ArticlePloS one2014
A validated age-related normative model for male total testosterone shows increasing variance but no decline after age 40 years.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 62 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Low-carbohydrate diets and men's cortisol and testosterone: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Nutrition and health · 2022Pooled it
- The Effects of Oral Contraceptives on Exercise Performance in Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2020Pooled it
- Age-Dependent Relationships Between Disease Risk and Testosterone Levels: Relevance to COVID-19 Disease.American journal of men's healthPooled it
- Testosterone Modulation of Muscle Transcriptomic Profile During Lifestyle Therapy in Older Men with Obesity and Hypogonadism.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Trial
- Testosterone plus lifestyle therapy improves skeletal muscle glycolysis in older men with obesity and hypogonadism.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Trial
- Impact of HCV infection on male reproductive hormones; a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of impotence research · 2026Review
- Research frontiers and emerging trends in sex and gender differences in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a bibliometric analysis.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- The testosterone paradox in asthma.Frontiers in allergy · 2026Review
- Understanding Age-Based Differences in Psychosocial Harms, Physical Harms, and Access Difficulties Among an International Sample of Men Who Use Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2025Article
- The role of androgens and global and tissue-specific androgen receptor expression on body composition, exercise adaptation, and performance.Biology of sex differences · 2025Review
- Muscle parameters in men and oxidative stress markers.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2025Article
- [Testosterone-"Fuel" for old men?]Innere Medizin (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Testosterone acts through the membrane protein GPRC6A to cause cardiac edema in zebrafish embryos.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- A study of long-term supraphysiologic-dose anabolic-androgenic steroid use on cognitive function in middle-aged men.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2024Article
- Within-person biological mechanisms of mood variability in childhood and adolescence.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- Prevalence of anaemia, iron, and vitamin deficiencies in the health system in the Republic of Ireland: a retrospective cohort study.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Analysis of the association between testosterone and cardiovascular disease potential risk factor apolipoprotein B in adult males without cancer: national health and nutrition examination survey 2011-2016.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Sex-dimorphism in human serum endocannabinoid and n-acyl ethanolamine concentrations across the lifespan.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Is ongoing testosterone required after pubertal induction in Duchenne muscular dystrophy?Endocrine connections · 2023Article
- Hormones and Aging: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2023Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The diagnosis of hypogonadism in human males includes identification of low serum testosterone levels, and hence there is an underlying assumption that normal ranges of testosterone for the healthy population are known for all ages. However, to our knowledge, no such reference model exists in the literature, and hence the availability of an applicable biochemical reference range would be helpful for the clinical assessment of hypogonadal men. In this study, using model selection and validation analysis of data identified and extracted from thirteen studies, we derive and validate a normative model of total testosterone across the lifespan in healthy men. We show that total testosterone peaks [mean (2.5-97.5 percentile)] at 15.4 (7.2-31.1) nmol/L at an average age of 19 years, and falls in the average case [mean (2.5-97.5 percentile)] to 13.0 (6.6-25.3) nmol/L by age 40 years, but we find no evidence for a further fall in mean total testosterone with increasing age through to old age. However we do show that there is an increased variation in total testosterone levels with advancing age after age 40 years. This model provides the age related reference ranges needed to support research and clinical decision making in males who have symptoms that may be due to hypogonadism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.