Conan O’Brien, 63, opens up about ‘male menopause’ and the surprising effect it had on him

Conan O'Brien has revealed the unusual way that the 'male menopause' has affected him as he gets older.

As we get older our bodies hormone levels start to change, but this can affect people in very different ways.

If you were born with a vagina then this hormonal change can result in a lot of unpleasant and difficult symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings, heart racing, and muscle aches, according to Cleveland Clinic.

This is because the ovaries stop making reproductive hormones, and compared to the 'andropause' it can come on much more rapidly.

In contrast, the andropause is where someone's testosterone levels gradually start to drop as they get older, with the symptoms much less noticeable.

O'Brien, 63, joked about how this process is affecting him now.

The comedian took to his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, where he spoke about a conversation he had with his mother-in-law Pamela Powel, a psychoanalytic therapist about how he felt he was getting wiser as he got older.

"My mother-in-law Pam, god rest her soul, she did say, I remembered once sort talking about how I think I've grown wiser over the years, I'm not as intense as I used to be, I was very focussed and very driven in my 20s and 30s and 40s," he said in a clip from the podcast shared on social media.

"And I said I think I'm maturing."

But his mother-in-law had a very blunt response for O'Brien, as he recalled: "She just said 'no no your testosterone level has dropped'."

O'Brien joked: "I was trying to credit it all to wisdom, and and she was like, ‘No, no, no, you just have less of that asshole juice running through your body'.”

Reduced levels of testosterone can have several effects on the body.

These might include things like lower energy levels, a reduced libido, reduced muscle mass, lower bone density, lower levels of self-confidence, and decreased motivation, according to Cleveland Clinic.

While a comparison has been drawn with the menopause, there is debate over the two can strictly be called an equivalent of each other.

Menopause begins when someone stops ovulating and menstruating, and the more sudden drop in hormones can cause more pronounced effects than the gradual decrease that some people may experience into the 'andropause', according to Mayo Clinic.

Symptoms of menopause can be managed with hormone replacement therapy, where a patient takes estrogen to keep their hormone levels up after menopause and manage the symptoms.