Time moves on, and as our bodies age and grow weak, our minds fill with wisdom and experience. While bodies aren’t passed along, wisdom and knowledge are, ideas are tested and future generations benefit. While no one can live forever, enough information has passed along that brought a new treatment to help slow the aging process in men and restore youth to expiring bodies.

Nature has dictated that the male body peaks in the 20s and then gradually slows down. As men get older muscle mass decreases, body fat increases, bones weaken, sex drive diminishes and heart problems begin to emerge. Until recently, this was just considered the natural effects of age. It was tough, but nothing could be done. However, new advances in medicine and technology provided the tools to understand what was happening. Armed with these tools, the Baby Boomers provided the will as the first generation that refused to simply age gracefully but instead to fight for every moment they could get.

The discovery was that—just like women who experience menopause as they grow older—men experience a similar chemical change which became known as andropause. Andropause is analogous to the second part of adolescence, except instead of the introduction of testosterone and hormones, the body starts to slow in their production. Once a man turns 30, his testosterone will drop around an average of 10 percent each decade for the rest of his life.

Up until recently, andropause was treated with lifestyle changes. These changes included stress relief; low-fat, high-fiber diets; more sleep; exercise; cutting back on alcohol and caffeine; and, drinking more water. While all these things can help, they aren’t going to massively raise testosterone back to their preexisting levels.

As a result, doctors are now examining the effects of reintroducing testosterone to the bodies of aging men. Testosterone replacement therapy is the treatment currently used to treat andropause. There are many different treatment options as far as how the testosterone is delivered into the body. One is the traditional shot into the muscle. This method boosts the testosterone level for approximately two weeks. The second method is through a patch. The patches are usually placed on the scrotum and deliver a more uniform distribution of testosterone to the body than the shot provides. There is also a nonscrotal patch which is worn on the arm or body. A gel form also exists, which is applied to the skin daily. It’s more convenient than the patch yet still offers a steady and uniform distribution of testosterone. Its only downside is it’s much more expensive than the other methods.

The benefits to receiving testosterone replacement therapy are an improvement in mood, more energy, improved sleep, improved sexual performance, an increase in lean muscle mass, increased bone density, improved memory and a potential decrease in heart disease. These effects usually occur within 3-6 weeks of receiving treatment.

However, there are also health concerns that are raised when increasing the testosterone levels in older men. Testosterone replacement therapy prescriptions are usually written to men over the age of 45, which is also around the age that men start to have problems with their prostates. Testosterone supplements are not known to cause cancer in the prostate; so when prostate cancer is already present, testosterone increases the rate in which tumors spread. Even if there is nothing present, frequent prostate testing is needed in order to make sure nothing forms while the testosterone treatment is administered. Testosterone also increases the amount of red blood cells, which can block blood vessels leading to heart attacks and strokes. In addition it can result in infertility, disrupted breathing during sleep, acne, oily skin and increased body hair.

Before anyone is given testosterone supplements, they must first go through several tests. Andropause is only now becoming more accepted in America partially because of the difficulties in the testing phase. For one thing, testosterone production varies throughout the day; therefore, many tests taken throughout the day are required to get a sense of how much testosterone is produced. Also contributing to confound test results are the effects that stress, depression, alcohol use/abuse, medications, chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and anemia, and pituitary problems can have on testing accurately.

This is where the difficulty in testing comes into play. It’s not a condition that a few blood tests can reveal. Fitness tests are necessary, along with psychological exams. The fitness examination looks at body mass, waist-hip ratio, if the face or groin has lost hair, testicle size and a prostate examination. The mental test used is called the ADAM questionnaire, which is helpful but has difficulty in separating andropause from depression.

The effects of andropause on the body and the mind also cause problems with men sexually. As testosterone drops, it becomes harder to achieve erections; the loss in strength and increase in fat can cause insecurities about body image and it can virtually eliminate the desire to have sex even when erections are possible. All of these things occurring simultaneously can often cause an increase in depression. However, once a testosterone replacement regimen is in place, men report that the sex drive of their youth returns and that they feel stronger as depression disappears.

It’s extremely important to make sure that it’s actually andropause that is causing the problems before beginning a testosterone treatment. Excessive testosterone levels have been known to cause aggression, oily skin, high blood pressure, heart problems and stunted growth.

Most men define themselves by their masculinity. From alpha male traits like: strength, speed, erections that spring up at a moments notice, to simpler things like chest hair, the ability to grow a good beard and knowing the best way to pack luggage into the back of a car. All these things that make a man feel like a man result from the production of one thing—the chemical that made them men in the first place—testosterone. It’s humbling as the body ages to struggle with things that were previously taken for granted. Luckily, we live in an age where it is possible to not only discover what causes the problems in our bodies but also create solutions.

Andropause is now accepted as a biological cause of many of the problems that were previously written off as the results of old age. With testosterone replacement therapy, men no longer need to accept the decline of their minds and bodies; they can take action and do something about it, which is how men prefer it in the first place.