What Does It Take to Qualify for Testosterone Replacement Therapy?

• The only way to be sure if you are a candidate for testosterone therapy is to have your blood tested.
• A testosterone blood test will reveal if you have low testosterone, also known as “Low-T,” and therefore qualify for testosterone therapy.
• Anyone over the age of 35, man or woman, can be suffering from the many debilitating symptoms of low testosterone.
• your blood test indicates that you do have low testosterone, particularly if you are a man or woman over 35, your doctor may prescribe testosterone replacement therapy.

Are you over 40? Are you:

Feeling more tired than usual?

Putting on weight and having trouble taking it off?

Finding it difficult to focus or concentrate at work?

Having some “trouble in the bedroom?”

If so, there is a good possibility that you are a man who qualifies for testosterone therapy.

However, the only way to be sure if you are a candidate for testosterone therapy is to have your blood tested. A testosterone blood test will reveal if you have low testosterone, also known as “Low-T,” and therefore qualify for testosterone therapy.

Anyone over the age of 35, man or woman, can be suffering from the many debilitating symptoms of low testosterone. Signs you may have Low-T include:

• Increased fatigue, lack of energy
• Loss of lean muscle
• Increased fat, particularly adipose fat (belly fat)
• Sleep apnea, or other conditions of disturbed sleep
• Loss of bone density
• Loss of libido and other sexual wellness issues

However the only way to make sure that your symptoms are indeed due to Low-T, and that you qualify for testosterone therapy is with a testosterone blood test.

The only way to be sure if you are a candidate for testosterone therapy is to have your blood tested. A testosterone blood test will reveal if you have low testosterone, also known as “Low-T,” and therefore qualify for testosterone therapy.

Do I Have to Take a Test to Qualify for Testosterone Therapy?

Am I a candidate for testosterone therapy? The only way to be sure is with a diagnostic blood test. While some doctors or testosterone clinics will use a swab salvia test, the most accurate way to determine if you have low testosterone is with a blood test. Blood testing for low testosterone is used not only to diagnose age-related testosterone loss, but any abnormality of testosterone level. Other reasons why your doctor could prescribe a testosterone blood test could be:

• To determine why you may be having erectile difficulties
• To test your fertility, if you have been trying unsuccessfully to get your partner pregnant

In any case, no matter the reason why your doctor has ordered a testosterone blood test, a small sample of blood will be drawn from a vein in your arm, and then sent to the proper lab for testing.

The most accurate way to determine if you have low testosterone is with a blood test. Blood testing for low testosterone is used not only to diagnose age-related testosterone loss, but any abnormality of testosterone level.

How Do I Prepare for My Testosterone Blood Test?

There is no special preparation needed for the test doctors use to see if you qualify for testosterone replacement therapy. Doctors usually do prefer to draw your blood sample in the morning. While testosterone is understood to be the “male” hormone, it exists in the blood stream of men and women. Testosterone blood tests are used to diagnose low testosterone related conditions in men, women, boys, and girls.

Your testosterone blood test is designed to measure the testosterone level in your blood. Testosterone exists in your blood in two ways: as testosterone bound to proteins — such as albumin and sex-hormone binding globulin [SHBG] — and as unbound, or “free testosterone.”

Most of the testosterone in your blood, over 95%, circulates as bound testosterone, a much smaller amount exists as free testosterone. However, both are what we call “bioavailable,” and can interact with target tissues, and stimulate testosterone reliant processes.  A typical testosterone therapy qualifying blood test will look for both, or the total volume of testosterone in the blood. If something should come back in the results of your total testosterone blood test that causes doctors to suspect some specific condition, an additional test, to detect only your level of free testosterone, may be ordered. However, for most conditions, and specifically to qualify for age-related testosterone therapy, the total testosterone blood should be the only test that will be required.

Understanding Your Low Testosterone Blood Test Results

How will I know if my test results indicate that I qualify for testosterone therapy? That is not such a simple question to answer, as the “qualifying” criteria does vary from patient to patient. It is made even more difficult because what is considered a “normal” testosterone level changes, throughout your life. Depending on your age, and why the doctor ordered you testosterone blood test, if the results are found to be below normal for you, the doctor will then attempt to diagnose the cause of your declining testosterone.

In men under 30, low testosterone could indicate:

• A disease or condition impacting the hypothalamus or pituitary gland
• Certain genetic conditions that are known to cause decreased testosterone output such as Klinefelter’s disease, or Prader-Willi syndrome
• A disease, injury or condition that impacts the testes
• Chronic hormonal diseases such as diabetes

However, if you are over 30, and you have been tested for low testosterone, and your testosterone blood tests indicate your levels are below normal, the cause is almost always due to age related testosterone decline.

How Do I Know If I Really Qualify for Testosterone Therapy?

If your blood test indicates that you do have low testosterone, particularly if you are a man or woman over 35, your doctor may prescribe testosterone replacement therapy.

Testosterone replacement therapy is only available with a doctor’s prescription. Testosterone replacement therapy can be given in patches, as gels, or in sub-dermal slow-release pellets, but it is most commonly prescribed in the form of injections. You will be taught how to self-administer the injections, which are given into the muscles, usually of your arm, thigh, or buttocks.

In men and women between the ages of 35 and 65, testosterone replacement therapy has produced life changing results. Testosterone therapy has been shown to slow, and in some cases, even reverse the symptoms of age-related hormone decline.

If you do qualify for testosterone therapy, here are 10 ways that testosterone replacement can improve your quality of life:

1. Help you get in shape, and stay in shape – BMI, or body mass index is basically a measure of your muscle to fat ratio. Men and women with low testosterone will almost always have a BMI index that indicates being overweight, and in many cases in the obese range. By boosting metabolism and increasing your body’s ability to build muscle instead of store fat, testosterone therapy can help you to get back in shape, and also stay in shape.

2. Improve bone health – Loss of testosterone as you get older is a major contributor to bone loss and osteoporosis in both men and women. However, low testosterone seems to impact bone health of woman more than it does men. Testosterone therapy, particularly in women, can help prevent the osteoporosis that typically afflicts post-menopausal women.

3. Increased energy – Declining levels of testosterone lead to a decrease in strength, energy and stamina, in both men and women. Testosterone therapy has been shown to improve the vitality of men and women with blood test results that have indicated Low-T.

4. Erectile Dysfunction – (Men only) – Low testosterone is a known contributor to erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. Testosterone therapy not only can help you to achieve more sustainable erections, it can help with other sexual wellness issues such as low sperm count.

5. Improved libido – Testosterone therapy has been shown to renew interest in sex, or increase libido, in both males and females suffering from age-related testosterone loss.

6. Menopausal symptoms  (Women only) – Testosterone replacement, particularly when used in conjunction with estrogen therapy, or HRT, has  been shown to  help reduce or eliminate the most devastation symptoms of menopause, such as mood swings, night sweats, and hot flushes.

7. Focus and cognition – Testosterone therapy improves cognition, improves short-term memory, and has been shown to clear up that “foggy thinking” which men and women over 50 tend to experience.

8. More even moods – Depression, anxiety, aggression and other mood swings are typical signs of low testosterone. Both men and women have reported that testosterone therapy returns them to a place of more stable emotional wellbeing.

9. Skin health – Testosterone therapy, particularly when combined with other hormone replacement, such as growth hormone , can lead to noticeably healthier and younger looking skin.

10. Combat inflammation – Testosterone replacement therapy has an anti-inflammatory effect. There is an “inflammation theory of aging,” which postulates that most of the conditions we think of as old age — back pain, poor joint health, weakness, even increased risk of heart disease and cancer — has to with our body’s lessening ability to combat inflammation as we got older. Testosterone is known to have a powerful anti-inflammatory effect, and this could explain the inflammatory theory of aging, and why increasing testosterone levels has so many positive health benefits.

Understand that if you do qualify for testosterone therapy, the many benefits you will receive will likely far exceed the 10 listed here.

How Do I Find Out If I Qualify for Testosterone Therapy?

If you are experiencing any of the signs of low testosterone listed on these pages, why not contact us and see if you qualify for testosterone therapy?

After an initial evaluation, we will schedule your testosterone blood test, and this simple procedure could have you qualifying for the life changing results of testosterone replacement therapy.

Most of the testosterone in your blood, over 95%, circulates as bound testosterone, a much smaller amount exists as free testosterone. A typical testosterone therapy qualifying blood test will look for both, or the total volume of testosterone in the blood.

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