Men of sixty are often determined to prove their masculinity, basically because they have very little left. The pious King David in the Bible was no exception, when from his roof terrace he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his bravest and most loyal commanders, taking a bath (ii Samuel 11:2). In a wave of passion he had her summoned and seduced her. However, when Bathsheba, who was quite flattered by the king’s attentions, became pregnant, David lost no time in recalling her husband from the battlefield, where he had been for months, in order to pass off the child as his. Uriah, as a dutiful soldier, refused to return. The king devised a ruse. He had a message delivered to the general with the request that Captain Uriah be sent to the palace in Jerusalem. Uriah came and was most warmly received. The king inquired with interest about the course of events at the front, and also inquired about the general’s state of health. Uriah must have found this very odd, since it was most unusual to recall a junior officer from the front in order to report to the king. A monarch discussed important military matters with his most senior commanders.
David thanked Uriah fulsomely, gave him a splendid gift and sent him back home, close to the palace. The intention was clear: David
wanted the sexually deprived Uriah to take his Bathsheba in a passionate embrace, and later discover that he had fathered an eight — month or seven-month child with her. Imagine David’s dismay when he learned that Uriah had not gone home, but had lain down to sleep among the palace staff at the entrance to the palace. David immediately summoned Uriah again and asked him why he hadn’t simply gone home to bed. His reply was typical of an upright professional soldier:
‘Your Majesty,’ said Uriah, ‘my troops and even my general are camped in the field, and are sleeping on the ground, or at best in a tent. It would have been unbecoming if I were to sleep with my wife.’
It was not only the decency of the simple captain that thwarted the king’s evil plan. We know that at this period sexual abstinence during military campaigns was regarded as a religious duty. The king dreamt up a new ruse. He persuaded Uriah to stay a day longer in Jerusalem and invited him to dinner. He managed to get Uriah drunk, but it was no good. Even in his cups, the captain stuck to his principles and refused to go home. Again he lay down to sleep among the palace servants. Because of his decency he had unwittingly signed his own death warrant.
The king had no choice but to manoeuvre the dutiful captain into such a position on the battlefield that his death in combat was inevitable. A dastardly trick! But God punished him for it, immediately. After his crime the king could find no rest. At the age of seventy he was a broken man, and rumour circulated throughout Israel that the king was completely finished. There was even talk of deposing him. Naturally his courtiers were alarmed: proof of his virility was needed, so that the monarchy could be saved! For this purpose they fetched a very beautiful virgin, called Abisag, from Sunem, about 13 km south of Nazareth. She became his personal nurse, companion and carer. At night she slept with him and with her warm young body drove the cold out of David’s stiff old frame.
Humiliatingly, however, the king could not manage to have intercourse with her. The rumour about his impotence spread throughout Israel; Bathsheba profited from his weakness and forced David to appoint her second son Solomon as his successor. And Solomon grew in power and strength and according to tradition had a thousand wives. . .
Why this wonderful biblical story? Well, in the view of modern scientists the king, with his declining sexual powers, was suffering from what today is called the male climacteric, or andropause. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as a climacteric in the ageing man. With men there is no sudden shutdown of the sex glands as is the case with women. The same applies to fertility, which is of course less great than when they were young, but even so . . . Anthony Quinn, Pablo Picasso,
Charlie Chaplin, Yves Montand and Marlon Brando are well-known examples of men who became fathers late in life.
In men there is no abrupt cessation of testosterone production, more a gradual reduction. At the age of 75 it is only half of what it was at the age of 30. That reduction may be accompanied by loss of libido, forgetfulness, sleep disturbance, depression, loss of muscle mass and strength, loss of elasticity in the skin, osteoporosis and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Experts estimate that there is a testosterone deficiency in between 20 and 30 per cent of men between thirty and eighty. As regards the other hormones: the concentration of dhea (dehydropiandrosterone), which is produced in the adrenal gland, is only one-third of that in 25-year-olds. Oestrogen serum levels remain constant because of an increase in body fat; one result of that often seen in ageing men is the formation of breasts. The secretion of melatonin from the pineal gland is also reduced in older men.