Pakistani labour migration and masculinity: industrial working life,the body and transnationalism

In this article, I examine the narratives of migrant Pakistani men in their fifties and sixties, who became chronically ill over the course of their working lives in London. The men's life histories show that the body, and in particular the labouring body, needs more sustained attention in migration studies. Their narratives tell of how the physical toll of industrial labour resulted in chronic ill health, unemployment and various forms of ‘redundant masculinities’. Moreover, the impoverishment that frequently followed from ill health ate away at local social status and transnational relationships. I argue that the existing work on transnationalism has normalized the experiences of an entrepreneurial migrant elite and obscured those of migrants who are bound to one place by force of circumstance. Chronic ill health is not merely the experience of a minority who fall between the cracks of epidemiological studies on ‘healthy migrants’, as some have recently suggested, but rather, common to industrial labour migration.     

Hormone profiles,body mass index and aging male symptoms: results of the Androx Vienna Municipality study

Aging in the male is accompanied by steroid hormonal decline, and men may develop symptoms associated with hypogonadism. Increased awareness of ‘andropause’ in recent years has led to greater demand for hormonal assessments, resulting in a rising burden for health economics. We conducted a cross-sectional study to define men at risk for hypogonadism, in whom further hormonal investigation should be performed.

We examined 664 blue-collar workers aged 40–60 years at their workplace and determined hormonal status and body mass index (BMI). Men with an abnormal urogenital status and those on medication that might affect endocrine status were excluded from the study. All participants completed the validated Aging Male Symptom (AMS) questionnaire and obtained scores for psychological symptoms, somatovegetative symptoms, and sexual symptoms.

Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed a significantly increased risk (represented by the odds ratio) of psychological symptoms for men with low levels of testosterone and/or bioavailable testosterone (BAT). Increased BMI as well as low testosterone levels and/or low BAT levels raised the risk of somatovegetative symptoms. Each decrease of BAT by 1?ng/ml caused an approximately 1.8-fold increase of the risk (odds ratio?=?1.832, p?=?0.005). Additional independent risk factors were increased age and low luteinizing hormone (LH) level. Men aged 55 years with BMI >?28?kg/m² and with somatovegetative symptoms and moderate or severe psychological symptoms had a 7.2-fold increase in the risk of a BAT level <?1.5?ng/ml compared to men without these risk factors (p <?0.001). Sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 71%, respectively.

The AMS score combined with age and BMI provides an easy and convenient method to identify men with probable androgen deficiency who require hormonal assessment.     

Estradiol in elderly men

The role of estrogens in male physiology has become more evident, as a consequence of the discovery of human models of estrogen deficiency such as estrogen resistance or aromatase deficiency. In males, testosterone is the major source of plasma estradiol, the main biologically active estrogen, only 20% of which is secreted by the testes. Plasma estrone, 5% of which is converted to plasma estradiol, originates from tissue aromatization of, mainly adrenal, androstenedione. The plasma concentration of estradiol in males is 2-3 ng/dl and its production rate in blood is 25-40 μg/24 h; both of these values are significantly higher than in postmenopausal women. Plasma levels of estradiol do not necessarily reflect tissue-level activity as peripherally formed estradiol is partially metabolized in situ; thus, not all enters the general circulation, with a fraction remaining only locally active. Of the factors influencing plasma estradiol levels, plasma testosterone is a major determinant. However, the age-associated decrease in testosterone levels is scarcely reflected in plasma estradiol levels, as a result of increasing aromatase activity with age and the age-associated increase in fat mass. Free and bioavailable estradiol levels do decrease modestly with age as does the ratio of free testosterone to free estradiol, the latter testifying to the age-associated increasewd aromatization of testosterone. Estradiol levels are highly significantly positively related to body fat mass and more specifically to subcutaneous abdominal fat, but not to visceral (omental) fat. Indeed, aromatase activity in omental fat is only one-tenth of the activity in gluteal fat. Estrogens in males play an important role in the regulation of the gonadotropin feedback, several brain functions, bone maturation, regulation of bone resorption and in lipid metabolism. Moreover, they affect skin metabolism and are an important factor determining sex interest in man.     

Body mass index,waist/hip ratio and androgen—estrogen activity in younger versus older Polish men

This study was performed to evaluate the associations between estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), free and total testosterone levels, and anthropometric parameters of general adiposity (body mass index, BMI) and fat distribution (waist/hip ratio, WHR), separately in two subgroups of healthy Polish men: younger (aged 22–39 years, n = 95) and older (aged 40 years and over, n = 141) subjects. Sex steroid levels were assessed using radioimmunoassay (RIA). BMI was used as a measure of general adiposity. WHR was used to estimate distribution of adipose depots. The relationships between sex steroids, BMI, WHR and age were evaluated by use of non-parametric statistics (Spearman coefficients). Aging was related to a reduction of all hormone levels (correlation coefficients with age: free testosterone r = -0.52, p < 0.001; total testosterone r = -0.25, p < 0.001; estradiol r = -0.18, p < 0.001; DHEAS r = -0.45, p < 0.001) and an increase of BMI and WHR for BMI r = 0.23, p < 0.001; for WHR r = 0.47, p < 0.001). A one way analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) was applied separately in the two subgroups of subjects to assess the relationships between hormonal and anthropometric variables. In men aged 22–39 years, the total (but not free) testosterone and DHEAS (when controlled for age) significantly differentiated BMI values. In subjects aged 40 years and over, no associations between sex steroids and BMI were revealed. In younger males DHEAS differentiated WHR values (even when controlled for age and BMI), whereas after the age of 40 years an increased WHR was accompanied by increases in both estradiol and DHEAS levels. The associations between the androgen—estrogen activity and the anthropometric parameters of adiposity vary in younger versus older healthy men.