TESTOSTERONE TREATMENT

Testosterone Therapy Done Right

BE THE OPTIMAL YOU

Testosterone Therapy Done Right

SIGNS OF LOW TESTOSTERONE

Are you experiencing any of these symptoms? Your testosterone level is not optimal, and you could benefit from testosterone replacement therapy.

  • Loss or decrease of libido (sex drive)

  • Decrease or loss of morning erections

  • Decreased muscle mass and strength

  • Fatigue or decreased energy

  • Weight gain and increased central body fat
  • Decreased athletic and physical ability
  • Feeling sad or depressed
  • Anxiety
  • Irritability

  • Decreased motivation, self-confidence and productivity

  • Poor concentration and memory
Testosterone Treatment in Charleston SC

Testosterone Specialists

Diagnosing and treating low testosterone (Low T) is an area of medicine that most physicians are not well-versed in. Primary care physicians do not routinely check testosterone levels, let alone Free Testosterone or Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) levels.

Most are unfamiliar with the medical workup necessary to make the diagnosis and how to properly monitor patients under treatment. Many are hesitant to treat symptomatic patients with “Low Normal T”. Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a primary focus of the Charleston Men’s Clinic.

In-Home or In-Office Treatment

We work with each patient to design a program that meets his specific needs. We treat Low-T using injectable testosterone, topical cream or pellets. You can choose between home or office treatment for the injectable route. Cost is affordable and competitively priced. Clinical progress is carefully followed. Treatment safety is ensured by frequent, comprehensive laboratory monitoring.

How Testosterone Treatment Works

Lab Testing

In order to ensure the highest level of accuracy, all of our testing is performed by LabCorp, the world’s largest laboratory. You can get your lab drawn in our office or go to a more conveniently located LabCorp facility.

Custom Treatment

We work with each patient to design a program that meets his specific needs. We treat Low-T using injectable testosterone, topical cream or pellets. You can choose between home or office treatment for the injectable route.

Monitor Closely

Cost is affordable and competitively priced. Clinical progress is carefully followed. Treatment safety is ensured by frequent, comprehensive laboratory monitoring.

Testosterone Treatment Plans

  • Price Range from $180 – $215

  • 3 – 4 labs per year

  • Access to InBody Body Scan

  • HSA and FSA accepted
Testosterone Treatment in Charleston SC

TESTOSTERONE DECLINE

After the age of 30, men begin to experience an average 1% or more per year decline in their testosterone level. This really adds up over time and has significant quality of life effects as we live increasingly longer.

Other factors besides age, such as health and lifestyle can lower testosterone levels even further. Alarmingly, a separate, generational, age-independent decline in testosterone levels (and also seen in sperm counts) has been observed in American men over the last few decades.

This additional decrease has not received much attention in the press or even the medical literature. It can not be fully explained by the health and lifestyle changes that have occurred in the population over time (such as increased obesity, people taking more medications, less smoking etc.). A decline persists even after adjusting for these variables.

This added decline in testosterone levels is not trivial.

Laboratories have had to adjust their “reference range” (see chart) to reflect this decline. Within the last year, LabCorp’s reference range for total testosterone went from 348-1197 ng/dL down to 264-916 ng/dL. That’s a 24% decrease!

To put this in perspective: If you had a testosterone level last year of 300 ng/dL, you would have been diagnosed as “Low’T”. But this year, that same value indicates that you’re “normal”. Really?

How do you feel?
It is time for you to get back in the game?

TESTOSTERONE TREATMENT FAQ

No. A reference range tells you the range that by design includes 95% of a reference population. An optimal range defines what is a healthy range for you as an individual.

A reference range (interval) is a mathematical way of looking at the test results of a large sample of the population. When you plot all the test results of a given population on a graph, they almost always distribute in the familiar appearing “bell shaped curve”. Testosterone levels follow this pattern of distribution

and the remaining values distribute out symmetrically on each side. The curve can be analyzed statistically and predictable “standard deviations” from the mean can be calculated. One standard deviation from the mean will include about 68 percent of the population and two standard deviations will include 95 percent.

The “reference range” for testosterone is nothing more than the upper and lower limits of two standard deviations from the mean or the middle 95% of this population.Only 2.5% of this population falls below the lower limit and only 2.5% of this population falls above the upper limit. If you compare your testosterone level to this range and you fall within or above the range, it just means that your testosterone level isn’t in the bottom 2.5% of the population.

The reference range for testosterone is quite large. The specific limits vary from lab to lab, but there is always a 3-4 fold difference between the upper and lower limits. In other words, if you’re at the low end, you have only 1/4 to 1/3 the amount of testosterone the guy at the other end has. That’s a pretty huge spread. Sign me up for the upper end!

Unfortunately, the “reference range or interval” for testosterone is mistakingly generally regarded as the “normal range”. This would imply that exactly 2.5% of the reference population has Low-T and everyone else is normal or above normal.

This approach does not factor in how each individual feels or is performing. It does not recognize that each of us is unique and that we each have our own “sweet spot” where we function optimally.

An astute physician treats the patient, not a number on a graph. What is normal for one man, may be low for another.

Insufficient levels of testosterone may lead to symptoms including lowered sex drive, ED, decreased energy, fatigue, increased body fat, weakness, decreased motivation, initiative and self-confidence, osteoporosis, anemia, etc.

Let’s say that you have symptoms of Low-T and your testosterone level is 300 with a reference range of 250-900. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to see how you feel at a higher level of testosterone that’s still “in range”? Too many physicians (and virtually all insurance companies) would refuse you treatment because “you’re normal”.

Doctors don’t treat all lab values this way. We don’t just tell a symptomatic post-menopausal woman with hot flashes, low sex drive and pain on intercourse that her estrogen level is normal for her age and to just live with her symptoms.

Likewise, cholesterol measurements in the population follow a normal bell-curve distribution, but we don’t tell patients their level is “normal” or “optimal” whenever it falls within 2 standard deviations from the mean.

It is estimated that 50% of the American population have cholesterol levels that are above an accepted “healthy range”, not just the 2.5% below 2 standard deviations from the mean.

We would also do further testing looking at HDL, LDL and triglyceride levels and evaluate the entire clinical picture paying careful attention to medical history, family history, risk factors, etc. before making dietary, lifestyle and medication recommendations.

I’m sure that you would consult a specialist if your primary physician handled your cholesterol this way. Why wouldn’t you do the same with your testosterone?

If your testosterone is truly low, and there are no medical contraindications to treatment, you should almost certainly go on TRT to prevent problems like osteoporosis and anemia. Very low levels may also need further workup such as a brain MRI looking for a possible pituitary tumor.

If you are asymptomatic and your testosterone is clearly within the reference range, then you should probably not go on TRT. Legitimate doctors do not prescribe TRT for performance enhancement body building.

If you are symptomatic and your testosterone level is on the low side of the bell-shaped curve, TRT may be indicated. Optimized testosterone levels often lead to a fuller, more vigorous experience of day to day life.

TRT is safe and effective
if it is done properly.

If not done right, and hormonal imbalance occurs, serious health consequences can result. That’s why it is so important to be treated by a health team that knows what it’s doing and you can trust.

How do you feel? Is it time for you to get back in the game?