The Menopause & ASD & Your Thoughts On Male Menopause

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Didn't know where to post this, but thought I'd get more input here.

The menopause appears to be something that never gets discussed (in general) and in my experience women (who know the basics) only find out about the full extent of it when they are peri-menopausal and never realise the impact it can have on their life.

Does the menopause affect ASD women differently from their NT counterparts? I don't know how anyone would know the answer but I'd thought I'd ask anyway.

What are your thoughts on the male menopause, my GF is convinced I went through it but I dunno.

I'm just waking up and can't write yet but here's a starter that I thought would be interesting for everyone.

It's an international survey about menopause for autistic women!

Hey wait! It's also done by Carleton! I've been there!


https://autisticmenopause.com/

Maybe you should start a separate thread just to advertise the survey, so it gets more exposure here. I don't expect many responses here.

I have read of male cycling (e.g. measured by beard growth). I have read about the lowering of testosterone in men as they age and its impact, which could be the end of that cycling. Personally I am glad for the life experience or lower testosterone that meant my uncle and father and now my husband are more empathetic and hence more like gentlemen than they were before. What was your research or thinking on the subject? Teasing: Do you know help others reach the top shelf at the grocery store when before you would have pushed past and spit?

I read a huge tome about menopause in women. For example, all people can experience hot flashes (men, women, young, old), but despite similar ratios, the West attributes it to predominantly to perimenopausal women while the East does not. I think my form of Autism made pregnancy and perimenopause relatively easy. If anything they were corrective for me. I can't wait for the stability (good bye anxiety-producing estrogen swings) of menopause. Hopefully I will become less empathetic. I need that.

Andropause is real enough. Its symptoms overlap with menopause. It too is caused by lowering hormone / testosterone levels that occur naturally with age. It can also be worsened by Insulin resistance and diabetes.

As with most things it affects everyone differently.

What age does this happen for men?

61 would be too late?

The male signs/symptoms in that chart have variously already been in play for two to four decades from being caused by; neurological autoimmune disease, mitochondrial disease, endocrine disease, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and 3 or 4 other things, so in my case God only knows whether male menopause/andropause has happened to me and he's not published the data.

It can also be worsened by Insulin resistance and diabetes.

@Recidivist, I like to have my expectations set.

@IsabellaLinton, if andropause is like menopause (or any other human condition) then there are outliers. Average menopause is 52 for women, but rumor is that my grandmother didn't go into menopause until her 60s. So since men's testosterone is decreasing gradually over time from some age (30-40s), there would be variance of velocity and severity that would impact when it's more noticeable (or not).

Interestingly studies indicate that for women, having children correlates to a "later" menopause (by less than a year) and that for men, having children correlates to reduced testosterone, which I wonder could lead to an "early" andropause.

This book is helpful.
Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way
Susun S Weed

It’s different for everyone.
My bio- moms period quit and that was it.None of the effects others get.

Several friends told me about hot flashes so bad one had to sit in a giant beer cooler and the other went out on the deck in winter and pulled her shirt and bra off and screamed.

So I had no idea what would happen.
My periods got less and farther apart.
Then one night I woke up burning hot and was sure it was the Covid( right when the pandemic first hit and people were dropping like flies)But my skin didn’t feel feverish.My first hot flash.Better than a deadly virus.
They only happened at night and during winter ,so they worked out great.I was now self heating and didn’t need to toss as much wood on the fire.A hot caffeinated beverage seemed to set them off in the evening.I never had one in the daytime.
I lost weight, I think hormones made me binge eat before my periods.No more of that.
So far I haven’t grown a beard haha and everything is great.Very rarely do I have a hot flash now.
After I was period free for a year I crowned myself crone.
I’m glad it’s over.I hated those hormones from the get go.Nothing but trouble.
Good riddance.

Just a reminder for everyone to do that Menopause survey I linked if it’s applicable for you!

I also put it in a separate thread in Women’s, in accordance with the recommendation of our wise and noble King Recy.



Surveys are due by the end of May.

^Done.

Songfacts