Sue:
For men the mid-life red convertible and working- out is more than a "mid-life crisis" it is a real and tangible event.  Why do people write off these behaviors as "just a phase" when men are going through the same dynamics ( and problems) as women (do in perimenopause/menopause) and yet women are taken very seriously?

Jed:
Well, it hasn't been all that long ago that women weren't taken seriously. They were told the problem was "all in their head" and they just needed to get through it.  Author Gail Sheehy called it, "The silent passage." I describe Male Menopause as puberty in reverse. In adolescence, our hormones are coming on line and at mid-life they are starting to drop.

She said "if menopause is the silent passage, male menopause is the unspeakable passage.  It is fraught with secrecy, shame, and denial."

We've tended to see women as being more "hormonally" driven and men as being more "psychologically" driven.  Since women's menopause has a more specific physical marker we tend to see it as more "real."  The truth is men are as hormonally driven as women and women experience the same kind of mid-life psychological changes as do men.

As Dr. Carolyn Baker, author of Reclaiming the Dark Feminine, said after reading my book, "It puts 'men' back into menopause and substantiates the reality that certainly in mid-life, women and men are more alike than different."

This reality prompted me to write, Surviving Male Menopause, (out in September) which will help women and men move together through this difficult yet enlightening passage.

Book Excerpt
Male Menopause and Erectile Dysfunction
7 Changes that Occur
in Healthy, Normal Males as they Age

by Jed Diamond
Reprinted by the permission of the author.
©1998 Jed Diamond. All rights reserved

see this excerpt

• Introduction
• What is Male Menopause
• Common Signs & Symptoms
• Erectile Dysfunction
• Mid-Life Crisis
• Book Excerpt
  Male Menopause and Erectile Dysfunction
• Q&A with Jed Diamond

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Male Menopause
by Jed Diamond

So do men really go through menopause? If you think of menopause as hot flashes and a sudden change in fertility, no. But if you regard menopause as physical and emotional changes triggered by significant changes in hormone levels, then yes, men go through it. In Male Menopause veteran psychotherapist and men's-movement leader Jed Diamond looks at the observable and documentable changes associated with male midlife--weight gain, less physical endurance, longer recovery from injuries, reduced interest in sex, feelings of irritability and depression--and concludes that this is indeed a passage similar to what middle-aged women go through. The last section of Male Menopause discusses how men can get back what they've lost, but for the most part Diamond focuses on understanding and accepting the aging process, not fighting it.

Iron John: A Book About Men
see books by Robert Bly

is a wonderful book that I've had for a few years in hardcover that I tend to reread every once in a while. It's a great "jump start" for the soul. It tells a story as abstracted from an ancient legend with practical applications for the men of today. Definitely worth buying for your personal library.

The Testosterone Syndrome:
The Critical Factor for Energy, Health, & Sexuality--Reversing the Male Menopause
by Eugene Shippen, William Fryer

Just as women have a menopause, so men experience a "male menopause", often called andropause, which can occur in over a period of 15 to 20 years, and which can take an equally devastating toll on strength, energy, and zest for life. In this book, Dr. Shippan uses case histories to show how adjusting levels of testosterone can have a positive effect on this time in a man's life.

Maximizing Manhood:
Beating the Male Menopause
by Malcolm Carruthers

A revealing and in-depth study of many men facing one of the greatest male taboos. This book discusses the benefits of carefully monitored testosterone replacement therapy.