![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/young-caucasian-man-isolated-blue-143185864.jpg\")
As men age, their testosterone naturally drops, causing unpredictable shifts in mood. Asier \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\nDon\u2019t get teste.<\/p>\n
Women \u2014 and the people who love them \u2014 are mostly familiar with the mood swings associated with PMS. But it turns out, men have their own mood issues tied to changing hormones, which one expert has dubbed \u201cirritable male syndrome,\u201d or IMS.<\/p>\n
Even if it\u2019s not an official clinical diagnosis, doctors have been looking into this phenomenon for over 20 years.<\/p>\n
As men age, their testosterone naturally drops, causing unpredictable shifts in mood. Asier \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The big player here is testosterone \u2014 and when those levels decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a misconception that testosterone is only about libido and muscle mass,\u201d Dr. Hal Mohammed<\/a>, MD, Men\u2019s Health Chief Medical Officer at Gameday<\/a>, a nationwide network of men\u2019s health clinic, told The Post<\/a> for a separate story. \u201cBut it definitely influences drive, competitiveness, assertiveness and emotional reactivity.\u201d<\/p>\n These symptoms are well-known in the men\u2019s health world, just not necessarily under the \u201cirritable man syndrome\u201d label. Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n What is \u2018irritable male syndrome\u2019?<\/p>\n In 2001, biologist Gerald Lincoln wrote a paper coining the term, describing it as a \u201cbehavioral state of nervousness, irritability, lethargy and depression that occurs in adult male mammals following withdrawal of testosterone.\u201d<\/p>\n He was observing the phenomenon in Soay rams in Scotland, but since then, authors have extended the concept to humans. Researchers<\/a> split (human) IMS symptoms into three categories:<\/p>\n Psychological and emotional: Irritability, aggression, anxiety, depression, mood swings, emotional instability, reduced self-confidence and motivation<\/p>\n Physical: Fatigue, lethargy, reduced sexual desire and performance, muscle weakness and loss of lean muscle mass, insomnia, increased abdominal obesity (belly fat)<\/p>\n Cognitive: Difficulty concentrating, impaired decision making, memory problems<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of overlap with symptoms of low testosterone<\/a>. But Dr. Jed Diamond, author of \u201cMale Menopause\u201d and \u201cThe Irritable Male Syndrome,\u201d says it\u2019s a mix of those hormonal changes plus three other things: changes in brain chemistry (especially serotonin and dopamine), stress, and loss of male identity and changing roles.<\/p>\n \u201cThose hormonal changes make men more anxious, which in turn can lead to irritability. There can be a crisis of self-identity that comes from declining physical performance, loss of muscle and lowered libido,\u201d psychologist James Davis told HuffPost<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you overlay the stresses of managing a career, finances and relationships \u2026 add in broken sleep, a lack of experience or framework for expressing vulnerability or issues and increasing social isolation, and you can see how multiple factors can pile up to impact an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n So is this more like man-struation or man-opause?<\/p>\n In Lincoln\u2019s original research in animals, he observed that irritability in males as something temporary and cyclical \u2014 it would come and go much like PMS, premenstrual syndrome, in women.<\/p>\n In humans, newer research approaches it more as a one-way trend: As a man ages, their testosterone falls.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean men are doomed to be pissy for the rest of their life. Men going through these changes should talk about \u201candropause\u201d or \u201cage-related hypogonadism\u201d with their doctor.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/frustrated-brokenhearted-emotional-man-glasses-143185634.jpg\")
\u201cIrritable man syndrome\u201d syndromes include anxiety, depression, reduced self-confidence and motivation. Arsenii \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n