What Precautions Should I Take?
Print PageAsk your doctor to order a blood test for testosterone. The normal range is 300 to 1,200 ng/dl or 10 to 35 nmol/L. It will be highest in the morning. Target your hormone treatment to achieve this same optimum level.
Ask for a copy of all your reports: Ultrasound, imaging, laboratory blood work, and pathology. See an endocrinologist – a hormone specialist – before you make an appointment with a surgeon.
Before initiating TRT, your doctor should check for prostate abnormalities by means of a digital rectal examination (insertion of a gloved finger through the anus and feeling the hardness of the prostate gland) and a blood test for Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). This is to ensure that you do not have prostate cancer and that complications of the prostate should not arise due to testosterone usage. Testosterone should not be used if there is prostate cancer or irregularities. During therapy, get a yearly PSA test for early detection of prostate cancer and a rectal examination of the prostate. You need regular hemoglobin, hematocrit, liver function, and cholesterol tests and frequent monitoring by your doctor for the risks discussed above.
If you have chronic liver or kidney disease, then you should only use testosterone under strict medical supervision.