Male Menopause or "Irritable Male Syndrome"

If you read the article in last Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle about male menopause and “Irritable Male Syndrome,” you might have recognized your mate. Few men like to acknowledge that they, too, suffer from loss of hormones as they age.

What are the symptoms? Men become angrier and grumpy; they feel less like themselves.
Depression, weight gain and loss of muscle despite a good workout program, feelings of restlessness, difficulty sleeping, a decline in libido, even erectile dysfunction are signs of lower levels of testosterone. Untreated hormonal decline in men may lead heart disease, diabetes, or other age-related diseases.

The Good News?

Male menopause, more commonly called andropause, can easily be corrected. The key is balancing hormones to restore quality of life, vitality, and energy.

Dr. Derek Abbassi, an expert in bioidentical hormone replacement and optimal aging, is our new specialist at Gottfried Center. His focus is the prevention of age-related decline.

“There are diseases related to aging, and there is healthy aging,” Derek says. “Aging doesn’t mean a man has to expect physical, sexual, and mental decline or a life of taking numerous drugs. An integrative medical approach makes it possible for a man to regain vibrant personal and sexual health.

“Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) is core to aiding men as well as women with optimal aging. The natural balance of all the body’s major hormones— the adrenal, thyroid and pancreatic as well as the sex hormones—is critical to maintaining health. A prescription is based on an individualized study of each person’s unique biochemistry as well as their lifestyle and medical history. The results are dramatic and satisfying.”

Dr. Derek Abbassi attended medical school at school at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed his residency in OBGYN at the University of Southern California. He has received additional training in Age Management and Anti-Aging Medicine through the Cenegenics Institute and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. For more information, go to the Gottfried Center online to read about Dr. Derek and the other doctors, including Drs. Marsha Nunley, MD, Sara Gottfried, MD and Charlotte Massey, ND, all of whom are specialists in bioidentical hormone therapy. Both Drs. Nunley and Abbassi specialize in male menopause or andropause.

We welcome your call to Gottfried Center for Integrative Medicine at 510.893.3907. Let Dr.Derek become your age management health practitioner and create a partnership that lasts for your long and healthy lifetime.

Dr. Marsha Nunley, MD, Joins Gottfried Center

We are tremendously blessed to have Dr. Marsha Nunley, MD, integrative internist, join us this month. She began the first week in January to rave reviews and extraordinary service and care. Dr. Nunley is 50-something and has the energy, vitality and beauty of a 30-year-old. She is certified in the Wiley Protocol and Age Management; extremely facile with all areas of bioidentical hormone balancing for men and women especially thyroid, adrenal estrogen/progesterone/testosterone; transformative in her care of complex medical problems; board-certified in Internal Medicine, Palliative Care and Pain Managment, and quite simply, a lovely person and doctor. Dr. Nunley also completed Dr. Andrew Weil, MD's Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona when it first opened.

Dr. Nunley, MD, is full-time at our newly expanded Gottfried Center for Integrative Medicine, Monday-Thursday. She has special introductory rates for initial consultation in January and then her regular fees kick in February, 2009.