Anyone Try Home Testosterone Testing?

I am curious as to what my testosterone levels are. I’ve seen home test kits where you place saliva samples in test tubes throughout the day and mail it and get results in the mail. Has anyone tried these? Did they seem accurate? Has anyone tested before and after trying some of the supposed testosterone boosters like Tongkat Ali?

I happen to be interested in such a thing, so I did some looking. My preliminary survey (I.e., what the search engines threw up first.) came up with the following:

Test-by-mail:

Everlywell.com, $59. Saliva check. They want to know your age, then they only tell you “low, normal, high”

LetsGetchecked.com, $49. Finger prick blood test. Their site doesn’t say how the results are given. I asked about it on their CS page.

Progene.com, $60 ($34 at walmart.com!) Saliva. Gives raw numbers. But their web site is a hard sell for their testosterone supplements. Being a mistrustful and suspicious type, this did not make me happy. Has anyone here used them?

Lab work:

HealthLabs.com, $49. Doesn’t say what kind of test it is. You have to go to one of their labs for the test. They imply, but don’t actually say, that you get the raw numbers. I asked about that on their CS page. They can test for several types of testosterone; free, albumin-bound, or globulin bound, at different prices.
Nobody else mentioned that, so I assume, based on similar pricing, that the other tests are measuring “free” testosterone. I need to do some more reading on this.

Hopefully one of the companies I asked questions of will reply today or Monday. I’ll pass on their replies.

I’ve done the saliva. But because it was tied to an expensive T-replacement program, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that my T would be low.

I would love to have mine tested along with cortisol levels. I have been trying to get my Dr. to authorize it. It’s like pulling teeth.

Okay, replies from both came back the same day, which is a 100% reply rate, so I’ll give them both credit even if I had to ask about what I thought was basic information.

“Ken” at LetsGetChecked. Com says:
“When results come back to you they indicate where your result fits in among the testosterone ranges, ie low, normal or high. They give you possible reasons for this and also there is a free nursing consult to go through your results with you.”

“Emily” at HealthLabs. Com says:
“The results will give you a number and it will tell you if its low or high.”

There’s a HealthLabs office not far from me according to their web site. I’d already scoped it out earlier this year when my doctor was concerned about my magnesium level. My insurance was balking at authorizing repeat tests so the doc could track the effects of a drug he wanted to put me on, and I wondered if I could just pay some lab out of pocket. Turns out that for many common tests, you can, at least in the US. No doctor needed. And in my case, for not much more than my insurance plan’s copay. In the end he decided on a different approach so I never followed up on it.

There are many other places besides HealthLabs; they’re just the one with the largest internet presence. You could probably find local outfits by using the phone book, or ask your doc’s office people who they send samples to, and see if they will deal directly with you. Diagnostic labs used to deal only with doctors and hospitals, but many have begun dealing direct with the end user because, hey, they’re in business to make money.