What's Your Ideal Testosterone Number?

📌 Learn more about Action TRT: https://actiontrt.com/

You finally got your testosterone checked. Now you are staring at one number, wondering if it is good or not. Here is the truth nobody tells you: there is no universal target number that works for every man.

In this episode, I'm going to walk you through two real patient cases with nearly identical starting symptoms who needed completely different testosterone numbers to feel their best, and explain exactly how to find your own.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 
0:00 What's Your Ideal Testosterone Number?
0:41 Why I used to think 1000 was the target 
1:41 Patient one hits 1000 and still feels off 
2:11 Pushing his dose to 1200 to feel right
2:37 Patient two levels out at 850 and feels amazing 
3:47 Why SHBG changes everything about your number 
5:06 The two things I weigh equally for every patient 
5:56 What to do if your labs look perfect but you feel flat 
6:01 The exact steps to take tonight with your own labs 
6:54 Chase how you feel, not someone else's number

❓ QUESTIONS ANSWERED 

What is the ideal testosterone number for TRT? 
There is no single ideal number. The right target depends on your SHBG levels, how much testosterone is actually available to your body, and how you feel, not just what is written on a lab report. 

Why do two men with the same symptoms need different testosterone levels? 
Sex hormone binding globulin, or SHBG, locks up testosterone in the body so it cannot be used. A man with lower SHBG may feel great at 850, while a man with higher SHBG may need 1200 to get the same usable amount. 

How do I know if my TRT dose is right for me? 
Compare your latest labs against how you actually feel right now, not just against a number that worked for someone else. If your labs look normal but you still feel flat, that is real information that your dose needs adjusting.

🎥 Watch Next: Injections, Gels, or Pellets Which TRT Method Is Best → https://youtu.be/cMSu78VsQQk

📱 RESOURCES
Website: https://actiontrt.com/ 
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@actiontrt 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actiontrthighperformance 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialactiontrt

🔔 New episodes every week on hormone optimization, men's health, and what nobody explains in a standard seven-minute appointment. Subscribe so you do not miss what is coming next.

💬 What number are you at right now, and how do you actually feel at that number? Tell me in the comments. I read every one.

ABOUT DR. TYLER STANLEY: 
Dr. Tyler Stanley, DMSc, PhD, is the founder of Action TRT and High Performance, a men's health clinic based in Santa Ana, California. A certified Testosteronologist with over 1,200 patients treated and 500+ five-star reviews, he specializes in testosterone replacement therapy, hormone optimization, and high-performance medicine for men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. His own experience with burnout and hormonal imbalance is what drives his approach: find the real cause, not the most common diagnosis.

#LowTestosterone #TRT #MensHealth #HormoneOptimization #TestosteroneTherapy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So you finally got your testosterone check. You open up the lab report, and now you're staring at one number, wondering, is this good or not? Maybe you're at 450, maybe you're at 780. Maybe you're already on TRT and sitting at 1050. So here's the question everybody asks next. What number should I actually be trying to get? For years, if you asked me for one number, I'd probably have to say around 1,000. It's a healthy, upper range number. I thought that was a good target. Then I started noticing something that completely changed how I think about this. Years ago, before I had any of this figured out, I had a guy come through my clinic. Good guy, mid-40s, tired all the time, low drive, the whole list. We ran his labs. Testosterone was low. We started him on TRT, and over a few months, we worked him up to right around 1000. By the book, right where every article would have told you to land him. He came back in and told me he still felt off. Not terrible, just not right. Still a little flat, still not sleeping rate. So now I'm sitting there thinking, did I miss something? Did we get the number wrong? Let's push it again. So we adjusted it. And at 1200, he felt much better. Around the same time, I had another guy come in. Similar story, similar age, similar complaints walking through the door. We started him the same way I start everyone. Work the dose up, check labs, check how he feels. He leveled out her around 850. And this guy is calling me up, telling me he hasn't felt this good in 15 years. Sleeping like a rock, back in the gym, wife noticed before he said a word about it. Same starting symptoms, same general approach, two totally different numbers. One guy needed 1200, the other guy hit 850 and got his whole life back. That's when it hit me. I wasn't looking for the right number anymore. I was looking for the right number for him. Those are two completely different things. I've been treating this like there was a universal testosterone target. There isn't one. There is no ideal testosterone number, not one that works for you or the next guy and the guy after him. Now here's the question that actually matters. Why did one guy need almost 400 points more than the other to feel exactly the same way? It wasn't because he needed more testosterone in some general sense. When I looked at the rest of his hormone panel, it became obvious these two guys weren't the same case. His sex hormone binding globulin was different. Other markers were different. Even what he wanted out of treatment was different. SHBG is a protein that grabs testosterone out of your blood, it holds onto it, locks it up in the body, specifically the liver, and you can't use it. The first guy's SHBG was on the lower side. So more of his total number was actually available and working for him. The second guy had more testosterone floating around on paper, but a bigger chunk of it was locked up doing nothing. He needed a higher total testosterone just to end up with the same amount actually working. Their goals were a little different too. First guy mostly wanted his energy and focus back. Second guy was also chasing libido and muscle retention. So our end target wasn't the same. So the number shouldn't be the same either. Same starting symptoms, same process, two different men who looked almost identical on paper at start, total testosterone, age complaints, and they needed completely different numbers because what was actually happening underneath that number was different for each of them. So it comes down to two things, and I weigh them equally what all of the labs say and how the man actually feels. Not just labs by themselves, not just feelings by themselves either, because feelings without labs is just guessing. So I use both together every single time. That's the whole reason those two guys split the way they did. One man feels great at 850, the next guy needs 1200. I get guys in here constantly who come from somewhere else already on TRT, already months or years into it, and they say it straight out of the gates. I'm at 1050, but I feel off. And almost every time I find the same thing. They got put on a dose that worked fine for somebody, just not for them. Nobody ever went back and asked, given how this specific man feels and where his specific numbers sit, is this actually the right target for him? So how do I actually move that number once the guy's already started? Say he's a few months in, first round of labs is back. I look at where those new labs sit against where he started against where he wants to be. Then I weigh that next to how he felt walking in versus how he feels right now. That comparison is what tells me whether the dose moves and which direction. I seen labs come back looking perfect on paper for a guy who still feels flat. And that tells me we're not done adjusting, no matter how clean the number looks. So if you're sitting here with a number in your head right now, 600, 1,000, whatever you read somewhere, I want you to drop it. The number that matters is the one that comes out from your labs and your own symptoms, not someone else's. Here's what I'd actually do tonight if I were you. Pull your last set of labs and look at the real number, not just whether it got flagged norm. Then be honest with yourself about how you actually feel right now. Today, if those two things don't line up, that's not you being dramatic. That's real information. And if you're already on TRT, ask whoever's treating you one direct question. How did you decide this was the right number for me? Specifically, you came here looking for a number. What you actually need is a process. Your labs and how you feel weighted together every time anything about your protocol gets touched. That's the only honest answer there is. If you remember one thing from this video, remember this don't chase somebody else's testosterone number. Chase the number where you actually feel like yourself again. Hell, where you feel better than ever. Once you know what you're actually working toward, the next question is how you get there. Injections, gels, and pellets all hit that target completely different. I break down exactly which one fits which kind of guy in the next video. Links right there. Go watch it. Follow me. See you next time.