The majority of the current research concerned with male midlife takes a biomedical perspective that results in an over emphasis on sexual dysfunction, psychological and somatic symptoms and explanations. Consequently, there is a burgeoning trend to present male midlife as 'male menopause', 'climacteric', 'andropause' and 'viropause', resulting in a negative conceptualization of male midlife that represents the male body as 'pathological', analogous to symptomatic models of female menopause.

In a non-clinical UK sample of men aged between 30 and 60 years, using a self-administered postal questionnaire, it appeared that this model of male menopause falls short of the complete picture. Results found little evidence of a symptomatic model of male menopause. Reported symptoms were more likely to be related to health and lifestyle than age. Furthermore, male menopause theories of midlife sexual dysfunction were not supported by the data from the present study.