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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 26, Issue 3
It’s All About Me(n)
By Dr. David Lange, Genesis Primary Care Summer 2025 Ice cream, cheese, milk — June is so much more than dairy month. This is also the month to cele- brate persons who were born with a
be the first recommendation before biopsy. Biopsy is what proves the diagnosis and forms the basis for the recommended treat- ment. There was an opinion article in one of the medical journals within the last week or two suggesting that physicians are doing
due to the negative effects of interrupted sleep on testosterone production as well as the production of many other hormones. I covered sleep apnea in a previous column. Treating sleep apnea may not be enough in everyone to return their testosterone to the
usual as the liver destroys the testosterone before it can make it into the rest of the body. The injectable form is least expensive and usually covered by insurance. Topical is pretty expensive and not always covered by insurance, but it is convenient. The im- plantable medication is promoted as more in- dividualized, but it is very expensive. I don’t have enough experience with the implantable pellets to judge if it is better than the other forms of testosterone replacement. The over the counter testosterone boosters don’t seem to boost testosterone, at least from the better published research that I have seen. Testosterone is associated with negative effects including prostate cancer and prostate enlargement. I think there is clear evidence of testosterone being a growth fac- tor for prostate cancer, but there is a bit more hesitancy on my part to claim it as a causative factor. It has also been associated with heart disease. But looking at the bene- fits of adequate testosterone in improving ex- ercise, it may be a wash. Remember this June to encourage the men in your life to take care of themselves. There are simple things that can be done to make their health better for themselves and their families. To the men out there, I am reminded of these wise words from Red: Remember gentlemen, if she can’t find you handsome, she should at least find you handy. Taking care of yourself will let you continue to be handy. Happy Father’s Day. As this issue is the Special Summer Edition, Happy Birthday to America. Thank you to all the men and women who have allowed us to celebrate 247 years. To those who still serve in many roles stay safe, the rest of us are counting on you to keep us safe. GenesisPrimaryCare.com Please see the display ad on Page 20 of this issue of Wisconsin Christian News).
prostate…Oops, Sorry that is for an article in a different publication. June is also Men’s Health Month. There are so many health conditions to consider when thinking about Men’s health, how do you focus on just one or two to fit within the limitations of this col- umn? We could talk about lung cancer, but that is no longer male dominated. “You’ve come a long way baby.” Workplace injuries aren’t exclusive either, although workplace deaths seem to favor men. Hearing loss could be a good subject to cover but the an- swer is so simple-wear your hearing protec- tion outside of work too. There are probably more, but I can think of two health subjects where men are still the only ones affected. Prostate concerns and low testosterone. The prostate serves many important func- tions. I will spare the audience a listing. It will cause trouble for essentially every man if they live long enough. Prostate cancer has been a focus of medicine for decades as this cancer can be a killer. Early detection offers men a chance to lead longer, productive lives. There seems to be two forms of can- cer. One that is less aggressive and one that is more. Unfortunately accurately predicting which one someone has is likely a ways off. Since we can’t really tell, everyone tends to get aggressive treatment as a result. Detect- ing prostate cancer is usually done through a blood test called the prostate specific anti- gen test (PSA). Screening recommendations now start at age 45, earlier if there is a family history of early cancer. PSA can rise for rea- sons other than cancer so rechecking it may
their patients a disservice by not performing digital rectal exams on all men to look for prostate cancer. While I think that every physician should be skilled in this exam, over the years the number of men who would avoid being seen for fear of this exam was always high. With the PSA, I think that this exam should be much more limited. Prostate cancer that is palpable is pretty advanced. The PSA can pick up cancer when it is quite small, well before it can be felt. It is by no means a perfect test, but I would rather have an imperfect test that doesn’t induce fear than lose patients because of this exam. Testosterone is key to male development and only in conjunction with a Y chromo- some. After puberty, testosterone maintains muscle mass and fertility, among other things. Testosterone levels have been drop- ping for decades. There are many plausible theories as to why this is occurring including pesticides, herbicides and plastics due to their estrogenizing effects. Another factor I see often is related to untreated sleep apnea
normal range, but it is certainly easier to treat their low testosterone when the sleep apnea is treated. Along with this drop in testosterone, fertility rates are dropping as well. This is probably not a briefs vs boxers argument. Normal testosterone levels are 250-850 nanograms/deciliter depending on the lab es- tablished normals. Testosterone levels drop with age. If your testosterone level peaked at 600 and falls to 300 in old age, you are probably not going to notice that. If you peak at 500, your level will fall into the low range long before old age an you will have conse- quences from that. Low testosterone results in a shift from muscle to fat. This is a less healthy situation for men. It can result in os- teoporosis and all the accompanying prob- lems from low bone mass. It results in more fatigue, slower thinking and poor memory. Treating low testosterone is a matter of re- placement. The options include long-acting injectable, topical and long-acting im- plantable hormone pellets. Pills are not
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