Testosterone- confused

Posted by zmarkv @zmarkv, 8 hours ago

I have been off of ADT for well over a year now. Testosterone is coming up but extremely slowly (65 ng/dl). I understand that part (I’m 71). What I am confused about is the Free Testosterone (Direct) level suddenly spiking from low 3 months ago to being flagged as high this week (18.3 pg/ml).
Any insight? Thanks!

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web265 | @web265 | 7 hours ago

No real insight just what I've seen on myself. I did two years of ADT and my T is coming back albeit a bit slow. My understanding is the free (or fun as I like to call it) testosterone should be a percentage of the total.

Depending on which study, expert, book, website you use, it should look a bit like this...
A typical total testosterone level in adult men is 300–1,000 ng/dL. Within this range, free testosterone would be approximately 3–30 ng/dL (or 1–3% of the total)

Luckily for you, you're way above normal there. 28(ish)% It could be different things. Testing anomolies, diet, you're just lucky....

I think the diffrence in rate of rise is different in different age groups, I'm a little younger at 63 now, my understanding is that the longer you were on the drugs the slower the T recovery may be as well. My free to total ratio was 26.67% at my first blood test after quitting the drugs. (3, 0.8, 26.67%) .

I stopped taking ADT about a year ago now and my total, free, percentage looks like this, 192, 3.5, 1.82% putting me in the very low normal ratio although my testosterone is returning slowly as well. It's shown an increase every test since, just annoying slow on the rise. I'm just hoping the rise continues! (all kinds of puns intended) 🙂

Best of Luck to you!