Dr. Gabhart and I were in a meeting today with three men. We spoke about our upcoming book, Fat, Fatigued and Female. Two of the men were around my age, and the third could have been my son. Do you know which one it was who kept interjecting “and male hormones”? You guessed it. The younger one. How astute.

 Women seem to steal the show when the topic of hormone balance comes up, but guess what? Men have hormones too. And I wonder how many men are suffering in silence? Men are “supposed to be” the strong one, the protector, full of vigor and vitality. But they are exposed to the very same issues that help upset hormone balance in women: 1) Stress, 2) Diet, and 3) Toxins in our environment.

When you think about it, men and women both originate from the same embryonic tissue. The female, with xx chromosomes, develops ovaries and a uterus. The male, with xy chromosomes, develops testes and a prostate gland. In the female, hormone imbalance ultimately shows up in the ovaries and uterus, and in the male, in the prostate gland.

The prostate gland is not the only place symptoms of imbalance show up. The following list includes commonly cited possible indications of hormone imbalance in men. These are not signs of “weakness.” Quite the contrary. There are bonified physiologic processes going on to cause these issues. 

Enlarged prostate	Erectile dysfunction	Insomnia
Prostate inflammation	Impotence	Leg/muscle cramps
Frequent urination	Lowered libido/lack of sex drive/lack of interest in sex	Swollen ankles/feet
Difficulty passing urine	Low sperm count	Water retention/bloating
Incontinence	Headaches/migraines	Blood sugar imbalance
Breast enlargement	Foggy thinking/memory loss	Fatigue
Adult acne	Mood swings/panic attacks/ depression/anger/irritability	Hair loss
Osteoporosis	Loss of muscle strength	Low thyroid symptoms
Inability to lose weight	Rapid weight loss

A great reference specific to men, Dr. John Lee’s Hormone Balance for Men, addresses the following six topics: 1) The mechanics of male hormones, 2) The mechanics of prostate enlargement and prostate cancer, 3) Estrogen dominance and prostate problems, 4) The role of testosterone, 5) The PSA factor, and 6) Restoring hormone balance.

This document can be downloaded as a pdf file at http://www.virginiahopkinstestkits.com. At this site you can also find articles by Dr. Lee about men’s hormones, review an extensive updated article about prostate health, and obtain guidance about measuring testosterone, HGH, and PSA.

Just as for women, it is important that men educate themselves about hormone imbalance and then seek assistance from a health care practitioner who is knowledgeable about bioidentical hormone balancing.

A healthy and invigorating life is available not only for women, but for men as well, as reflected in the following story by Dr. Starr in Hypothroidism Type 2:

“For example, my father’s mental status was declining in his early 80s. Proper treatment of his hypothyroidism and other hormone deficiencies (DHEA and testosterone) reversed his mental decline and restored his sense of humor. My mother thanked me many times for giving her husband back to her. Restoring quality of life is gratifying even if one’s life expectancy is limited.”

 

Restoring quality of life – that’s what it is all about, for women and men.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Hormone Balancing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.