tim1960

Low T is a serious issue, sort of tabboo among people AND doctors, despite what they say. It's affects, if not treated, are quite serious, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

First, I am not a doctor or a health professional. I am like you, suffering from low T, among other related issues, and doing my most to find treatment, and reading about it. What I say comes from what I have been told my doctors, and from articles. It is from what doctors who specialize in low T and male hormonal imbalances say. This said, take this info for what it is worth in your opinion.

You do not mention whether your level is your total testosterone or free testosterone. Both are important, but the free testosterone is most important. Free testosterone, or "Free T" is the amount of testosterone that you body actually is able to use. If 219 is your "total tesosterone," that is ultra seriously low, and it what I read is the healthy range is 800 - 1000, some say up to 1200 ng/dl. If your doctor is talking about "free testosterone" level, a healthy level is 250 to 300, some say 400 or higher. If so, your doctor is right sort of, but that is the lowest of the health range. It's different for each person as it depends on if you still have low T symptoms and how you feel.

It is extremely hard to find a doctor who understands low T, how to diagnose it, the symptoms, and how to treat it knowledgeably, up to date, safely, and successfully. Such doctors usually do not take Medicare, sometimes don't take any insurance (but may give you a bill to give to your insurance, if your insurance will cover it), and they can be outrageously expensive. I wish you luck and wish me luck. At age 52, my free testosterone was tested as 29 in August 2012 and from my worsening conditions is likely less today in 2013, and the suffering is too much to say. I hope you get the safe, good treatment you need ASAP.


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For doctors who are knowledgeable in low T, they go for the upper third portion of what is considered "normal range" at least with free T, and maybe also with total testosterone, and symptoms are just as important or more important than numbers. Normal range is subjective and differs from each testing company, but the range is made of the average level for men of many different ages. Male testosterone levels start to lower sometime in our twenties, though sources differ. It lowers and lowers each year, and it depens on the person when they start showing symptoms. It can be your thirties, often forties and definitely 50's, and sometimes in their 20's. Some men cannot notice the changes because it happens over such long period of time, but they don't feel right (in one or more of many symptoms of low T). This mean "normal range" starts at low levels (representing the average for elderly men), and the highest of normal range is the average for young males. "Healthy range" is the range that is healthy for men of any age. Many doctors, if not most all doctors don't know anything about this, but doctors who are knowledgeable, up to date, all do. Anything below healthy levels, is not healthy. Yours and mine are different depending on how we feel, and being some place around healthy range. Men of all ages deserve to be healthy, as testosterone affects so much of our health and well being.