter Jerome Groopman concludes that whether or not "andropause" is a real and treatable condition, it's premature to use testosterone to boost men's flagging libidos and pump up their flaccid erections and flabby muscle mass.
Its safety is unproven, he writes, calling this trend a "vast, uncontrolled experiment."
While everyone agrees that men with prostate cancer shouldn't be given testosterone (it feeds the cancer,) there is major disagreement over giving it to men who just want to regain that old charge again.
"If testosterone is low and you have symptoms, it's probably worthwhile trying treatment," says Dr. John Morley, an endocrinologist and geriatrician at Saint Louis University in Missouri, who is a passionate advocate of testosterone therapy.
"The drop (in testosterone levels) is no longer debated. That's no longer controversial. The question is like estrogen, we know it goes down in women.
"What we know from controlled studies is that (giving testosterone) will increase muscle mass, and improve strength and bone density, similar to what you might expect with estrogen (in women.)
"It makes their enthusiasm for sex improve. For some people, that never was important, but for others, it's important forever."
But even if you support the use of this steroid hormone, you have to listen to this laundry list of improvements and wonder, what about abuse?
Morley doesn't think there will be abuse among older men, and as for others?
"No one will stop people abusing things. Should we hold it back from the people where it's really helpful? You can't protect the stupid from themselves."
Why, even Ernest Hemingway took it, for 10 years, from age 52-62, Morley said. Of course, Hemingway committed suicide, although we're not implying any link here.
"I would look at it like taking Viagra," Morley says. "It's a quality-of-life drug. It makes you feel better. If you get low, fueling your engines with testosterone makes sense."
At least to some.
Carolyn Susman writes for The Palm Beach Post.
That's it for now. Dr. Rehert
That's it for now. Dr. Rehert
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