Dr Gapin | Why Only Free Testosterone Matters!

For testosterone to do its job, it has to get into a cell. It then binds to an androgen receptor and then goes into the nucleus, headquarters of the cell and does its job. If it can't get into the cell, none of that can happen. And so we only care about free testosterone. And so I'm making this point so when we're talking about levels, men out there, be sure you're only looking at free testosterone. Your total testosterone, I will strongly argue, just doesn't matter because those SHBG levels, for example, can dramatically affect the free. So you want to look at the free. And now to answer your question, finally, my target for that is 20. 20 picograms per milliliter is the unit there. Okay. Total testosterone is nanograms per deciliter, but free is is picograms per milliliter. And you typically want your free testosterone to be around 20, give or take. Now, some men 15 to 18 may be great. Other men need 25 to 30, but 20 is a good target.