Is there such a thing as the male menopause?

IT made this month’s cover of TIME magazine but it’s a question that has been lingering since it was first mooted back in the 1940s — is there a male menopause, or manopause?

Fatigue, irritability, hot flushes, mood swings, loss of libido, poor concentration, weight gain— these symptoms all sound familiar to menopausal women, but increasingly men over 50 are owning up to struggling with their own life transition.

Two main physiological differences are apparent, however, between the two genders; women’s fertility stops at menopause and the hormonal loss is sudden, while men can continue to have children and their testosterone levels decline slowly — up to 50% by the time they reach 50.