Monteagudo PG, Gómez AM, Sánchez RI, Ovies CG, Ledón LL, Rodríguez MK, Fragas VR, Ordaz DS, Ramírez ÁMC, Espinosa IRA, Nina CVR, Mendoza TM, Fabré RB

Language: Spanish
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ABSTRACT

Introduction: declining testicular function syndrome of the aging man has gained recent relevance but it is accepted that little is known about it.
Objective: to find out the level of information of the population and of the health providers on this syndrome.
Methods: cross-sectional and descriptive study involving 452 people from the general population, 109 medical specialists related to this topic and 406 primary care physicians. Self-administered questionnaires, summary statistics and chisquare test were all used.
Results: in the population sample, 70.30 % of women and 56 % of men admitted that man experiences a process similar to the female climaterium; 64.04 % did not know the symptoms and 47.12 % of men older than 40 years stated that this process occurred at an age above that of theirs. As to the related specialists, just 10 had heard about all the terms used to mention this syndrome, 77.06 % had often heard the term andropause and 70.65 % the term male climaterium, and 27.52 % gave incorrect definitions. In the primary health care physician group, 28.57 % did not recognize any term, 21.18 % had frequently heard about andropause and 19.95 % about male climaterium, and 51.7 % did not give a correct definition of the syndrome. In the sample 74.14 % did not mention any symptom, 76.85 % pointed out excessive treatment contraindications and 85.22 % assessed their knowledge as poor. The level of information was not associated to age, sex or time of graduation (p> 0.05).
Conclusions: the population, mainly women, recognizes the syndrome but did not know well the symptoms. Regardless of age, sex or time of graduation, the physicians' information about the syndrome is mostly limited to terms such as andropause and male climaterium but they did not master the concept, the clinical picture or the treatment.