The optimal range for free testosterone in saliva varies based on age, sex, and life stage. Saliva testing provides a non-invasive and convenient method for assessing bioactive testosterone levels. Free Testosterone is the bioavailable form of testosterone, a key androgen hormone responsible for regulating numerous physiological processes in both men and women. Once our laboratory receives the samples, our team of highly-specialized lab technologists will perform the tests and provide results within hours. Once the lab has completed your results you will be sent these via email with a link to book a time and day online. Testosterone is the most important male sex hormone and plays a crucial role in muscle building, weight, hair growth and many other health & body functions. Chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels can contribute to abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and changes in appetite and energy balance. During menopause, the decline in estrogen levels is linked to an increased risk of abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome in women. Imbalances in cortisol and testosterone are linked to low mood and irritability in men. This is reflected in the increased incidence of thyroid disorders in postmenopausal women, for example. Paired saliva and blood samples were collected from 104 men and 91 women recruited by advertisements from the general population (age range 16 – 74 years stratified to ~20 in each decade). Multiple testing methods, such as blood, saliva, and urine tests, are available, offering patients options based on their needs and preferences. Like salivary testing, urine testing allows for multiple, non-invasive sample collections in the privacy of one's own home, capturing complete pictures of hormone fluctuations throughout the day. This is important as, due to the diurnal rhythm of testosterone, both the time of testing and the number of samples play a central role in the analysis of peak and baseline testosterone levels. Saliva sampling must be done correctly, but today's collection devices make it easy, and patients can collect their own samples during the day or night as needed, to measure fluctuations in hormones such as cortisol or melatonin, for example. Not only are today's saliva tests highly sensitive and accurate, but saliva diagnostics also offer the most reliable method for measuring levels of free, bioavailable hormones. A key strength of this study is the highly sensitive and specific Sal-T assay, enabling accurate measurement in women as well as men—although there is some systematic positive bias due to salivary protein binding among women (19)—and permitting measurement of T on a large-scale probability-sample survey across a wide age range.
.jpg)
