Anne Truong MDMen's Sexual Health Doctor

The Importance of Blood Work in Measuring Testosterone #testosterone #sexualhealth #menshealth

7 Mar 2024 · 1 min

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A short YouTube monologue (by Anne Truong MD) explaining that blood work is required to assess testosterone levels. It distinguishes total versus free testosterone, states that about 98% of testosterone is protein-bound—primarily to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and to a lesser extent albumin—and emphasizes that SHBG-bound testosterone is not bioavailable.

Chapters

Just know that before you assess your testosterone level, you have to get blood work. And the blood work is really the same way as you would get cholesterol or blood sugar. There are two types of testosterone that being measured, total testosterone and free testosterone. Just know that the total testosterone is floating in your blood. But 98% of the testosterone is bound or connected to a protein called sex hormone binding globulin, which is shbg. When it is bound in shbg, it is not effective. Again, let me repeat, it's not effective. And the remainder is also bound to albumin, but it's not as tightly bound as with shbg.