Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15044

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Publication type: news

Rose D.
Male menopause doesn't exist: expert
The Age (Melbourne) 2009 Feb 13
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/male-menopause-doesnt-exist-expert-20090213-868d.html

Full text:

The “male menopause” does not exist, says a visiting expert who instead
attributes the term to drug company efforts to develop a new market.

Epidemiologist Dr John McKinlay says the term refers only to the natural
ageing process in men and efforts to “medicalise” this for commercial
reasons should be resisted.

Dr McKinlay is senior vice president of New England Research Institutes
in the US. He is in New Zealand this week but will give a series of free
lectures in Adelaide next week.

“There is no support from any of the major international endocrinology
studies for a male menopause,” Dr McKinlay said in a statement.

“Worldwide, male ageing is generating public interest and also,
incidentally, a lucrative market.

“Pharmaceutical (company) involvement is producing new treatments – for
example testosterone replacement – but these treatments are drugs in
search of a disease.”

Male menopause is also referred to as “andropause”, and Dr McKinlay says
some of the promoted treatments posed health risks in themselves.

“Giving men extra testosterone willy-nilly may elevate their risk of
prostate cancer,” he said.

Dr McKinlay is guest speaker at two public lectures to be held at the
Freemason’s Foundation Centre for Men’s Health at the University of
Adelaide on February 16 and 17.