Andropause or male menopause,[1] sometimes colloquially called "man-opause", is a name that has been given, in some parts of the English-speaking world, to a set of effects that appears in some aging men, and which have some superficial similarities to menopause effects in women.
Andropause may be related to the slow but steady reduction of the production of the hormones testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone in middle-aged men, and the consequences of that reduction.[2] It is also associated with a decrease in Leydig cells.[3] A steady decline in testosterone levels with age (in both men and women) is well documented.[4]
Unlike "menopause", the word "andropause" is currently not recognized by the World Health Organization and its ICD-10 medical classification. While the words are sometimes used interchangeably, hypogonadism is a deficiency state in which the hormone testosterone goes below the normal range for even an aging male.
