Testosterone: What It Is, Function & Levels

Testosterone: What It Is, Function & Levels

Certain health conditions, medications and lifestyle factors can also influence testosterone levels. It’s natural for testosterone levels to vary depending on your age and overall health. If they’re consistently high or low, you may experience unpleasant symptoms worth discussing with your provider. If any of these organs — your hypothalamus, pituitary gland or gonads — aren’t working normally, that can cause abnormal testosterone levels. So in women before the menopause, we typically need to treat their PCOS to lower the testosterone. This can involve lifestyle changes, medication to treat insulin resistance and contraceptive hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle and lower testosterone levels. To diagnose certain conditions, doctors sometimes look only at free testosterone levels.

Testosterone tests can also monitor the health of transgender men who were assigned female at birth but identify as male. Some transgender men may take hormone therapy to change their physical appearance to match their gender identity. Doctors may monitor testosterone levels in this group of men to ensure testosterone levels are maintained at a certain level. Unfortunately, it remains difficult for the medical community to become comfortable with diagnosing and treating this growing issue. These range from poor knowledge and understanding of the condition to stigma around testosterone itself, to the use of inaccurate normal male testosterone levels in laboratory results.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were sought for effectiveness questions, whereas both randomized and non-randomized studies were sought for adverse events and questions of association and risk factors. Random effects meta-analyses were performed when deemed appropriate. Evidence tables (for included studies) and evidence profiles (showing estimates of effect for the outcomes of interest) were generated and presented to the Panel.

You might feel like you can’t push through your workout, or lose focus during an important meeting. Some men start to accumulate weight for no apparent reason, while others feel like something is off with their sex drive. Checking your testosterone and other hormone levels may provide you with valuable information about your health.

This would put the number of women with decreased libido in the tens of millions in this country alone. How many of these women have decreased androgens is unknown, but the number is estimated to be between 10 and 15 million. Testosterone is a natural hormone produced primarily in the testicles, and it helps men maintain everything from bone density and body hair to sex drive and sperm production. However, you don’t have to hit a certain number or level despite what the constant flow of ads may tell you. But we’re beginning to see more men in their 20s with low-T at the UT Southwestern male urology clinic. Sometimes low-T is caused by medical conditions, such as genetic diseases or past chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

The intra- and interassay coefficients of variation in the low, medium, and high pools were 4.3%, 5.5%, and 4.9%, and 2.4%, 8.1%, and 2.5%, respectively. The causes of abnormally high testosterone also range from genetic predispositions and certain endocrine disorders to the misuse of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing supplements. Treatment approaches typically include appropriate medications to regulate hormone production and targeted lifestyle modifications. If you experience any of these symptoms, you might start addressing the issue by asking your doctor, “What is a good testosterone level for a man my age? ” They can provide the figure and order a blood test to check your testosterone level. Male babies who are a few months old should have a testosterone level between 75 and 400 ng/dL.

While individual variations can exist, the average testosterone levels in men by age total testosterone levels for men in this age group often range from approximately 240 to 950 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter) or roughly 8.3 to 33 nmol/L (nanomoles per liter). It was decided that a cut-off value was critical to define testosterone deficiency and that this cut-off be based on at least two total testosterone levels drawn in an early morning fashion at the same laboratory using the same assay. Should the reference range be based on a sample of healthy young men (the so-called T-score approach) or should the reference range be age adjusted (the Z-score approach)? We have provided reference ranges in a young healthy reference sample as well as by decades of age. The rationale for generating the reference range in healthy young men is similar to the use of bone mineral density T-scores for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. For analytes that exhibit substantial age-related change, such as testosterone and estradiol, it might arguably be more appropriate to derive the reference ranges in a healthy young population.

It is usually done on an outpatient basis, and you can resume your normal activities following testing. If you were told to fast before testing, you may wish to bring a light snack to eat once the test is complete. Your shipment includes an at-home testing kit and prepaid shipping label for mailing your blood sample to one of myLAB Box’s CLIA-certified labs. Most people receive their results within one to five business days. You won’t need to take additional measures such as fasting prior to collecting the sample. The blood sample is usually taken during a visit to a doctor’s office, clinic, lab, or hospital.