Interní Med. 2012; 14(5): 217-220

Aging men and steroid hormones - 1. Andropause

prof.MUDr.RNDr.Luboslav Stárka, DrSc.

Endokrinologický ústav, Praha

Age related decrease of testosterone levels has been established many times. Late-onset hypogonadism is accompanied by rather unspecific

symptoms including vasomotor and nervous signs, disturbances of mood and cognitive function and decease and weakening

of sexual functions. Guidelines from expert committees are at disposal for the examination of the hypogonadal patients, diagnosis,

treatment and monitoring of the hormonal substitution. Recent guidelines underline that the adepts for testosterone treatment are

only those men, in which clinical signs are accompanied by repeated subnormal levels of testosterone. The treatment should be strictly

individual. Hypotestosteronemia is also present in a high deal of patient with civilisation diseases as obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes

mellitus type 2 and cardiovascular diseases. However, until now we don’t know whether hypotestosteronemia is one of the causal

factors of these diseases or only their consequence.

Keywords: aging, testosterone, civilisation diseases, hypogonadism

Published: May 14, 2012  Show citation