Dr. Charles Mok explains how testosterone is measured and what the numbers mean. Morning blood tests drawn twice give the most reliable results, but no single level predicts who benefits from treatment. Clinical symptoms matter more than the number.
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So low testosterone is typically measured with a testosterone blood test. That might not be perfect, but that's what we have. Typically, the blood test should be done in the morning, about the same time, twice in a row to get the most ideal levels. There's something called free or bioavailable testosterone. Now, calculations, you can, we can talk about that, but they're really not too particularly helpful. Generally, there's no testosterone level that predicts which men may benefit from testosterone replacement therapy in terms of their symptoms of low testosterone. Because it's such a variation. Just like if, say, we're treating blood pressure, we would take a medication perhaps. We're not checking a medication level in your body, we're checking your blood pressure. So for low testosterone, we might be looking at more symptoms.