Bio-Identical Hormones

Hormones for Men

Lost your get up and go? It could be the result of male menopause. Many people assume menopause is just a woman’s condition, but men also suffer from the effects of changing hormones — many men experience some of the same symptoms that women experience in perimenopause and menopause, including low sex drive, hot flashes, depression, irritability, mood swings, increased body fat and decreased energy.

Male menopause, also known as andropause, is the result of a gradual decrease in testosterone. Unlike female menopause, which occurs when hormone production drops suddenly, andropause is a gradual decline — happening at around 1% a year on average after the age of 30. It’s rarely noticeable in men younger than 60, but by their 80s, about half of men have low testosterone.

Adrenal Fatigue and Hormonal Imbalance

The adrenal glands sit on top of each kidney and produce hormones including the fast-acting stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin, and the slower-acting cortisol and DHEA — these give us the energy we need to feel motivated and deal with stress. In a stressful situation, the body releases these hormones for a “fight or flight” response; once the danger passes, the adrenal gland should return hormone levels to normal. However, our modern way of living can create continuous stress — not just emotional stress, but also diet deficiencies, pain, chronic inflammation, microbiome imbalance, digestive infections, lack of sleep, over-training and auto-immune conditions — which can eventually leave the adrenals fatigued and producing abnormally low levels of stress hormones, leaving us tired, anxious and exhausted.

One of the biggest hormone problems for women is low progesterone, which lowers naturally with menopause or perimenopause but can also fall too far — leaving you feeling tired, anxious, low in libido and unable to cope, even at a younger age. Progesterone’s activity is highly influenced by stress: under pressure, the body can divert (or “steal”) the precursor hormone pregnenolone away from producing progesterone and towards producing the stress hormone cortisol instead, so progesterone tends to be hit hardest.

Symptoms of DHEA Deficiency

• Persisting fatigue
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Hypersensitivity to noise
• Loss of libido
• Dry eyes
• Dry skin and hair
• Loss of head hair

Reversing Adrenal Burnout

Saliva testing to determine cortisol levels is the first step to assessing your adrenal health. Healing happens at a cellular level, and flooding the body with nutrients to nourish, support and rebuild the mitochondria while addressing hormone balance is a comprehensive solution.

Reception can provide an adrenal stress test kit — a saliva test you can carry out at home and return directly to the laboratory — and our Nutritional Therapy / Functional Medicine practitioner will call you to discuss next steps and develop a programme to help rebalance your adrenal health, working alongside your BHRT programme.