Manopause midlife symptoms for men

I gave my first Menopause talk to a mixed group of men and women. It got me thinking about what the Nèi Jīng 内经 has to say about men in midlife. Do they have a manopause and what are the midlife symptoms for men? The Nèi Jīng 内经 is a big recourse in my clinic, because it's the oldest available text explaining Chinese Medical Philosophy, and the basis of all acupuncture practice in the modern day.

Within the first few pages, the book explains that normally people live 100 years. Yes 100 YEARS was considered a normal life assuming war or plague didn't kill someone. So around 50 is mid-life.

Consider a life as a rainbow. The full rainbow is 100 years. Early life growth is steep, almost vertical. Then slowly the arch bends through late teens and twenties. Eventually, around 50 years we are at the top of the rainbow. There are still many years of good health and vitality ahead before the steep decline in health around 100.

It's this change of trajectory that is difficult from upwards to downwards. The top may look like a perfect horizontal balance, but the reality is we need to change our mindset from our energetic outgoing 20s to easier pace after 50. Good food, good sleep, good company and time in nature are all a recipe for a long and fulfilled life.

I talk quite a bit about the messy middle of perimenopause transition for women, but the Nèi Jīng doesn't differentiate that much between men and women. Women have their yīn organs on the inside, whereas men have their yīn organs on the outside. Other than that, the channels, organs, qì and blood are broadly the same with some left or right preferences. So men have a messy middle of midlife too. It may not be the extreme hot flushes women experience but they do suffer from other things such as:

• Energy drop

• Joint pain

• Weight gain

• Mood swings

• Depression

• Poor concentration & short term memory

• Change in libido
  

Because it's not socially acceptable to talk about it, men are expected to 'suck it up' and suffer in silence. My invitation is for each of us to appreciate that everyone has their health challenges. Would the implementation of Menopause Awareness in the Workplace statutory requirement for April 2027 be easier if men and women each understood their changes better? I think so. If you are seeking personal consultation on the symptoms you are experiencing and want to know how Chinese Medicine and acupuncture can help. Book in for a treatment:

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