Tools for Hormone Optimization in Males | Dr. Kyle Gillett

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Start bloodwork young and retest about every six months

  Dr. Kyle Gillett, a physician specializing in hormone optimization, compares a first blood panel to a diagnostic check on a new car. A good time is late puberty (Tanner stages 4 to 5), with parental agreement, or sooner if growth or pubertal timing differs from family patterns. For testosterone, measure total testosterone plus SHBG, or free testosterone. A follow-up around six months is reasonable, interpreted with a physician.

• 02

  Puberty timing shapes height and offers a metabolic reset

  Entering and completing puberty early can reduce adult height; once growth plates close on a wrist scan, little more growth occurs. Gillett calls puberty almost a free dose of testosterone and drive, a good window for a child with obesity to change habits. He says the idea that resistance training stunts growth is false.

• 03

  Lifestyle pillars come first

  Diet, exercise, sleep, stress and social connection underlie everything. Gillett warns that strict vegan or carnivore diets in the teens and early 20s are likely to lower free androgens, and that cutting dairy during growth can reduce IGF-1. Aim for quality sleep about 80% of nights. Caloric restriction helps testosterone in people carrying excess fat but lowers it in lean people by raising SHBG and reducing building blocks and growth signaling.

• 04

  Vigorous exercise three to four times a week is sustainable

  Add three or four lighter sessions, such as Zone 2 cardio or easier lifting that still builds tendon collagen. Regularly training vigorously for more than about an hour is not hormonally helpful. Huberman notes his own bloodwork worsens when he skips a weekly 45-minute jog.

• 05

  Frequency matters for masturbation and pornography

  Prolactin released after ejaculation suppresses LH and FSH. Gillett suggests daily or more frequent masturbation could be hormonally detrimental, and pornography likely worse. His 'dopamine wave pool' analogy: very high peaks bring deeper troughs and can drain the pool, similar in physiology to withdrawal from amphetamines.

• 06

  Testosterone therapy rarely makes sense for young men with normal levels

  For men in their 20s with levels in the roughly 300 to 900 ng/dL range, Gillett says benefits almost never outweigh risks. When therapy is chosen, a typical physiologic starting dose is about 100 to 120 mg of cypionate or enanthate per week, split into two or three injections. Watch for acne, hair loss, mood changes and effects across organ systems, ideally with an interdisciplinary team. Fertility suppression varies widely between men; hCG can help preserve it.

• 07

  Creatine is fine even if you worry about hair loss

  Creatine slightly raises total testosterone and conversion to DHT, but Gillett says it only restores what a man is naturally inclined toward, so hair loss is not a reason to avoid it. Huberman takes 5 g daily. The androgen receptor gene sits on the X chromosome, inherited from the mother, which partly explains the maternal-grandfather baldness link.

• 08

  Supplements that support the steroid pathway

  Tongkat ali, 300 to 1,200 mg daily (check eurycomanone standardization), upregulates enzymes in testosterone synthesis, may raise DHEA, lowers SHBG only when it is high, and needs no cycling. Fadogia agrestis raises LH. A rat study suggested about 300 mg a day as a no-toxicity dose; Gillett offers 600 mg every other day without labs, or 600 mg daily for a month then one to two weeks off while monitoring GGT and alkaline phosphatase. Boron, 5 to 12 mg, can acutely lower high SHBG; correcting low vitamin D helps testosterone.

• 09

  Free testosterone around 2% of total is a rule of thumb

  The usual range is 1 to 4%. Genetic SHBG variants run low, while varicoceles tend to raise SHBG. Gillett's point: a value off 2% is fine as long as you understand why.