Is A Late Life Change Inevitable?

Ok, here’s the deal. Women have always maintained that men are the cause of all their ailments, and now it’s official. Because it’s a universal truth that men cannot stand to be outdone, in their predictable oneupmanship, they have come up with a syndrome parallel to menopause, and dubbed it andropause.

Call it mid-life crisis, the seven-year itch, or whatever you like – there exists all kinds of controversy about whether this affliction actually exists, or whether it’s made up. And though not emphatically stated, we know it has been known to linger into old age.

Getting older scares the pants off some men and basically the entire thing becomes an epiphany causing a massive shift in responsibilities and grasp on reality. Before male menopause, dominant behaviour may have been eating with the hands the minute the wife left the room, or using nail clippers to trim nose hair. Now andropause conduct is said to cause an undeniable urge to buy a convertible – of any color – to let the wind roar through the hair. Never mind that the precariously balanced hairpiece will rip to shreds in the wind.

But seriously, testosterone is the primary hormone which allows men to stoke their metabolic furnace – until they lose it. That’s right, men don’t exactly keep everything they had in their youth, especially when it comes to testosterone. By the age of 55, the amount of testosterone secreted into the bloodstream is significantly lower than it was just ten years earlier. In fact, by age 80, most male hormone levels decrease to – gasp – pre-puberty levels.

It gets worse. Andropause is also associated with ever increasing estrogens (from testosterone). It is not uncommon for a man of retirement age to have more estrogen in his body than women of the same age. Whereas menopausal women experience mid-life madness, where cheesy’s and chocolate bon bon’s go hand in hand with crying binges and morning bloating, some men at this stage exhibit the need to prove their manhood by chasing after younger women.

Suddenly the misplaced male libido is elevated to the stratospheric heights of Tony Randall and Anthony Quinn, who fathered children in their eighties. Men call them heroes women call them irresponsible - go figure. It doesn’t matter that these fellows might never be able to throw a baseball to their son what matters to their admirers is that they are still potent. Never mind that fighting the good fight when you're 30 is tough enough. Add 50 years, and you've got to wonder about a man's sanity.

Those men who still retain their dignity through this period may feel it signifies the beginning of the end. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a dear friend (I’ll call him John) used to say: “to be worthy of growing old you have to appreciate entering an age where you learn life’s true meaning.” John was fiercely proud of his 94 years, and his magnificent presence was like a stout oaken beam on which the weight of the world was firmly resting. He understood he had accumulated a pile of years too big to sweep under the rug and too many to taint with a terrified floundering.

Right to the end, John’s priorities took on a positive change like spending more quality time with his family and committing efforts to things of value. This change yielded a peaceful relationship between himself and life – or in other words – a beautiful awakening.