Andropause deserves more attention, doctor says

An­dropause re­mains a lit­tle-dis­cussed stage of men’s health de­spite its po­ten­tial im­pact on phys­i­cal health, emo­tion­al well-be­ing, re­la­tion­ships and over­all qual­i­ty of life, ac­cord­ing to Dr Shenelle Ash­ton of the Fam­i­ly Plan­ning As­so­ci­a­tion.

Speak­ing dur­ing an aware­ness ses­sion host­ed by Flow Trinidad as part of its em­ploy­ee well­ness pro­gramme, Dr Ash­ton said greater pub­lic un­der­stand­ing of the con­di­tion could help re­duce stig­ma and en­cour­age men to seek in­for­ma­tion and sup­port when need­ed.

Of­ten re­ferred to as “male menopause”, an­dropause is as­so­ci­at­ed with a grad­ual de­cline in testos­terone lev­els and can af­fect men in dif­fer­ent ways. Dur­ing the ses­sion, Dr Ash­ton ex­plained its symp­toms, treat­ment op­tions and prac­ti­cal lifestyle changes that can help men man­age the con­di­tion while main­tain­ing their over­all health.