Total Testosterone |
Only One Piece Of The Puzzle
Total testosterone is the total amount of testosterone floating around in your blood. Many doctors will only test your total testosterone to indicate whether or not you may need treatment, but total testosterone does not tell the whole story.
Determining “Normal”
According to some testing centers, total testosterone levels below 348 ng/dl are considered to be low for a male. Unfortunately there are many scenarios in which a man could be higher than 348 ng/dl but he still feels many of the symptoms of hypogonadism (low testosterone). Therefore total testosterone is not giving us a complete picture of what is going on and we must consider other factors to see
if a patient qualifies for testosterone replacement therapy.
Finding The Solution
Even if your doctor agrees the total testosterone level is low; without the additional tests he doesn’t know the best way to treat the problem. Think about if your car was having problems and you took it to the auto shop. Would you want the mechanic to tell you how to fix the car if he never looked under the hood? Of course not! You want him to inspect every possible reason the car is not working
so that it will be working better than ever when he is done with it. Well then shouldn’t your doctor be taking the same measures to find the source of your symptoms to determine the proper treatment? That is why we take a comprehensive panel of blood work for our patients multiple times throughout the year. It is not only important to figure out what is going on in the beginning, but also to
continually monitor your progress during treatment.
Contact us today to schedule your free consultation and get your blood work ordered. |