I like a glass (or three) of wine now and then. If a pill existed that could reliably prevent hangovers with a relatively low risk of adverse side effects, I would take it. No question.
Is my hangover a disorder? No, it’s a simple consequence of drinking too much. I can choose to just grin and bear my hangover, or I can choose to spend my day more ‘optimally’ by not suffering from a hangover all day.
Is andropause a disorder? No, it’s a simple consequence of living for a long time. Testosterone levels decline 1% every year after the age of 30, so if you have been lucky enough to live until 60 years old, your testosterone level will on average be 30% lower than it was at aged 30.
Here’s the 21st century kicker in all of this. In addition to the natural testosterone decline that you will suffer, there is also a pronounced decline taking place in the overall testosterone levels of the general population. The ‘Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism’ published a study showing that testosterone levels have, on average, declined 1.2% per year for the past 25 years. This was a huge, well designed study – and nobody seems to be able to explain why this is happening.
So, we find ourselves in the 21st century with an increasingly elderly population, with significantly lower testosterone levels than they had in their prime, as well as some kind of environmental factors at work that are compounding the problem even further.
So, is Andropause a disorder? No, it’s just a normal consequence of living for a long time in a developed country.
So, why treat andropause? Well, that’s the part that some people don’t like – treating andropause allows men to make the decision to reject ‘normal’ and aim for something a little better than that. We are entering the age of ‘personal enhancement’ – people are not just using medicine to treat diseases, they are also using every tactic possible to improve the quality of their extended lifespan. It’s not just enough to live, people want to live ‘optimally’.
They want their viagra so that they can continue to have sex, they want their lasik so that they can continue to see optimally, they want their human growth hormone therapy for anti-aging, and they want their testosterone so that they don’t feel like an old man, when in fact they really are an old man. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that if you lived to see andropause then you really were old – in the early 20th century the average lifespan was only 40!
Welcome to the age of personal enhancement. You are probably going to live for a very long time – how you choose to live is entirely up to you.
Anyway, off my soapbox, and back to my glass of wine……
(P.S – you can find out how to test your testosterone level here, and if you want to do it cheaply with minimal hassle, you can use the link below)
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