Testosterone test: normal ranges, results and price in Dubai

A testosterone test measures the testosterone in a blood sample. A basic test reports total testosterone, the bound and unbound hormone together. Read with SHBG, the protein that carries much of it, the test also shows how much testosterone is free to act on the body, which is often the more useful number.

What the test includes

In men, testosterone is made mainly by the testes; women make it in much smaller amounts. In both sexes it plays a part in sex drive, muscle and bone. In the blood, most testosterone is bound to proteins, chiefly sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and albumin, and a small share circulates unbound, or free. Bound to SHBG, it cannot act on tissues.

Total testosterone cannot tell bound hormone from free. When SHBG is unusually high or low, a person can have a total within range and still have little free testosterone, or the reverse. That is why fuller testosterone tests add SHBG and use the two results to work out calculated free testosterone and the free androgen index.

In Clare's panel, total testosterone and SHBG are measured by the lab. Clare then calculates two further figures. Calculated free testosterone comes from the Vermeulen equation, which also uses the albumin result from the same panel. The free androgen index is total testosterone divided by SHBG, multiplied by 100. SHBG and free testosterone each have their own page; the ranges for total testosterone and the free androgen index are below.

Who usually asks for it

Men are most often tested for symptoms that can come with low testosterone: low sex drive, difficulty getting or keeping an erection, fewer morning erections, tiredness, loss of muscle or fertility problems. Women are more often tested for signs that can come with higher androgen levels, such as excess facial or body hair, acne, thinning scalp hair, and irregular or absent periods, which is why testosterone is part of the assessment for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Doctors also use it to follow people on hormone treatment or on medicines that affect testosterone.

Preparing for the test

• Morning. Testosterone runs highest early in the day. In men aged 30 to 40, levels at 4 pm were 20 to 25% lower than at 8 am, and the gap narrowed to about 10% by age 70. Laboratories ask for a sample in the morning, between about 7 and 11 am.
• Fasting. Food and sugar lower testosterone for a while. After a 75 g glucose drink, testosterone fell by about 25% on average and was still lower two hours later. The Endocrine Society recommends a fasting morning sample.
• When you are well. A low reading taken during or soon after an illness, a period of very low food intake or very heavy training is harder to interpret, and doctors usually rule those out.
• Medicines and supplements. Tell the person taking the sample about hormone treatments, opioids, steroid medicines and supplements, including high-dose biotin, which can push some testosterone immunoassays falsely high. Do not stop anything without your doctor's advice.
• For women. Note where you are in your cycle and whether you use the combined pill, which raises SHBG and lowers androgen production, making results hard to read.

Normal ranges

Total testosterone is reported in nmol/L by many laboratories and in ng/dL by others (1 ng/dL is 0.0347 nmol/L). The table shows how ranges differ by sex and between sources. Ranges vary by laboratory, method, age and sex, and the range printed on your own report is the one to read against.

The harmonised range comes from 9,054 men in four cohort studies in the United States and Europe, with each assay calibrated against a reference method at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another NHS laboratory uses 8.3 to 30.2 nmol/L for men aged 19 to 49 and 7.7 to 24.8 nmol/L over 49, which shows how far ranges can move between methods.

The free androgen index is used mainly for women. A 1999 comparison found it followed true free testosterone poorly as SHBG changed, and laboratories such as the one above report it for women and calculated free testosterone for men.

Reading the results together

In men

The Endocrine Society recommends diagnosing low testosterone in men when there are symptoms and the morning fasting total is clearly and consistently low, confirmed on a second sample. When the total sits near the lower limit, or something is likely to have changed SHBG, it recommends a free testosterone result from equilibrium dialysis or an accurate formula.

In a European study of 3,369 men aged 40 to 79, sexual symptoms became more likely as total testosterone fell through 8 to 13 nmol/L. The authors defined late-onset hypogonadism as at least three sexual symptoms with total testosterone below 11 nmol/L and free testosterone below 220 pmol/L.

When a low result is confirmed, doctors usually check LH and FSH next. Low testosterone with high LH and FSH points to the testes. Low testosterone with low or normal LH and FSH points to the pituitary gland or hypothalamus, and is usually followed by prolactin, other pituitary hormones and ferritin, since iron overload is one cause. Obesity, diabetes, opioids, glucocorticoids, anabolic steroids, heavy alcohol use and serious illness are among the recognised reasons for a low result. A high total in a man can follow testosterone or anabolic steroid use, an adrenal condition such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or a testicular tumour.

In women

Low testosterone is normal in women. Doctors pay attention to a higher total, a higher free androgen index or a low SHBG when PCOS or another cause of androgen excess is in question. The 2023 international PCOS guideline recommends total and free testosterone, with free testosterone estimated by calculation such as the free androgen index, ideally measured by mass spectrometry, and DHEA-S and androstenedione if those are normal. Results well above the laboratory range lead doctors to look beyond PCOS, for example at congenital adrenal hyperplasia, Cushing's syndrome or an androgen-secreting growth, and are often repeated by mass spectrometry.

What moves testosterone

• Age. In the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, total testosterone was about 0.8% lower for each year of age, free testosterone about 2% lower, and SHBG about 1.6% higher.
• Weight. Among 3,200 European men aged 40 to 79, a BMI of 30 or more went with total testosterone about 5.1 nmol/L lower and free testosterone about 54 pmol/L lower than a BMI under 25.
• Smoking. In the same study, smokers had higher SHBG and higher total testosterone, with no difference in free testosterone.
• Time of day and food, as described above.
• Medicines. The combined pill raises SHBG; opioids, glucocorticoids and anabolic steroids can lower the body's own testosterone.
• Laboratory factors. Direct immunoassays are less accurate at the low levels seen in women, and the PCOS guideline recommends mass spectrometry. In women, samples left unseparated overnight can read falsely high. High-dose biotin can interfere with some assays.

Why it matters in the UAE

Diabetes is common in the UAE: the International Diabetes Federation estimated that 20.7% of adults had diabetes in 2024. Testosterone and blood sugar are linked. In three large cohorts, men with low total or free testosterone were more likely to have diabetes, and in a US study of women and men, low SHBG predicted later type 2 diabetes. Thalassaemia is another local thread: in 200 adults with beta-thalassaemia major treated at the Dubai Thalassemia Centre, 23% had hypogonadism, a complication the authors link to iron overload from repeated transfusions.

Price

When we read public prices on 11 October 2026, a testosterone test cost from 65 to 1,599 at 9 UAE providers. The low end is total testosterone on its own, which cost 65 to 90 at the two providers selling it as a single test; the high end is a men's hormone package that includes a specialist consultation. VAT is rarely stated, several prices were offers or "from" prices, and home collection can add a fee, 100 on small orders at one provider. A total-only test does not include SHBG, so it cannot give free testosterone.

Related tests

SHBG and free testosterone have their own pages. Women looking at androgens usually have the female hormone test, which adds estradiol, LH, FSH, prolactin and DHEA-S. Because testosterone, SHBG and blood sugar move together, the HbA1c and diabetes test is often read alongside; our article on reading HbA1c, glucose and insulin together explains how, and what to expect from a comprehensive blood test in Dubai shows where hormones fit in a full panel.

Why the number means more over time

A single testosterone result is a snapshot of a hormone that moves with the hour, meals, weight and illness. Guidelines ask for a second morning fasting sample before a low result is acted on, and results compare fairly when they come from the same laboratory at the same time of day. Over the years a slow fall is expected; one NHS laboratory puts it at about 1% a year from the age of 30. A sharper drop, or a change in SHBG, is worth talking through with a doctor, with your results in front of you. Clare is opening with a waitlist at clare.health.