It also noted that the anticonvulsant gabapentin is the best studied and potentially most effective of the nonhormonal treatment options. Estradiol and testosterone replacement therapy may be helpful.Ī 2012 study suggested that multiple antidepressant medications may help. One 2009 study suggested that taking antidepressants, progestin hormones like megestrol, or anti-androgen hormones like cyproterone (not available in the United States) may help relieve hot flashes in men. Lifestyle changes like eating a low fat diet and avoiding spicy foods, getting enough quality sleep, and exercising regularly may help reduce discomfort during hot flashes. Treating and preventing hot flashes in men Medical causesĪ variety of causes may be responsible for low testosterone levels, or “low T,” but men with this condition can experience hot flashes as well. More research is needed to fully understand how these symptoms correlate to hot flashes. Stress, depression, or anxiety may cause these symptoms. Hot flashes in men sometimes coincide with other symptoms like: It’s estimated that as many as 80 percent of men who undergo this form of therapy have hot flashes. This treatment works to restrict the production of testosterone so it’s unable to stimulate cancer cell growth. Hot flashes in men most likely occur due to a prostate cancer treatment called androgen deprivation therapy. This is considered a healthy and steady decline. In fact, men typically experience about a 1 percent drop in testosterone every year after 30. On the other hand, men do not experience a natural sharp decline in testosterone. Instead, it should be renamed something alluding to the progression of a sleep-breathing disorder.Women experience hot flashes from a sudden fluctuation in hormones as they age. Since men don’t have periods, this is not an appropriate word. The word menopause literally means cessation of menses. So in a sense, the 'male menopause' phenomenon does happen, but not for the reasons that you may think. The physiologic stress state that’s created also can lower one’s thyroid and testosterone levels, making it seem like he may have either hypothyroidism or low testosterone. Untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to depression, anxiety, weight gain, erectile dysfunction, memory problems, hypertension, glucose intolerance, going to the bathroom often, heart disease, heart attack and stroke. If you have more than 10 to 15 apneas every hour, then you may be diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. If these obstructions last for more than 10 seconds, they are called apneas. So is a young man with a predisposed anatomy is slowly gaining weight, he may experience all the above 'male menopause' symptoms. Inefficient sleep leads to an imbalance of the involuntary nervous system, leading to what are called 'vasomotor' conditions, such as sweating, heart palpitations, and temperature fluctuations. However, if there’s anything that narrows the upper airway, either due to inflammation (allergies or a cold), or structurally (fat), the tongue collapses much easier and the person gets less efficient sleep due to multiple arousals. Most people compensate very well by sleeping only on their sides or stomachs. In most cases, they usually don’t like to sleep on their backs for this reason. Whenever someone with this anatomy starts to fall asleep, his tongue muscle starts to relax, and in deeper levels of sleep, it relaxes almost completely, leading to partial obstruction, and awakening.

This is mainly due to smaller jaw structures and dental crowding. When examined with a thin flexible camera, the space behind their tongues is very narrow, about 2-3 mm wide. What I’ve noticed in all these young men is that they all have in common a relatively narrow upper airway. They generally occur in men in their 40s to 50s, thought to be due to slowly decreasing testosterone levels, along with other symptoms such as loss of sexual desire or functioning, depression, memory loss, or chronic fatigue.īut what if I told you that I see young men in their 20s coming in to see me with the same exact problems? What I’ve discovered is that it’s really not mainly a hormonal issue, but a problem with their breathing. It’s commonly known that women going through menopause experience hot flashes, night sweats, moods swings, irritability, insomnia and weight gain, but these same symptoms are known to occur in men as well.

Men hot flashes