Free Testosterone

Testosterone, a sex hormone, plays an important role in both men and women. In men, it regulates sex drive, bone mass, muscle mass and production of sperm. Women also make testosterone but in a small amount. They produce testosterone in their ovaries that maintains hormone balance and other body functions. During puberty, testosterone is produced in large amounts in the male, which regulates secondary sexual characteristics like the development of muscle, body hair growth, deepening of the voice and enlargement of the penis and sperm productions in testes. In adult males, testosterone plays an important role in regulating the sex drive and maintaining muscle mass. In adult females, testosterone is converted to estradiol, the main sex hormone. This testosterone in the blood attaches to two proteins named albumin and sex hormone-binding globulin. But some of the testosterone is freely present in the body and not attached to proteins. This is named Free testosterone is easily used by the body. This Free Testosterone blood test measures the amount of unattached free testosterone in your blood. The high or low of free testosterone in both men and women has a health problem. It is often unclear what exactly causes mild-to-moderate testosterone elevations in the blood. But the common causes of elevated testosterone are genetic conditions like congenital adrenal hyperplasia, tumors of reproductive organs like adrenal, testicular and ovarian tumors and excessive use of testosterone supplements. In addition, testosterone production declines with age between the fourth and sixth decades of life. In women, excess testosterone leads to hirsutism, acne, menstrual problems and infertility as well. As testosterone levels decline, females may experience subtle symptoms like a decrease in libido or mood changes. In men, low free testosterone can lead to partial or complete degrees of hypogonadism. It is characterized by changes in male secondary sexual characteristics and reproductive function. When testosterone levels are mild to moderate, they produce little or no symptoms in men, but they can cause distress in women. So if your doctor thinks that the problem you are facing correlates with abnormalities in testosterone, then they recommend a Free Testosterone Test for more information. Moreover, testosterone levels are diurnal in nature, meaning the level of testosterone changes two times in a day, the highest (peak) levels in the morning (about 4:00 to 8:00 am) and the lowest levels in the evening (about 4:00 to 8:00 pm). Testosterone levels also increase after exercise and decrease with age.