Are some blood hormone reference ranges age adjusted?

If seems to me that IGF-! reference range is automatically adjusted for age.

So my reference range at 65 years old is 49-188 ng/ml while someone that is 33 years old will have a IGF-1 reference range of 88-246 ng/mL.


So if I were to have a IGF-1 level of 220 ng/ml it would be considered high out of range but if were 33yrs old it would be in range. Likewise a level of 55 would be in range for me but low out of range for a 33 year old.


Is this true, and are other reference ranges for things like DHEA-S are also age adjusted while other hormones like Testosterone are NOT age adjusted.


Does anyone know which tests have age adjusted reference ranges? I don't think it is typical, but I do think some blood tests do have age adjusted reference ranges.

I believe ALL are age adjusted, but I am 68 and who wants to be like the average person at that age.
That is why I go by what Life Extensions says are optimal levels not average.

Diverdown2 said:

I believe ALL are age adjusted, but I am 68 and who wants to be like the average person at that age.
That is why I go by what Life Extensions says are optimal levels not average.

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I don't think so.

I believe most blood tests in including hormone tests do NOT have a age adjusted range for adults, they have a range that covers everyone from 18-100. They do have different ranges for men and women, pregnancy, maybe a few other notes like PSA for men that have had prostate surgery.

The Labcorp range for the often discussed total testosterone is 264-916 ng/dL. That is for all ages, so a 20 year old man that had 270 ng/dl would be considered in range the same as a 90 yr old with 270 ng/dl.

You might disagree with that, TRT clinics will disagree, but it’s important because it dictates what insurance will do and it influences the vast majority of urologist, endocrinologist and primary care doctors.

BUT I notice the IGF-1 hormone has a different range depending on ones age.

So I wondered, is it ONLY IGF-1 one that has an age adjusted range? I am not sure many people will even realize their range is different depending only on their age. The lab does not note this is age adjusted.

Reference values for IGF-1 are :

Males:
0-11 months: 18-156 ng/mL
1 year: 14-203 ng/mL
2 years: 16-222 ng/mL
3 years: 22-229 ng/mL
4 years: 30-236 ng/mL
5 years: 39-250 ng/mL
6 years: 47-275 ng/mL
7 years: 54-312 ng/mL
8 years: 61-356 ng/mL
9 years: 67-405 ng/mL
10 years: 73-456 ng/mL
11 years: 79-506 ng/mL
12 years: 84-551 ng/mL
13 years: 90-589 ng/mL
14 years: 95-618 ng/mL
15 years: 99-633 ng/mL
16 years: 104-633 ng/mL
17 years: 107-615 ng/mL
18-22 years: 91-442 ng/mL
23-25 years: 66-346 ng/mL
26-30 years: 60-329 ng/mL
31-35 years: 54-310 ng/mL
36-40 years: 48-292 ng/mL
41-45 years: 44-275 ng/mL
46-50 years: 40-259 ng/mL
51-55 years: 37-245 ng/mL
56-60 years: 34-232 ng/mL
61-65 years: 33-220 ng/mL
66-70 years: 32-209 ng/mL
71-75 years: 32-200 ng/mL
76-80 years: 33-192 ng/mL
81-85 years: 33-185 ng/mL
86-90 years: 33-179 ng/mL
>91 years: 32-173 ng/mL

You might disagree with that, TRT clinics will disagree, but it's important because it dictates what insurance will do and it influences the vast majority of urologist, endocrinologist and primary care doctors.

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Health insurance is a scam, Labcorp needs to act responsibly and make clear age related testosterone levels adjusted for age.

DragonBits said:

The Labcorp range for the often discussed total testosterone is 264-916 ng/dL. That is for all ages, so a 20 year old man that had 270 ng/dl would be considered in range the same as a 90 yr old with 270 ng/dl.

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I've often seen, read, and heard that the range is for all ages; however, I just got my Labcorp results back for total testosterone and noticed a note underneath stating:

Adult male reference interval is based on a population of
healthy nonobese males (BMI <30) between 19 and 39 years old.

I checked my labs from December and they had the same note. Not sure when/why they started this, I just noticed...

Blood levels of FSH and LH in men remain relatively constant, although there is some evidence that levels of LH and testosterone exhibit a daily cycle, being 20% higher in the morning.

Mr. T said:

I've often seen, read, and heard that the range is for all ages; however, I just got my Labcorp results back for total testosterone and noticed a note underneath stating:

Adult male reference interval is based on a population of
healthy nonobese males (BMI <30) between 19 and 39 years old.

I checked my labs from December and they had the same note. Not sure when/why they started this, I just noticed...

Click to expand...

Labcorp is describing how they arrived at this range. They likely included the explanation because they changed the range they used to have which was 348-1197 ng/mL. This is by way of an explanation. They initiated the change because of pressure from the CDC for standardization across labs of testosterone reference range.

Dr. Saya started a thread about this issue with a lot of good information concerning the details. You can read this if you want more information.

https://www.excelmale.com/forum/showthread.php?11061&p=74903#post74903

Estrogen, I saw an internet reference that said the journal Clinical Endocrinology had published estradiol levels by age:

• Age 2-29:  28.0 pg/ml
• Age 30-39:  25.7 pg/ml
• Age 40-49:  24.7 pg/ml
• Age 50-59:  22.1 pg/ml
• Age 60-69:  21.5 pg/ml
• Age 70-80:  21.9 pg/ml

Not sure of the study but this info is useful when we discuss what levels are appropriate.