Robbie Williams says he's going through 'male menopause': What to know about andropause symptoms

Robbie Williams is dealing with thinning hair, reduced sex drive and insomnia in what's become known as "male menopause" — and no, it's not a myth.

The "Angles" singer, 49, told The Sun he's "f——— knackered" from his years of partying in the '90s and early 2000s.

WIlliams said the toll on his health has caused a drop in his testosterone levels.

"The hair is thinning, the testosterone has left the building, the serotonin is not really here and the dopamine said goodbye a long time ago," he told The Sun.

"I've used up all of the natural good stuff. I've got the manopause."

"Manopause," though clever word-play, is not the official name for his condition.

Andropause, also known as testosterone deficiency syndrome (TDS), androgen deficiency in the aging male (ADAM), and late-onset male hypogonadism, refers to an age-related decline in testosterone, and has been reported to affect more than 25 per cent of men over the age of 40 in Canada.

But if you haven't heard a lot – or really anything — about andropause, you’re probably not alone. The medical condition is still largely not being talked about, both socially and in the medical field, because it takes time to catch up socially with new medical advances.

It's not the first time we've seen this, experts say.

“It took [the medical community] years to try to convince people about menopause,” Dr. Lawrence Komer, founder of the Masters Men’s Andropause Clinic and an expert in the field, tells Yahoo Canada. “We had menopausal hormones 50 years ago.” And now, it’s the same with andropause. “It takes a long time to change ideas and attitudes,” Komer says.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about andropause, including symptoms and causes.

So, what is andropause?

Andropause refers to the symptoms men experience as they lose testosterone — the hormone that regulates metabolism, muscle function and blood cell production — over a prolonged period of time.

“Andropause are the symptoms surrounding low testosterone,” Komer says. “It's very much like menopause for boys.”

Unlike menopause though, which is an inevitable and abrupt change in hormones leading to distinct symptoms like hot flashes, andropause doesn’t occur in every male and can be a lot more subtle when it does. It’s also important to note that, unlike menopause, men do not lose the ability to reproduce completely with andropause.

It's normal for testosterone levels to gradually decrease in men as they age. A man’s testosterone levels decline one per cent a year after the age of 40, and as psychotherapist Ian Kerner wrote in a 2018 article for CNN, some experts estimate the average 80-year-old man has 50 per cent less testosterone than he did as a young man.

But, “every man’s response to this can be different,” says Dr. John Aquino, a Toronto-based expert in men’s health. While some men may notice gradual changes that aren’t overwhelming or bothersome, Aquino says some men may have either a bigger drop in levels, or a bigger reaction to the lower levels they naturally have.

“Either the drop in testosterone is beyond a critical amount that the individual needs to feel ‘normal,’ or his tissue receptors for testosterone no longer respond as well to the amount produced, or a combination of these,” Aquino says.

What causes andropause? Do I need to worry?

While aging can be a big factor in andropause, it isn’t the only cause.

Some experts have linked low testosterone to both lifestyle and psychological factors like anxiety, depression, lack of exercise, stress, and weight gain, to name a few. In some cases, the condition has been linked to individuals with severe injuries, something Komer has seen first-hand — and outside the age range of 40s and 50s historically diagnosed with andropause.

“Sometimes aging [is a cause], but I think that’s just a catch-all, because I've got teenagers with this,” Komer, who also specializes in traumatic brain injury, says. “The common cause that I see — and it's not what everybody else sees because I've got funny training — is head injuries; injuries affect your pituitary gland and your pituitary gland makes your hormones.”

Meaning that stat about andropause affecting 25 per cent of Canadian men over 40 is most likely a little out of date. “We don't know what percentage of men have this,” Komer says. “It's a whole lot more than people think when you start looking into it.”

What are the symptoms of andropause?

That's why it’s important to keep an eye out for symptoms, typically seen in a group of five, according to Komer.

Andropause symptoms include:

• Fatigue

• Restless sleep

• Achy joints and sore muscles

• Anxiety and depression

• Potential erectile dysfunction or a low sex drive.

Often, due to testing ranges that are too broad, and the fact that — unlike menopause — testosterone and male hormones decrease over a period of several years, it can be easy to overlook these symptoms and chalk them up to old age or depression.

According to Komer, this ultimately leaves many people falling through the cracks, improperly diagnosed —and not treated effectively.

Being left untreated can have negative health impacts.

A 2018 study in Scientific Reports found that testosterone-deficiency in men can lead to obesity-related chronic diseases. Komer likens low testosterone to low estrogen, noting that 54 per cent of women die of a heart attack and stroke during menopause, and 4 per cent of breast cancer. If you go on the right hormones, that 4 per cent drops to 3.6 per cent.

“The same thing goes for andropause,” Komer says. “I’ve had a 20-year-old with a stroke and a 28-year-old with cardiac arrest; the only thing we could find after a neurologist and cardiologist went over them? Low testosterone.”

That's why Komer advocates for doctors to test and look at patient’s more holistically. This means not just looking solely at their blood test numbers on a chart, but also their symptoms and personal history, alongside the typical screening tests and questionnaires.

“Are there more causes of those [symptoms]? Sure there are,” Komer says. “But that particular group of five is so common among people with low testosterone…So you try to get all the information you can before you go ahead, and then you follow it closely.”

How do you treat andropause?

Many experts recommend lifestyle changes in order to ease andropause symptoms. This may include adopting a healthy and balanced diet, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, implementing regular exercise, and finding ways to lower stress levels in order to help patients get a better night’s sleep.

While both Komer and Aquino recommend hormone replacement therapy for some patients who are experiencing andropause; in this case, testosterone replacement therapy. This therapy is still considered somewhat controversial by some, due to fears that — like performance-enhancing steroids — it may increase the risk of prostate cancer.

Komer has heard this concern, and refutes it.

“The testosterone [performance-enhancing steroids] use is 10 to 30 times more potent that we use,” Komer says. “It's like turbocharging a normal car engine and the engine explodes because they can't take the extra power. That's exactly what we're not doing. We're restoring natural hormone levels at the same levels as a guy would make on his own.”

Patients who pursue this route would do so under the direction and supervision of their doctor and a specialist.

At the end of the day, “you’ve got to keep up to date [with the research], because medicine changes,” Komer says. “ As one study said: Medicine information doubles every 11 hours. How can you possibly catch up?”

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