Andropause or male menopause, sometimes colloquially called "man-opause", is a name that has been given to a menopause-like condition in aging men. This relates 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, which is associated with a decrease in Leydig cells.
Unlike women, middle-aged men do not experience a complete and permanent physiological shutting down of the reproductive system as a normal event. A steady decline in testosterone levels with age (in both men and women) is well documented.
Unlike "menopause", the word "andropause" is not currently recognized by the World Health Organization and its ICD-10 medical classification. This is likely because "andropause" is a term of convenience describing the stage of life when symptoms of aging appear in men. 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.
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