From the “climacteric disease” to the “male climacteric”: The historical origins of a modern concept

The historical origins of the modern concept of a “male climacteric” have hitherto been traced to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on a careful scrutiny of early modern and 19th-century sources, this paper shows that the concept goes back much further, however. It evolved from the ancient notion of critical “climacterical years” which recurred every 7th year throughout human life and from the concept of a predominantly male “climacteric disease” which Henry Halford put forward in 1813. In the course of the 19th century, this concept of a “climacteric disease” was gradually reframed under the influence of contemporary interest in the female “menopause” and eventually both largely merged into the single notion of a “climacteric” in both sexes. By 1900, the “climacteric” had become so strongly associated with the female sex that the observation of a “male climacteric” could be presented as a new finding, although the symptoms associated with it were, in retrospect, largely taken from the older notions of the “climacteric disease” and the female “menopause”.