For adult men, a good testosterone level falls between 450 and 600 ng/dL, with anything above 300 ng/dL considered within the normal range. For adult women, the normal range is 8 to 60 ng/dL. These numbers come from a standard blood test, but what counts as “good” depends on your age, your symptoms, and even the time of day your blood was drawn.
Normal Ranges for Men
The American Urological Association sets the clinical cutoff for low testosterone at 300 ng/dL. Below that threshold, a doctor may diagnose testosterone deficiency if symptoms are also present. The Endocrine Society uses a slightly lower cutoff of 264 ng/dL. The full normal range for men 18 and older spans roughly 264 to 916 ng/dL, which is a wide window. Two healthy men of the same age can have testosterone levels that differ by hundreds of points.
While 300 ng/dL is the floor, that doesn’t mean 301 is ideal. The AUA describes 450 to 600 ng/dL as the healthy sweet spot for most adult men. Levels in this range are associated with normal energy, muscle maintenance, mood, and sexual function. A man sitting at 350 ng/dL is technically above the cutoff but may still experience fatigue or low libido, especially if his levels were significantly higher earlier in life.
Normal Ranges for Women
Women produce far less testosterone than men, but it still plays an important role in bone density, muscle strength, and energy. The standard reference range for women 19 and older is 8 to 60 ng/dL. Levels tend to decrease after menopause, and both unusually high and unusually low levels can cause symptoms. Elevated testosterone in women is one of the markers doctors look at when evaluating conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome.
Why Your Total Number Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Most testosterone in your blood is bound to a protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). While it’s bound, your body can’t actually use it. Only a small fraction circulates freely, and this “free testosterone” is what your tissues rely on. The normal range for free testosterone is 50 to 200 pg/mL (picograms per milliliter, a much smaller unit than what’s used for total testosterone).
This distinction matters in practice. If your SHBG levels are high, more of your testosterone gets locked up, leaving less available for your body to use. Moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile in SHBG can cause a meaningful drop in free testosterone even when total testosterone stays the same. This is why some men with a total level that looks fine on paper still feel the effects of low testosterone. It’s also why someone who is obese might show low total testosterone but normal free testosterone, which points to a different situation than true deficiency. When symptoms don’t match total testosterone numbers, doctors will often order a free testosterone test to get a clearer picture.
How Testosterone Changes With Age
Testosterone peaks in the late teens and early twenties, then gradually declines. Most men lose about 1 to 2 percent per year starting around age 30. A 25-year-old and a 65-year-old can both fall within the 264 to 916 ng/dL range, but their levels at the higher and lower ends of that window will look very different. This gradual decline is normal and doesn’t automatically require treatment. The question is whether the decline has crossed a threshold where it’s causing real symptoms like persistent fatigue, loss of muscle mass, reduced sex drive, or mood changes.
How Testing Works
Testosterone levels aren’t constant throughout the day. They peak in the early morning and drop as the day goes on. Because of this, blood should be drawn before 10:00 AM, or within three hours of waking up, ideally in a fasting state. A test taken in the afternoon could read significantly lower than one taken first thing in the morning, which can lead to a misleading result.
Even with proper timing, a single test isn’t enough to confirm low testosterone. Healthy men experience natural fluctuations of 10 to 15 percent from day to day, which means two tests taken under the same conditions can differ by up to 30 percent. Guidelines recommend at least two separate morning blood draws on different days before making any diagnosis. Your sleep schedule should also be stable when you’re tested. Jet lag, rotating shift work, or recent changes to your sleep pattern can temporarily suppress levels and skew results.
When a “Normal” Level Might Not Be Optimal
Reference ranges are built from population data. They tell you where most people fall, not necessarily where you’ll feel your best. A man whose testosterone has dropped from 700 to 320 ng/dL over a few years is still technically above the clinical cutoff, but that 50 percent decline could explain new symptoms. Context matters: your baseline, your age, your SHBG levels, and whether you’re experiencing symptoms all factor into whether a given number is “good” for you specifically.
Body composition also plays a role. Excess body fat increases the production of an enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen, which can lower circulating levels. Weight loss, resistance training, adequate sleep, and stress management can all nudge testosterone upward without medical intervention, sometimes by a meaningful amount. For men sitting in the low-normal range with mild symptoms, these lifestyle changes are typically the first step before considering any clinical options.