Andropause (or symptomatic late-onset hypogonadism): facts, fiction and controversies
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The existence of the so-called 'andropause' is an irrefutable fact, although the terms 'SLOH' (symptomatic late-onset hypogonadism) or 'symptomatic ADAM' (androgen deficiency of the aging male) are more accurate. The term 'andropause' is, in most cases, inappropriate, except when the gonads cease functioning. Testosterone production decreases as a function of age, but this decrease is not universal. Several clinical manifestations are associated with hypogonadism, but these are not solely attributable to hypogonadism. Other hormones (i.e. dehydroepiandrosterone, growth hormone, thyroxine and melatonin) also decrease with age. Such multi-hormone alterations are closely inter-related and may influence 'andropause-related' symptoms. Many patients with SLOH, although by no means all, respond well to testosterone therapy. Although testosterone therapy can induce adverse effects, these can be largely minimized by proper monitoring by a knowledgeable clinician. Extrapolation of the effects of estrogens + progesterone in menopausal women to the use of testosterone in hypogonadal men is mythical, and more research on the effect of exogenous sex steroids in aging men and women is needed. However, to restrict the prescription of such hormones until all issues have been fully addressed is impossible. Indeed, the discourse on SLOH would benefit considerably from more science and less speculation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.008 | 0.022 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.030 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.011 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.008 | 0.014 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".