Menopause and Men: Most men have never heard the word andropause. Most women have never heard it either. Understanding it changes how everyone in the workplace talks about hormonal health.
I am often asked: does this happen to men too?
The answer is yes, in a way, though it is not the same. Men experience a hormonal shift as they age called andropause, sometimes referred to in research as late-onset hypogonadism or age-related testosterone decline. One of the most important differences is this: every woman who lives long enough will go through menopause, while andropause does not happen to every man, and even when it does, it can vary enormously in timing and severity. Understanding what andropause is, and just as importantly what it is not, helps everyone in the workplace talk about hormonal health with more accuracy and a lot less awkwardness.
What Andropause Actually Is
Andropause refers to the gradual, age-related decline in testosterone levels in men. Most men begin experiencing this decline around age 40, with testosterone falling at an average rate of roughly one to two percent per year. By the time a man reaches 75, he will typically have lost about 30 percent of the testosterone he had at age 25. The symptoms can include fatigue, reduced muscle mass, low mood, irritability, reduced libido, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, and in some men, hot flashes.
If that list sounds familiar, it should. The symptom overlap with menopause is real, and it is part of why the term male menopause caught on in public conversation. But the underlying biology is genuinely different, and the difference matters for how we talk about it.
Why Andropause Is Not the Same as Menopause
Menopause is a defined biological event with a clear before and after. A woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs, estrogen production drops, and menstruation ends. But the journey surrounding that moment is anything but quick. Women can spend seven to ten years in perimenopause before reaching that point, and symptoms can continue for ten or more years afterward. The total hormonal transition can span decades of a woman’s life and career. What menopause has that andropause does not is a clear clinical marker, the final period, and a well-understood hormonal mechanism driving it. Andropause has neither. There is no equivalent moment, no definitive marker, and no clear threshold that separates before from after.
Andropause works differently. Men do not stop producing testosterone, and there is no equivalent moment where reproductive function ends. The decline is slow, often unfolding over decades rather than years, and it does not happen to every man in a clinically significant way. Many men in their sixties and seventies have testosterone levels that remain within a healthy range and never experience noticeable symptoms. Others notice changes much earlier, sometimes in their late thirties, particularly if other factors like excess weight, poor sleep, high alcohol consumption, or chronic stress are accelerating the decline.
This distinction is not a technicality. It explains why andropause is so much easier to miss, in men themselves and in the people around them. A slow, decades-long decline rarely announces itself the way hot flashes or a missed period does. Many men simply attribute the fatigue, the mood changes, or the loss of motivation to getting older, to stress, or to work pressure, without ever connecting the dots to a hormonal cause that is, in many cases, identifiable and manageable.
There is another difference that matters even more, and it is worth being direct about it. When a man does suspect his testosterone has dropped, the path to confirmation and treatment is comparatively fast. A blood test taken in the morning, repeated once to confirm, can establish low testosterone with clinical clarity, and FDA-approved testosterone replacement therapy is a well-established, widely prescribed treatment once that diagnosis is made. Many men move from first suspicion to active treatment within weeks, or faster.
Women experiencing perimenopause and menopause rarely have that experience. Research has found that a third of women wait at least three years for their symptoms to be correctly diagnosed as menopause related, and nearly one in five visit a doctor six or more times before receiving the right diagnosis or any meaningful guidance. Of the women who do eventually receive treatment, close to half waited at least a year to get it, and more than one in ten waited over five years. Many are misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression first and prescribed antidepressants instead of hormone therapy. This is not a small gap. It is a fundamentally different healthcare experience, and it is part of why we are careful, in this series, never to suggest that andropause and menopause are the same journey. They are not. Men’s hormonal decline is real and deserves attention, but it does not carry the same burden of medical dismissal that women have had to push through for decades.
Why This Conversation Matters at Work
There are two reasons we make space for andropause in a menopause focused workplace conversation, and both matter.
The first is straightforward. Men experiencing andropause deserve the same thing women deserve during menopause: an environment where they can name what they are going through without shame, and access support if they need it.
The second reason is about allyship, and it is where the real opportunity sits for most organizations. Bringing andropause into the conversation is one of the most effective ways to get men engaged with menopause support generally, not because their experience is identical, but because it gives them a personal entry point into a subject that can otherwise feel like it has nothing to do with them.
Sixty-one percent of men say they do not know how to support a female colleague experiencing menopause, and only about one in three women feel comfortable talking to a male manager about it. At the same time, more than half of men say they would attend a workshop to better understand what the women in their lives are going through. The gap is not a lack of willingness. It is a lack of access to the conversation in the first place.
That gap is exactly what Menovate’s Menopause Demystified course was built to close. It is designed specifically for male colleagues, partners, and family members, giving them a clear, evidence-based understanding of menopause and concrete tools for offering support with confidence rather than guesswork.
What Men Can Actually Do
The research on male allyship in this space is consistent on a few practical points. Listening without judgment matters more than having the perfect response. Educating yourself before a colleague has to explain her own symptoms to you signals real investment, not performative concern. Avoiding jokes or dismissive comments, even ones that seem harmless, protects the psychological safety that makes someone willing to ask for support in the first place. And when senior male leaders are willing to say the word menopause out loud in a meeting, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.
None of this requires men to have lived the experience themselves. It requires curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a workplace culture that treats hormonal health in women and men as a normal part of being human rather than something to whisper about in private.
Men go through a milder, slower version of a hormonal experience. That is not a reason to make the conversation about them. It is a reason to invite them into it.
Aimee Debow is the Founder of Menovate. Menovate’s Menopause Demystified course helps male colleagues, partners, and family members understand menopause and offer support with confidence. Learn more at menovate.ca.
Sources: News-Medical, Andropause: Exploring the Male Menopause, 2023. ColumbiaDoctors, How Testosterone Changes Affect Men’s Health as You Age, March 2026. American Heart Association, Is Andropause the Same as Male Menopause, June 2024. BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, Manopause, How Men Experience Hormone Decline. Forbes, How To Be A Male Ally For Your Female Colleagues Around Menopause, October 2024. Employee Benefits, Male Employees Need Access to Menopause Support Resources, January 2026. REBA, 5 Steps to Engaging Men in Menopause Inclusion, July 2025. The Change Partners, Navigating the Male Menopause, September 2024. The Menopause Charity, Common Misdiagnoses. Balance Menopause and Hormones, Delayed Diagnosis and Treatment of Menopause is Wasting NHS Appointments and Resources, August 2022.