Male Hypogonadism: What Your Doctor Should Tell You

When I went to school as a biology/pre-med major I was looking at going to into veterinary medicine. I never considered that what I would learn in biology and anatomy would be used to keep my family alive and healthy. On the other hand, since becoming a stay at home mother, at least my education is being used for something.

I have a bad habit of assuming that the knowledge provided by my science based education is shared by everyone. More often than not I forget that it's not and that many people never sat through a science class outside of high school.

I also have a bad habit of assuming that doctors spend time with their patients and explain things to them. Because I have been spoiled by having an gynecologist that does this, I assume all doctors are like this, even the ones who are constantly overbooked and have less than five minutes to spend with each patient, as the case is with the doctor my husband has been seeing for the last several years for a number of health issues.

I was there fifteen years ago when he was told he had hypothyroidism and the doctor explained what this meant to him. I was there ten years ago when he was diagnosed with asthma and was given a medical discharge from the Navy. Unfortunately I was not there several years ago when he was diagnosed with hypogonadism. I just assumed that the doctor told him what he needed to know prior to putting him on hormone replacement therapy.