For Male Menopause Treatments, Low-Calorie Diet May Be Your Best Option

Male menopause, also andropause, is a reality of life for men as they age. Many men suffer low testosterone levels after the age of 45. The best remedy for male menopause, however, is not necessarily testosterone injections. For many men, all that is needed is diet.

Unlike menopause in women, menopause in men is a process of gradual decline without clear beginning and end. Males lose interest in sex. They lose physical agility. They feel tired all the time. There is no single medical test that can identify the onset of andropause, but there are symptoms that usually relate to changes in male hormone levels. Men can ask themselves these questions:

• Do you feel tired after eating?


• Do you have problems with attention, focus, and memory?


• Are your breasts larger than they used to be?


• Are your erections smaller than they used to be?


• Do have less interest in sex than when you were younger?


• Does your non-erect sex organ seem smaller than it used to be?


• Do you need a lot of sleep even when you are not physically active?


• Have you been treated for broken or fractured bones?

The more questions men answer "yes," the more likely there is an underlying hormonal issue. All of these symptoms all can be tied to declining levels of testosterone. Testosterone replacement, however, is not the first line of treatment.

The first line of treatment for men's midlife decline is diet. That's because fat cells make estrogen. The more fat a man accumulates, the more estrogen his body makes. The fat cells in a man's buttocks, by the way, destroy testosterone 1000 per cent faster than belly fat.

Hormone production in the fat cells is not a continuous process, so symptoms may get better and then get worse. The first thing to do, however, is to lose weight with a low-calorie diet to deprive fat of the fuel it needs to make female sex hormones.

Just do it gently. Fat cells are reservoirs for xenoestrogens, the chemical compounds in our polluted environment that mimic the effects of the hormones in women's bodies. These include the growth hormones fed to industrially produced cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, the phthalates used to make plastics, and a variety of paints, solvents, and plasticizers, as well as gasoline.

You don't want these chemicals pouring into your system faster than your liver can detoxify them. That's why men need to lose weight naturally and at a reasonable rate. If you choose to lose your pounds fast, at least choose natural methods.