After 60, your total testosterone may not drop as dramatically as you’d expect, but the amount your body can actually use declines steadily. This is because a protein called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) increases significantly with age, binding up testosterone and making less of it available to your tissues. The result is lower “bioavailable” testosterone even when your total number looks reasonable on a blood test. Normal total testosterone for men aged 60 to 69 ranges from about 196 to 859 ng/dL, a wide window that makes symptoms and bioavailable levels more important than the total number alone.
The good news: there are real, evidence-based strategies that can help. Some work by optimizing what your body already produces, others by replacing what it no longer can. Here’s what the research actually supports.
Why Testosterone Drops Differently After 60
Most men assume their testosterone production simply falls off a cliff with age. The reality is more nuanced. Research published in The Journal of Urology found that while total testosterone didn’t significantly decrease with age in the men studied, SHBG rose sharply (with a strong statistical correlation of r = 0.598). That increase in SHBG is the primary driver of declining testosterone activity in older men. SHBG essentially locks testosterone molecules up so they can’t enter cells and do their work.
This distinction matters because it changes the conversation. If your total testosterone is 450 ng/dL but your SHBG is elevated, you could still experience symptoms of low testosterone: reduced energy, lower sex drive, less muscle mass, difficulty with erections, trouble focusing, even hot flashes and depression. If you’re getting tested, ask for both total and free (or bioavailable) testosterone. The total number alone can be misleading.
Exercise Helps, But Not the Way You Think
You’ll find countless articles claiming that heavy squats and deadlifts will “naturally boost your testosterone.” For younger men, there’s some truth to that. For men over 60, the evidence tells a different story. A systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Physiology examined dozens of resistance training protocols in older men, ranging from light band exercises to heavy progressive strength training, performed two to four days per week for durations spanning 4 weeks to 12 months. The conclusion was blunt: there was essentially zero effect of resistance training on baseline testosterone levels in aging men.
That doesn’t mean exercise is pointless. Resistance training builds muscle, strengthens bones, improves insulin sensitivity, and reduces body fat, all of which improve how your body responds to the testosterone you do have. Carrying less body fat in particular reduces the conversion of testosterone into estrogen, a process that accelerates with weight gain. Exercise also improves energy, mood, and sexual function through pathways that don’t depend on raising your testosterone number. Think of strength training as making better use of what you’ve got rather than producing more of it.
Sleep Has a Stronger Effect Than Most People Realize
A cross-sectional study of 1,274 older men found that testosterone levels increased with longer sleep duration up to about 9.9 hours, then decreased beyond that point, forming an inverted U-shaped curve. Men who slept too little had measurably lower testosterone. Interestingly, insomnia and trouble falling asleep weren’t independently linked to testosterone levels. What mattered was total sleep duration.
For practical purposes, this means consistently getting 7 to 9 hours of actual sleep, not just time in bed, supports your body’s testosterone production. Sleep is when the majority of daily testosterone release occurs, concentrated in the early morning hours. If you’re sleeping five or six hours a night, improving that single habit may do more for your levels than any supplement.
Nutrients That Matter When You’re Deficient
Zinc and vitamin D are both essential for testosterone production, and deficiencies in either become more common after 60 due to changes in diet, absorption, and sun exposure. One study found that men who supplemented with 30 milligrams of zinc per day showed increased free testosterone. The recommended daily intake for men over 19 is 11 milligrams, and toxicity can occur above 40 milligrams per day, so more is not better here. If you eat oysters, red meat, or pumpkin seeds regularly, you may already get enough. If your diet is limited or you take medications that deplete zinc (some blood pressure drugs and diuretics do), a modest supplement could help.
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in older adults, particularly those who spend limited time outdoors or live at higher latitudes. Low vitamin D has been consistently associated with lower testosterone, and correcting a deficiency can modestly improve levels. A simple blood test can tell you where you stand. Getting your levels into the normal range through supplementation or sun exposure is worthwhile, but mega-dosing beyond normal levels hasn’t shown additional testosterone benefits.
Ashwagandha
Among herbal supplements, ashwagandha has the most credible research behind it for testosterone. A double-blind trial gave overweight men aged 40 to 70 an ashwagandha extract (21 mg of the active compound, withanolide glycosides) daily for eight weeks. The treatment group saw increased testosterone compared to placebo, along with improvements in energy, sexual well-being, and mental health. These are modest effects, not transformative ones, and the study focused on overweight men who may have had more room for improvement. Still, it’s one of the few supplements with controlled trial evidence in the relevant age group.
When Testosterone Replacement Therapy Makes Sense
If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a well-established medical option. The Endocrine Society guidelines recommend diagnosing low testosterone only when a man has both clear symptoms and consistently low morning fasting testosterone levels, confirmed on at least two separate tests. For men 65 and older, the Society advises against routine prescribing based on a low number alone. Instead, they recommend TRT be considered on an individual basis for men who have specific symptoms like persistently low libido, unexplained anemia, or significant loss of muscle and bone, after a clear discussion of risks and benefits.
TRT comes in several forms: topical gels applied daily, injections given every one to two weeks, and patches. Each has trade-offs in convenience, consistency of levels, and cost. The choice often comes down to personal preference and how your body responds. Once started, TRT is typically a long-term commitment, because exogenous testosterone signals your body to stop its own production.
Prostate Safety and TRT
The historical fear that testosterone therapy causes prostate cancer has not held up under modern scrutiny. Multiple studies of older men with low testosterone treated with TRT found no higher rates of prostate cancer compared to untreated men. The Mayo Clinic’s current assessment is that testosterone itself is not likely to increase the risk of developing prostate cancer, and current evidence does not support a link between TRT and new prostate cancer.
There is one caveat worth understanding. TRT can raise PSA levels, the marker used to screen for prostate cancer. Higher PSA leads to more biopsies, which leads to more detection of cancers that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. This is a detection effect, not a causation effect, but it means your PSA will need regular monitoring while on therapy. Even men who have been successfully treated for prostate cancer and show no signs of recurrence don’t appear to face increased risk from TRT, though this is a conversation best had with an oncologist familiar with your specific case.
Recognizing Low Testosterone vs. Normal Aging
One of the trickiest parts of this whole topic is distinguishing low testosterone symptoms from the normal experience of getting older. Feeling a bit less energetic at 65 than you did at 45 is expected. But certain patterns point more specifically toward testosterone deficiency: a noticeable drop in sex drive (not just a gradual cooling), persistent fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix, loss of muscle mass despite staying active, erectile dysfunction, depressed mood without a clear external cause, and difficulty concentrating. Over time, low testosterone can also lead to loss of bone density and growth of breast tissue.
No single symptom confirms low testosterone, and many of these overlap with other conditions like thyroid problems, sleep apnea, or depression. The symptoms are the reason to get tested, not a diagnosis on their own. If several of these ring true and your levels come back low on two morning blood draws, you have a clearer picture to work with.
A Realistic Approach After 60
The honest picture is this: no supplement, exercise program, or lifestyle hack will return your testosterone to what it was at 30. The age-related rise in SHBG is a biological reality, and natural interventions work at the margins. Sleep optimization, maintaining a healthy weight, correcting nutrient deficiencies, and staying physically active can collectively prevent your levels from dropping further and help your body use what it produces more effectively. For men whose levels are genuinely low and symptomatic, TRT remains the most effective intervention, with a safety profile that’s more reassuring than the old fears suggested. The key is getting accurate testing, including free or bioavailable testosterone, so you’re making decisions based on what’s actually happening in your body rather than assumptions about age.