Moody? Tired? Aggressive? You could have irritable male syndrome

Don’t get teste.Women — and the people who love them — 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 “irritable male syndrome,” or IMS.Even if it’s not an official clinical diagnosis, doctors have been looking into this phenomenon for over 20 years.The big player here is testosterone — and when those levels decline.“There’s a misconception that testosterone is only about libido and muscle mass,” Dr.

Hal Mohammed, MD, Men’s Health Chief Medical Officer at Gameday, a nationwide network of men’s health clinic, told The Post for a separate story.“But it definitely influences drive, competitiveness, assertiveness and emotional reactivity.”These symptoms are well-known in the men’s health world, just not necessarily under the “irritable man syndrome” label.

Here’s what to know.In 2001, biologist Gerald Lincoln wrote a paper coining the term, describing it as a “behavioral state of nervousness, irritability, lethargy and depression that occurs in adult male mammals following withdrawal of testosterone.”He was observing the phenomenon in Soay rams in Scotland, but since then, authors have extended the concept to humans.Researchers split (human) IMS symptoms into three categories:There’s a lot of overlap with symptoms of low testosterone.

But Dr.Jed Diamond, author of “Male Menopause” and “The Irritable Male Syndrome,” says it’s 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.“Those 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,” psychologist James Davis told HuffPost.“When you overlay the stresses of managing a career, f...