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What Does an Increase in Testosterone Mean?

Testosterone is a male hormone or androgen. This hormone is usually found in men and women, but men have much higher blood levels of testosterone than women. Testosterone levels normally increase as a child enters puberty and adulthood. Several medical conditions can cause abnormal increases in blood testosterone levels. A doctor may have a patient take a testosterone blood test to measure levels of this hormone.

  1. Normal Increase

    • Testosterone is produced in the male testes, the female ovaries and the adrenal glands of both males and females. A young boy usually has low testosterone levels before he enters puberty. A boy’s pituitary gland prompts his testes to increase testosterone production between the age of 10 and 14. Boys develop larger muscles, deeper voices and larger amounts of facial and body hair as their testosterone levels increase.

    Precocious Puberty

    • Precocious puberty is a medical condition that causes puberty to occur before the age of eight in girls or before the age of nine in boys due to higher than normal testosterone levels. Testosterone levels increase early due to genetic problems, brain changes or tumor growth. The signs of precocious puberty include breast development and menstruation in girls and facial hair growth or growth of the male genitals in boys. Doctors may treat this condition with medications that stop hormone release or surgical removal of a tumor.

    Other Causes

    • Several medical conditions can cause increases in testosterone. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia can cause early puberty in boys and male characteristics in girls. This condition is triggered by reduced cortisol levels and may be treated with cortisol replacement medication. Testicular cancer in men and ovarian cancer in women can cause testosterone levels to get abnormally high. Cancer may be treated with surgical removal of a tumor and surrounding tissue, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

    Testosterone Test

    • Doctors measure blood levels of testosterone with a testosterone blood test. A medical professional draws blood from a patient’s arm and sends it to a laboratory for analysis. Normal male testosterone levels range between 300 and 1,200 nanograms per deciliter of blood and female testosterone levels are usually between 30 and 95 nanograms per deciliter. A physician may order a testosterone blood test to evaluate infertility or impotence in men, to find the cause of male physical characteristics in women or to track the development of puberty in boys.

    Reduced Testosterone

    • People may develop abnormally low levels of testosterone due to health and developmental disorders. Patients with hypopituitarism, testicular failure or prolactinoma may have lower than normal results on a testosterone blood test. Long-term chronic illnesses can interfere with testosterone production. Late puberty can occur concurrently with low levels of testosterone. Teenagers with delayed puberty should see a doctor to have their testosterone levels evaluated.

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