Testosterone: What’s a Normal Testosterone Level in Men …

Welcome back to Testosterone Week! If youre just joining us, Irecommend checking out our two previous posts in the series: the benefits of testosterone and a short primer on how T is made.

Today well be taking a look at whats considered a normal testosterone level and how you can get your testosterone levels tested. As I began researching testosterone levels and hormone testing for this series, I quickly learned that theres a lot of conflicting and confusing information out there some websites will say that X is a normal testosterone level, while another website says Y is the ideal range. Even medical labs give conflicting numbers on whats a normal testosterone level.

Why so much confusion?

The problem is that there hasnt been muchstandardizationin hormone testing, particularly regarding T levels. Different labs use different methods (and measurements), which has only created confusion among consumers and even family doctors about what testosterone level results even mean.

Hopefully, the current state of confusion will soon change. The Center for Disease Control here in the U.S. started a project in 2010 to get labs to agree on standard hormone testing procedures. Its slowly gaining ground, but not every lab has signed on.

I also learned that the bottom range of whats considered normal by many doctors is actually woefully underestimated. Doctors are telling men who come to them with symptoms of low testosterone, Well, youre barely within normal range, but its still normal, so youre fine!

No, Dr. Everythings-A-Okay. Its not fine.

I hope in this post I can clarify some of the confusion surrounding testosterone levels and hormone tests. Ill be straight with you. This stuff is super confusing. Ive done my best to synthesize all the disparate info out there into an easy-to-read format for the layman and have sought to create the most accessible resource on the web. But, Im not a scientist or doctor, and may have gotten a few things wrong. If any of you professional endocrinologistssee an error, I welcome your corrections.

Before we begin, I want to reiterate the fact that there are three different types of testosterone floating in your body: free testosterone, SHBG-bound testosterone, and albumin-bound testosterone. When you get tested, there are two tests you can get: total testosterone and free testosterone.

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Testosterone: What's a Normal Testosterone Level in Men ...

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