National Men's Health Week great time to heighten awareness & promote healthier, happier life

Boca Raton, FL - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - Men go through menopause, too! It's a real health condition and some are calling it "MANopause."

In accordance with National Men's Health Week www.menshealthweek.org, June 11-17, the experts at BodyLogicMD, a national network of physicians specializing in anti-aging medicine and natural BHRT (bioidentical hormone therapy), give advice on what to look for and how to treat it.

BodyLogicMD affiliated doctors diagnose men with andropause every day and encourage men in general to watch for the Top 10 Signs of Andropause:

1. Irritability
2. Sleep problems
3. Diminished libido
4. Erectile problems
5. Muscle loss
6. Weight gain
7. Memory loss
8. Thinning hair
9. Decreased bone density
10. Depression

Unlike women, who are more likely to be aware of many of the symptoms of menopause, doctors say men frequently mistake andropause for aging.

"Men's symptoms appear over the course of a decade or more and it becomes a very slow, insidious process that they attribute to getting old," explains BodyLogicMD's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jennifer Landa. "As men lose testosterone, they begin experiencing male menopause - or andropause."

Testosterone is key for building muscle and retaining memory in men. When they get into their early 30s, men begin losing testosterone at a rate of one to two percent a year.

Experts today say as many as 25 million American males between ages 40 and 55 are experiencing some degree of male menopause.

One Andropause patient
As a financial advisor and self-professed workaholic, one 46-year-old patient knew something was wrong.

"I would get really tired at around 2 or 3 p.m. everyday and couldn't maintain my mental focus - I would lose the ability to multi-task," he says. "I sticky-padded my way through every day."

Instead of turning to caffeine, he turned to a BodyLogicMD affiliated physician to check and balance his hormone levels.

"I was so relieved when I learned that I could manage my symptoms and get back to normal," says this andropausal man. "I'm glad I didn't just chalk up my fatigue and forgetfulness to getting old."

Although the first study on male andropause was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in the mid-1940s, it's only recently that the U.S. medical community has taken notice of this condition. At the forefront of these medical important advances is BodyLogicMD.

"Typically, men suffering from the symptoms of andropause are treated for a specific medical condition that is related, but not the root issue. Therein lies the problem," Dr. Landa says. "It is still common for an andropausal male to be misdiagnosed."

For example, a man may be diagnosed with depression and prescribed an antidepressant. Both the doctor and patient think the man's problem is addressed. However, if that man has other symptoms of male menopause, such as loss of libido, the antidepressant will only exaggerate that problem. This is why the physicians within the BodyLogicMD network use bioidentical hormones to treat to root cause of the hormonal imbalance.

"Modern day medicine is changing the way we diagnose and treat men suffering from andropause," says Dr. Landa. "BodyLogicMD affiliated physicians play a critical role in this movement."

About BodyLogicMD