It’s natural for testosterone levels to vary depending on your age and overall health. If you think you may have symptoms of low testosterone or excess testosterone, talk to your healthcare provider. It’s unlikely — and difficult to tell — that a male adult has higher-than-normal levels of testosterone. High or low T levels in women may indicate an underlying medical condition, such as hirsutism, PCOS, tumors, or CAH. An individual can speak with their insurance provider to determine if testosterone testing is covered in their health plan. To prepare for a testosterone test, a healthcare provider may recommend fasting for several hours before getting the blood sample. There may be extra risks for women with cardiovascular or liver disease, or certain types of cancer. Typically, HRT supplements estrogen and progesterone (female hormones), but certain therapies can also deliver testosterone. Despite the lack of targeted therapies for women with low testosterone, they have one option that may increase their levels. Like high testosterone, there’s no definitive range as to what is considered low testosterone, or hypogonadism, in women. A healthcare provider can develop a treatment plan that aims to lower ovarian or adrenal androgen production. Among women, perhaps the most common cause of a high testosterone level is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In addition, what may seem like a symptom of testosterone excess (see below) may actually be unrelated to this hormone. Blood levels of testosterone vary dramatically over time and even during the course of a day. The proper balance between testosterone (along with other androgens) and estrogen is important for the ovaries to work normally. These hormones are thought to have important effects on It's one of several androgens (male sex hormones) in females. Testosterone therapy may make sense for women who have low testosterone levels and symptoms that might be due to testosterone deficiency. Yassin et al. showed that TRT does not increase the risk for prostate cancer when compared to healthy men and recommended further investigations to truly understand the complex relationship between prostate cancer and testosterone. The oral soft gel formulation of TU is the latest innovation in testosterone therapy (TTh) and recent reports of phase III clinical studies have shown that this new formulation is safe and effective as a therapeutic in the treatment of men with hypogonadism . This means women's TRT targets should not be "as high as possible while feeling good." The better standard is "the lowest effective exposure that stays within the female physiologic range and supports the specific symptom target under monitoring." It is to stay within the physiologic range for women while assessing whether the symptom that justified therapy is actually improving. Testosterone therapy in women has a much narrower evidence-based indication, with the strongest support in postmenopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (Davis et al., Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2019; Parish et al., Climacteric, 2021). "The cognitive effects were very dramatic," she says; it quickly resolved her brain fog and memory problems. Creative geometric female pattern in cubism style. However, the optimal amount of testosterone is far from clear. As a result, there is some controversy about which men should be treated with supplemental testosterone. Women may have a testosterone deficiency due to diseases of the pituitary, hypothalamus or adrenal glands, in addition to removal of the ovaries. There are times when low testosterone is not such a bad thing. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the agency has never approved testosterone for women. "I just had sort of an ‘aha’ moment," says Hall, a 41-year-old in Berkeley, Calif. "It clicked that that might be what was going on, because there was such a good match between the things I was experiencing and the symptoms of low testosterone." All of this reduces the active (free) form of testosterone in the body. Also, as men get older, their livers make more sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which binds to testosterone circulating in the bloodstream. In recent years, researchers (and pharmaceutical companies) have focused on the effects of testosterone deficiency, especially among men. Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Stay on top of latest health news from Harvard Medical School. Benefits include practical tips to keep you healthy and vibrant, up-to-date health news explained simply and clearly, and special promo codes to use for our online courses, special reports, and more. Sign up for HEALTHBeat and receive trusted health information delivered right to your inbox. Get the latest in health news delivered to your inbox!