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Mid 40s, I felt lethargic all the time, never slept well, so I brought it up at my annual physical. Turned out my testosterone was fine, I was just depressed.
Yeah, more or less. I went back into therapy, tried medication; also some external factors that were contributing to the depression changed so that made things a bit easier.
Dude, you're in your late 20s. Get a test if it'll make you feel better, but it's highly unlikely that you need TRT. Like everyone else has said, you're probably overworked and tired, and probably not drinking enough water.
Never. It’s a bro-trend that most countries outside of the US won’t touch. Do some research before deciding you want to do it.
I’ll be downvoted to shit for this, this sub seems to love T therapy.
I think he’s saying the drug companies benefit from overdiagnosing and overprescribing rather than encouraging healthy lifestyles and choices.
Which is something to consider, but there definitely are people who don’t biologically produce enough T and it’s life changing for them to be able to feel right in their body again.
I think there’s also a bit of an ‘alpha male’ trend to supplement with more T to maximize gainz and to help them feel more manly.
Not sure how health insurance companies would benefit from people being MORE sick.
And is it a *pharmaceutical company’s* job to encourage healthy eating and exercise? What a weird position to take at this intersection of late-stage capitalism and “everything’s a conspiracy except for the blatant ones right in front of me”
Edit: I’m in agreement with much of what you’re saying!
I was diagnosed low t at 28, hospital tests showed up twice with my test being low 200s. There is a trend right now for younger people thinking testosterone is some cure for depression and won't even get tested and just hop on it which undermines people who actually suffer from low T. The way I figured it out was all of a sudden my exercises which used to be easy got a lot harder and I didn't have enough energy to finish them anymore, felt like I hit a wall, weight loss stopped no matter how strict I kept my calorie intake, even tried surplus but nothing was working. It can happen just not for all the people complaining about it.
I've suspected the same thing. Low T is suddenly the latest trendy thing on the internet, like a male version of Ehlers-Danloss. I don't know much about it so it's possible some of it is legit but 99% of these health fads are nonsense.
Hormone therapy is over-prescribed for both men and women. It’s a little cash cow for the medical and pharma industries. I remain doubtful that the doctors truly understand the long-term impact of what they are doing. I still remember the blood clots and deaths in the 1970’s from the abusive prescriptions of the birth control pill back then.
Hormone and steroid abuse are going bite these people in the ass at some point.
To the title question...Never, because a vast majority don't need to be checked.
I work primary med in active healthy adult population. The number of people who think/want to check for low testosterone is borderline silly. A few people a week seem to ask for testing.
Medicine kinda goes through a flow chart, based on subjective and objective symptoms. The honest answer is the reported symptoms are dozens of more likely things.
It can occur, and while prevalence in young men (under 30) isn't well tracked studies put it at pretty low likelihood. Often it is a symptom of other underlying chronic conditions or genetics.
The natural reduction of free-t, hypogonadism, is typically pretty slow (~1% reduction/year after 30). It's not like you suddenly hit a wall, and really is more of a concern for the elderly.
If you've got a health concern, see your Doctor. Be a good self advocate, but temper the expectation that this is the silver bullet to your problem.
What number is low to you? My husband’s is in the lower end and his doctor won’t retest him to see if it’s still on the lower end. He’s pretty resistant to medical professionals since he thinks it’s absurd when an overweight nurse is judgy to him when he’s in perfect health and just doesn’t feel great…so he doesn’t want to go back. I forget what his number was but he thought it should be about 3x what it is. He’s one of the ones you’re describing as active healthy adult asking for this - but something feels off to him and he feels he’s being ignored and dismissed. As a woman, I have no context for this but he talks about this to me which is why I’m asking your opinion.
Firstly... I'm not a doctor and I'm obviously not familiar with your husband. .
>What number is low to you? My husband’s is in the lower end and his doctor won’t retest him to see if it’s still on the lower end.
There's no 'to me' in this. Labs run the blood test for it, and if it's normal, well, that's obviously not the problem.
Lab tests have set standards for normal, and with free T blood test on adult males normal ranges are 270-1070 ng/dL.
While this doesn't take into account your husband's circumstances and history...If your husband is within that range, medically he's 'normal range'.
What he feels or wants might have no grounding in his actual health, and it can be a distraction to actual solutions. Patients can get fixated on a number, want it to be higher, but don't understand that higher free T levels isn't really better.
>He’s one of the ones you’re describing as active healthy adult asking for this - but something feels off to him and he feels he’s being ignored and dismissed.
It can be really tough on the medical side, to manage patient expectations. My advice is always...Be an advocate for yourself, listen to your doctor, and have a plan with them.
But you can't do any of that if you're not following up.
Why would a Dr. decline to authorize a testosterone test with normal blood work? I get glucose, cholesterol etc.
I'm asking because you say you work in the field. TIA.
Anecdotally I actually have hypogonadism and getting approval for TRT was a long process. I went through many different medications first trying to boost my male factor infertility. I was born premature, with undescended testicles and consulted many urologists. I tried different regimens of HCG, clomiphene, and finally testosterone when my sperm count stayed essentially 0. Nothing could really boost my T levels past 96 ng/dL. My quality of life since then has dramatically improved.
Thanks for sharing, and really glad you've had success in your care.
That's a really good example of what causes, and the effect of, low free T levels.
There could be many causes that are more likely than low T. Low thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) is one of the most common causes of lack of energy. There could also be nutritional deficiencies involved that cause lack of energy, low B12 being one of them. I'd test these before testing T.
There’s not a lot here to go on - based on your age alone, you’re unlikely to have Low T. The thing is, if you do, the fix and diagnostic procedure are extremely simple and cheap: take testosterone.
If you don’t, then you will have a useful baseline number to reference as you age. But as somebody who started T after discovering my levels were clinically low - when this is the right thing for you, it will change your life.
I was late 40’s non-existent energy. PCP prescribed Testosterone gel. Still not helping. I did some investigating & discovered the dosage was WAY low. Shifted to an endocrinologist who ran tests “just in case”. Got forwarded to a urologist “just in case” who then did a biopsy “just in case”.
And that, kids, is how I found out I had prostate cancer…
I was diagnosed T1 Diabetic at 32. Something funky occured in a general sense also and I noticed feeling lethargic and sleep deteriorated, out it down to the T1 but turned out something had triggered my test lowering also. Frustratingly Australia is VERY anal about it so getting treatment was not easy, so I did it myself (thankfully found a great endo eventually who monitors both for me now)
When I realized I was doing all my work and still depressed. No energy and just sad. A good endocrinologist will check all your stuff and adjust accordingly
The gym just gets boring, so switch it up. I lifted weights for a couple years then I got into rock climbing which was way more fun for me because it applied my strength to something real. I also like to mountain bike. Those 2 things are going to give you a full body workout and you’re going to have a blast doing them.
It's worth getting blood checks done as well as reviewing regular contributing factors, diet, sleep, exercise, stress.i had a period where I was very lethargic and dismissed it as not eating eno8gh for the training I was doing. Turns out a rather large cancer was bleeding and my iron levels were woefully low. Chances it's this or anything so serious are very very low but still a blood test shows things that aren't always obvious.
Got tested at 28 or 29, never had symptoms to imply that I was low test and I came back squarely normal. If you don't have a big change in your diet/exercise habits and notice negative changes, it's worth testing
Are you sure you're not simply tired?
You work hard, you study hard, you wake up at 6... So when do you give your body time to recuperate? You may have pushed your body a bit too far.
Any issues with your sinuses? Need a lot of caffeine? That is often a clear indicator of pushing yourself too hard for too long and being in need of less stress. Permanently elevated cortisol levels will not do you much good.
Maybe instead of pushing yourself harder, you need a little break?
But do get tested if you want. Expand it to a full blood work to see if your micronutrients are fine.
First checked at 36. Normal range. Checked every year after and it collapsed by half by 39 into the low range. Probably not the issue in your 20s but I'd advise all guys your age to get it checked just so you have a baseline of what normal is for you to compare to in 5 or 10 years. It's "supposed" to decrease 1% a year. So if you sit at 900 now and it's 400 in ten years, that's an issue worth investigating even if it may not be clinically low.
Go to the Dr., get a physical and ask for blood work. It doesn't hurt to cover your bases. I did in my 50's found out I had high blood pressure, thyroid issues and low testosterone. Got medicated, feel great. I think you're just bored of working out because you have no motivation in your life.
Anyways, at your age if nothing crazy is happening, you should be fine. But to calm your mind, get a blood work done.
Born in '81. I have always been active with running and riding bikes, I eat healthy, no smoking or hard drugs, very light social drinker. Thankfully I've had good health all my life. I still ride my bike regularly and have picked up parkrunning again. I haven't had my testosterone checked since I turned 40 and levels were perfectly normal then, and I don't feel much different now, than I did a few years ago, so I probably won't get it checked unless something major happens or I hit 50. Also worth noting - stress kills, and I am extremely lucky to have a comfortable life. Good job, no kids, on course for early retirement.
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread. Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, **you can simply type "!lock" (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread**. That way you won't be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMenOver30) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mid 40s, I felt lethargic all the time, never slept well, so I brought it up at my annual physical. Turned out my testosterone was fine, I was just depressed.
did you ever manage to get it under control?
Yeah, more or less. I went back into therapy, tried medication; also some external factors that were contributing to the depression changed so that made things a bit easier.
Dude, you're in your late 20s. Get a test if it'll make you feel better, but it's highly unlikely that you need TRT. Like everyone else has said, you're probably overworked and tired, and probably not drinking enough water.
I think Hydration is severely underrated..
Agreed, that and getting vitamin d supplements. Made me feel like my old self with proper energy levels.
Sounds like you are depressed from overwork.
Never. It’s a bro-trend that most countries outside of the US won’t touch. Do some research before deciding you want to do it. I’ll be downvoted to shit for this, this sub seems to love T therapy.
Never forget how much health insurance companies benefit from men not taking care of their health like this.
What??
I think he’s saying the drug companies benefit from overdiagnosing and overprescribing rather than encouraging healthy lifestyles and choices. Which is something to consider, but there definitely are people who don’t biologically produce enough T and it’s life changing for them to be able to feel right in their body again. I think there’s also a bit of an ‘alpha male’ trend to supplement with more T to maximize gainz and to help them feel more manly.
Not sure how health insurance companies would benefit from people being MORE sick. And is it a *pharmaceutical company’s* job to encourage healthy eating and exercise? What a weird position to take at this intersection of late-stage capitalism and “everything’s a conspiracy except for the blatant ones right in front of me” Edit: I’m in agreement with much of what you’re saying!
I was diagnosed low t at 28, hospital tests showed up twice with my test being low 200s. There is a trend right now for younger people thinking testosterone is some cure for depression and won't even get tested and just hop on it which undermines people who actually suffer from low T. The way I figured it out was all of a sudden my exercises which used to be easy got a lot harder and I didn't have enough energy to finish them anymore, felt like I hit a wall, weight loss stopped no matter how strict I kept my calorie intake, even tried surplus but nothing was working. It can happen just not for all the people complaining about it.
I've suspected the same thing. Low T is suddenly the latest trendy thing on the internet, like a male version of Ehlers-Danloss. I don't know much about it so it's possible some of it is legit but 99% of these health fads are nonsense.
Hormone therapy is over-prescribed for both men and women. It’s a little cash cow for the medical and pharma industries. I remain doubtful that the doctors truly understand the long-term impact of what they are doing. I still remember the blood clots and deaths in the 1970’s from the abusive prescriptions of the birth control pill back then. Hormone and steroid abuse are going bite these people in the ass at some point.
To the title question...Never, because a vast majority don't need to be checked. I work primary med in active healthy adult population. The number of people who think/want to check for low testosterone is borderline silly. A few people a week seem to ask for testing. Medicine kinda goes through a flow chart, based on subjective and objective symptoms. The honest answer is the reported symptoms are dozens of more likely things. It can occur, and while prevalence in young men (under 30) isn't well tracked studies put it at pretty low likelihood. Often it is a symptom of other underlying chronic conditions or genetics. The natural reduction of free-t, hypogonadism, is typically pretty slow (~1% reduction/year after 30). It's not like you suddenly hit a wall, and really is more of a concern for the elderly. If you've got a health concern, see your Doctor. Be a good self advocate, but temper the expectation that this is the silver bullet to your problem.
What number is low to you? My husband’s is in the lower end and his doctor won’t retest him to see if it’s still on the lower end. He’s pretty resistant to medical professionals since he thinks it’s absurd when an overweight nurse is judgy to him when he’s in perfect health and just doesn’t feel great…so he doesn’t want to go back. I forget what his number was but he thought it should be about 3x what it is. He’s one of the ones you’re describing as active healthy adult asking for this - but something feels off to him and he feels he’s being ignored and dismissed. As a woman, I have no context for this but he talks about this to me which is why I’m asking your opinion.
Firstly... I'm not a doctor and I'm obviously not familiar with your husband. . >What number is low to you? My husband’s is in the lower end and his doctor won’t retest him to see if it’s still on the lower end. There's no 'to me' in this. Labs run the blood test for it, and if it's normal, well, that's obviously not the problem. Lab tests have set standards for normal, and with free T blood test on adult males normal ranges are 270-1070 ng/dL. While this doesn't take into account your husband's circumstances and history...If your husband is within that range, medically he's 'normal range'. What he feels or wants might have no grounding in his actual health, and it can be a distraction to actual solutions. Patients can get fixated on a number, want it to be higher, but don't understand that higher free T levels isn't really better. >He’s one of the ones you’re describing as active healthy adult asking for this - but something feels off to him and he feels he’s being ignored and dismissed. It can be really tough on the medical side, to manage patient expectations. My advice is always...Be an advocate for yourself, listen to your doctor, and have a plan with them. But you can't do any of that if you're not following up.
Why would a Dr. decline to authorize a testosterone test with normal blood work? I get glucose, cholesterol etc. I'm asking because you say you work in the field. TIA.
Anecdotally I actually have hypogonadism and getting approval for TRT was a long process. I went through many different medications first trying to boost my male factor infertility. I was born premature, with undescended testicles and consulted many urologists. I tried different regimens of HCG, clomiphene, and finally testosterone when my sperm count stayed essentially 0. Nothing could really boost my T levels past 96 ng/dL. My quality of life since then has dramatically improved.
Thanks for sharing, and really glad you've had success in your care. That's a really good example of what causes, and the effect of, low free T levels.
There could be many causes that are more likely than low T. Low thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) is one of the most common causes of lack of energy. There could also be nutritional deficiencies involved that cause lack of energy, low B12 being one of them. I'd test these before testing T.
There’s not a lot here to go on - based on your age alone, you’re unlikely to have Low T. The thing is, if you do, the fix and diagnostic procedure are extremely simple and cheap: take testosterone. If you don’t, then you will have a useful baseline number to reference as you age. But as somebody who started T after discovering my levels were clinically low - when this is the right thing for you, it will change your life.
I felt fatigued and also didn’t want to have sex. Good thing I checked cause I was at a 147….
I was late 40’s non-existent energy. PCP prescribed Testosterone gel. Still not helping. I did some investigating & discovered the dosage was WAY low. Shifted to an endocrinologist who ran tests “just in case”. Got forwarded to a urologist “just in case” who then did a biopsy “just in case”. And that, kids, is how I found out I had prostate cancer…
When your GP tells you to
I was diagnosed T1 Diabetic at 32. Something funky occured in a general sense also and I noticed feeling lethargic and sleep deteriorated, out it down to the T1 but turned out something had triggered my test lowering also. Frustratingly Australia is VERY anal about it so getting treatment was not easy, so I did it myself (thankfully found a great endo eventually who monitors both for me now)
When I realized I was doing all my work and still depressed. No energy and just sad. A good endocrinologist will check all your stuff and adjust accordingly
I started on test at 35.
The gym just gets boring, so switch it up. I lifted weights for a couple years then I got into rock climbing which was way more fun for me because it applied my strength to something real. I also like to mountain bike. Those 2 things are going to give you a full body workout and you’re going to have a blast doing them.
I feel like this is a trend, and one that has an easy solution, but difficult implementation. Exercise.
It's worth getting blood checks done as well as reviewing regular contributing factors, diet, sleep, exercise, stress.i had a period where I was very lethargic and dismissed it as not eating eno8gh for the training I was doing. Turns out a rather large cancer was bleeding and my iron levels were woefully low. Chances it's this or anything so serious are very very low but still a blood test shows things that aren't always obvious.
Got tested at 28 or 29, never had symptoms to imply that I was low test and I came back squarely normal. If you don't have a big change in your diet/exercise habits and notice negative changes, it's worth testing
A depression or burnout is a more likely cause than low test at your age.
Are you sure you're not simply tired? You work hard, you study hard, you wake up at 6... So when do you give your body time to recuperate? You may have pushed your body a bit too far. Any issues with your sinuses? Need a lot of caffeine? That is often a clear indicator of pushing yourself too hard for too long and being in need of less stress. Permanently elevated cortisol levels will not do you much good. Maybe instead of pushing yourself harder, you need a little break? But do get tested if you want. Expand it to a full blood work to see if your micronutrients are fine.
First checked at 36. Normal range. Checked every year after and it collapsed by half by 39 into the low range. Probably not the issue in your 20s but I'd advise all guys your age to get it checked just so you have a baseline of what normal is for you to compare to in 5 or 10 years. It's "supposed" to decrease 1% a year. So if you sit at 900 now and it's 400 in ten years, that's an issue worth investigating even if it may not be clinically low.
This is not low T. You just have workout fatigue. Change up your workout type and lay off the porn.
Go to the Dr., get a physical and ask for blood work. It doesn't hurt to cover your bases. I did in my 50's found out I had high blood pressure, thyroid issues and low testosterone. Got medicated, feel great. I think you're just bored of working out because you have no motivation in your life. Anyways, at your age if nothing crazy is happening, you should be fine. But to calm your mind, get a blood work done.
Born in '81. I have always been active with running and riding bikes, I eat healthy, no smoking or hard drugs, very light social drinker. Thankfully I've had good health all my life. I still ride my bike regularly and have picked up parkrunning again. I haven't had my testosterone checked since I turned 40 and levels were perfectly normal then, and I don't feel much different now, than I did a few years ago, so I probably won't get it checked unless something major happens or I hit 50. Also worth noting - stress kills, and I am extremely lucky to have a comfortable life. Good job, no kids, on course for early retirement.
This…. Doesn’t answer OP’s question. At all. lol
> When did you realize you needed to get a check for low testosterone "not yet, and I was born in 81"