Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, 59, jumps on the ‘manopause’ bandwagon: Presenter is the newest to say he is ‘struggled to manage’ with center age and is on testosterone dietary supplements to carry again his ‘juiciness’
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Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has revealed he ‘struggled to cope’ while battling the ‘male menopause‘.
The Changing Rooms star, 59, has opened up about the impact of a gradual change in testosterone levels, which made him feel as if he’d lost his ‘juiciness.’
Speaking to The Express, Laurence explained that he first went to see a doctor in December 2022, after realising he was ‘struggling to cope’ with his low mood, and went onto praise testosterone supplements.
The interior design guru is the latest male celebrity to open up about their mid-life struggles after Robbie Wililams claimed last year that years of partying have left him with depleted testosterone, leading to thinning hair and low libido.
‘I’ve used up all of the natural good stuff. I’ve got the manopause,’ he said, while fellow hellraiser Shaun Ryder has also spoken about his struggles.
It comes after it was revealed this week that one in ten hospital trusts have ‘male menopause’ guidelines, while a quarter do not have policies in place for women.
The woke protocols have been installed at around 20 trusts, despite the NHS describing the term as ‘unhelpful and misleading’.
Elsewhere, almost a quarter of police forces have policies to address the ‘manopause’ yet more than 40 per cent had nothing for female staff experiencing menopause, according to a Freedom of Information request.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has revealed he ‘struggled to cope’ while battling the ‘male menopause ‘, before seeking help with testosterone supplements
Robbie Williams claimed last year that his hair is thinning and that he has lost his sex drive due to the ‘manopause’
Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder claimed that he ‘can’t speak’ if he forgets his testosterone gel
The findings are further evidence of the widespread practice amongst public bodies, as exposed in an audit by the Mail last year which found examples within the Fire Service, Police, Councils and NHS.
Critics said it was wrong to compare the two, with menopause effecting all women and the ‘manopause’ said to affect around two per cent of men.
Last year, East Midlands Ambulance trust caused outrage when it emerged that it offers up a year’s paid leave to male staff who suffer menopause-like symptoms.
Managers at the Trust have been told they should provide additional uniforms, portable fans and change shift patterns to assist male staff members experiencing a drop in testoserone levels.
A newsletter for NHS staff abotu the so-called male menopause. This week it emerged that one in 10 trusts have guidelines on supporting staff with the condition, while a quarter do not have policies in place for women
A presentation on andropause given to East Midlands Ambulance Trust, which last year caused outrage when it emerged that it offers up a year’s paid leave to male staff who suffer menopause-like symptoms
Testosterone levels peak in young adulthood, around age 20, but decline by about 1 per cent annually after age 30
Opening up about his struggles Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, explained: ‘They said: ”It’s your testosterone.” My levels were very low. It’s something I was really interested in, because it’s an age thing.
‘There’s this obsession that testosterone is all about your libidinousness, your ability to become priapic. But actually, it’s not at all. It’s basically kind of a ”manopause” where, as testosterone levels drop, you find life quite tough. It’s difficult to be optimistic. You do lose a lot of your drive. You do lose a lot of your juiciness.
‘So I was happy to embrace the idea of testosterone supplements, and I think it’s something 60-year-old guys should be much more up front about. It can feel embarrassing if it looks like you’re going to the doctor because you can’t perform in the conjugal stakes.’
Laurence went onto explain that low testosterone aren’t just ‘to do with sex,’ and can contribute to ‘how you feel about the world and about yourself.’
The male menopause, sometimes referred to as the ‘andropause’, is said to be marked by a gradual change in testosterone levels.
Meanwhile, Happy Mondays star Shuan Ryder insisted in an interview with The Sun last year that the ‘male menopause’ is real, describingthe perils of forgetting his testosterone gel.
‘As any woman who’s gone through the menopause will know, if you forget your stuff you go absolutely mental,’ he said.
‘If I haven’t got my testosterone gel, I can’t speak.
‘I can’t leave the house, I can’t make eye contact.’
The notorious hellraiser famously lost his teeth after excessive use of crack, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin, leading him to spend £25,000 on rebuilding his smile.
As with women, the term is used to describe the period in an adult man’s life when his hormone levels fall, potentially causing symptoms including erectile dysfunction, depression, anxiety and rapid fat gain.
But there is considerable debate within the medical community about whether it should be recognised as a condition at all.
Dr Channa Jayasena, a hormone specialist at Imperial College London, and author of the Society for Endocrinology’s guidelines on testosterone replacement therapy, said it should not be referred to as ‘manopause’.
‘I think it’s an unhelpful term,’ he told BBC Radio 4s Menopause Matters series.
‘If we compare it to the menopause, all women undergo menopause, whereas 2 per cen of men undergo the ‘manopause’.
Throwback: The former Take That singer, 49, revealed that years of partying has left him ‘f***ing knackered’ and battling ‘thinning hair’ (pictured in 1996)
The Changing Rooms star has opened up about the impact of a gradual change in testosterone levels, which made him feel as if he’d lost his ‘juiciness.
‘Menopause is a relatively sudden event in a woman’s life course. It takes place over two to five years, whereas declining testosterone levels can develop over decades.’
He said that while all women would potentially benefit from HRT if they had symptoms, this was not the case with testosterone deficiency and many men needing no medical intervention.
Dean Burnett, a neuroscientist and honorary research fellow at Cardiff University, said symptoms linked to the manopause, such as brain fog and low mood, were more likely the result of common mental disorders such as anxiety or depression.
He said: ‘We are very keen on medicalising things in the modern world, because we are recognising more and more conditions, disorders or just atypical ways of being, which could be addressed better.
‘Women have the menopause so to say that men have a similar sort of hormone deficiency issue at a similar stage of life, it’s a very logical leap to say ‘well, that’s the male version’ of this well-established phenomenon.
‘But I do think you can go too far with that and attempt to put a label on a problem which may not necessarily be there.’
Like with women, the term ‘male menopause’ is used to describe the period in an adult man’s life when his hormone levels crash, causing a host of symptoms that shatter sufferers’ confidence or are outright debilitating — including erectile dysfunction, depression, anxiety and rapid fat gain.
Male babies are born with testosterone. Their ‘T’ levels quickly increase during puberty, which causes boys to develop deeper voices, bigger muscles and body and facial hair. The hormone also helps the testes produce sperm crucial for reproduction.
Testosterone levels typically peak at around the age of 20 followed by a slow descent throughout the rest of adulthood. At their highest, testosterone levels should be anywhere between 300 and 1,200 ng/dL. Once men hit their mid-thirties, testosterone levels begin declining by at least one percent per year.
Testosterone in males is produced in the testicles and drives sexual development. It regulates sex drive, bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells and sperm.
It also acts on the brain and spinal cord as an important regulator of neurological functions. Low testosterone levels are associated with depression and anxiety.
Low testosterone could indicate a problem in the pituitary gland, a pea sized gland located at the base of the brain that monitors and regulates myriad bodily functions through the hormones that it produces.
The age-related hormone changes in men are gradual and while they don’t render male reproductive organs inoperable, the change could cause sexual complications.
Unlike in women, the hormonal change does not render men infertile. Although testosterone is a hormone that drives male fertility, people with low testosterone levels can still produce healthy sperm, though sperm count and quality typically decline.
And while a woman’s transition happens somewhat drastically – within a couple of years – men experience falling testosterone annually from around the age of 40 through their senior years.
Doctors will typically run a barrage of blood tests on patients presenting with these symptoms to determine what is causing the deficit in testosterone and how to treat it. For instance, low testosterone has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular and fatty liver disease.
Men with low testosterone may opt to start hormone replacement therapy to combat symptoms. Testosterone replacement therapy comes in many forms, from topical gels to intramuscular injections.
TRT helps restore the levels of this hormone in the blood, reversing the symptoms of low testosterone.
