article_snippet.sent: The jabs typically contain drugs called luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) blockers.
article_snippet.sent: These act on the pituitary gland in the brain, to stop the production of hormones which are released into the bloodstream and bind with cells in the testicles to make testosterone.
article_snippet.sent: However, blocking Testosterone can cause a variety of side-effects, explains Ali Rooke, a specialist nurse at the charity Prostate Cancer UK. '
article_snippet.sent: Testosterone also has an important role in sexual function, so there can be a loss of libido,' she says. '
article_snippet.sent: There can be mood swings and depression; some men also report breast swelling, nipple tenderness and weight gain around the middle.
article_snippet.sent: All of these are similar to what women go through during the menopause, when levels of women equivalent hormone, oestrogen, start to fall.'
article_snippet.sent: Hormone therapy also raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and can cause bone thinning, because testosterone is important for bone density.
article_snippet.sent: People don't tell you much about hormone therapy at the beginning,' Craig says. '
article_snippet.sent: I am basically a menopausal man.
article_snippet.sent: Men are warned about side-effects, but clinic appointment times are not long, so doctors can't realistically talk through them all in detail.
article_snippet.sent: It's also hard to predict what side-effects a man will have and how a man will respond.'
article_snippet.sent: Some men find that complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, or herbal supplements, such as sage tea or black cohosh, help, but the benefits are yet to be proven clinically.
article_snippet.sent: And men catastrophised, so if men had one in the night men assumed men'd feel terrible the next day.'