Steve Cox

I recently had my annual checkup at the VA and overall, except for my neck and having to finally give in and start taking BP medication, I'm in pretty good health for a nearly 62 yo male. At my checkup, I asked the doctor to submit instructions to the lab to check my Testosterone and PSA levels. They came back as follows:

Test, Result, (Reference Range)
TESTOSTERONE (FV), 2.62 ng/mL, (1.75-7.81 ng/mL)
PSA (FV), 1.71 ng/mL, (0.0-4.0 ng/mL)

My two questions here are first, what are the figures saying, other than I appear to be on the low side of "normal"? Specifically, when I try to convert or equate these figures (which I'm guessing represent the Free Value), they don't correspond to figures I've seen elsewhere. Other sites, discussions here included either give no value or are in different values such as mg/dL and such, and so far I've not been able to convert these where they make sense with other articles. Second, once converted, how does the VA's "reference range" value compare to ideal for my age group?

Thanks all for any insight here as it will help me decide my course of action.

Mark Rippetoe

Your testosterone is low. Your PSA is irrelevant. Surely you do not intend to rely on the VA for TRT.

Steve Cox

No, I don't intend to use the VA for this, especially since they haven't been in contact to say it needs correction. Thanks for the quick reply coach. Sorry about how the results posted above, I was hoping the tabs would've carried over making it easier to read. How does their reference range of 1.75-7.81 ng/mL compare to what is ideal or optimum? That's what I'm struggling to understand is where I should target.

Mark Rippetoe

You are at the bottom of their reference range. We have discussed this at length on the podcast 4 times. The reference range is the data obtained from a sample of maybe 1000 men. You are at the bottom. Is that where you want to be? Optimum is as high as you can get it.

Steve Cox

Thanks again, and your hint on no upper range optimum is kind of what I suspected. Since I don't do podcasts, I wasn't aware of the coverage on this there, so I'll go look them up.

Bigredbull

Just like the blue and gray book saved me years of wasted time, I’ve also trawled the forums and I love what you generally say about the majority of doctors peddling bullshit. This is analogous to my general mistrust of medical science. A doctor’s best work is done on the operating table in my humble opinion, not advice on general health and pharmacology.

My work has given me a free private health screening blank check, so I’m just wondering which one of these would you recommend on the “related tests and scans” section if you were concerned about heart health? I’d rather them just give me the cash equivalent for me to put to better uses like procuring some fine hookers and single malt, but I have to choose a test.

Heart Disease Tests

Thanks in advance for your valued advice Rip.I personally have no health concerns because I’m strong, have regular erections and generally feel fine.

By basic diet: I eat 500 grams of sirloin steak and 5 eggs nearly every day and have done for the last 15+ years (to the horror of the lay public whenever food talk crops up who holler “cholesterol” and “fatty liver disease”) with as much mashed potato as I like to fuel the fire, spinach and medjool dates thrown in too.

Mark Rippetoe

Have them do testosterone and thyroid assays, and then get the hell out of there.

Bigredbull

Ok Rip, will do, thanks. So all their heart stuff tests are basically bullshit, yes? And my diet above is acceptably congruent to healthy manliness, yes?

Mark Rippetoe

It works for me.