Testosterone test in the Netherlands: how to actually get one

There are three routes to a testosterone test in the Netherlands: your huisarts (the Dutch GP), a private clinic, or an online blood test you book yourself. That choice decides your waiting time, your bill, and how much say you get over which values are measured.

My view: the route gets far too little attention. It decides whether you end up with one loose number or a picture you can act on.

Will your huisarts simply order a testosterone test?

Usually not without a reason. A Dutch GP tests in a targeted way, so when symptoms point that direction. A check purely out of curiosity often falls outside that. This is not reluctance, it is how Dutch primary care is built.

Thuisarts.nl, the patient site of the Dutch College of General Practitioners, sets out how GPs weigh these decisions. Reading it first saves a lot of confusion at the appointment.

If you do go, bring concrete symptoms and a timeline. That works better than asking for a specific test by name.

What does a testosterone test cost in the Netherlands?

Through your huisarts the consultation itself is free, but the laboratory work comes out of your eigen risico. That mandatory own risk is 385 euro in 2026. If you book a test yourself, you pay it directly and your eigen risico stays untouched.

This catches almost every international out. The appointment is free, the vials of blood are not.

If you have already used up your eigen risico this year, the GP route is usually the cheapest. If you have not touched it, the two options sit closer together than you would think.

Your result is in nmol/L. What is that in ng/dL?

Dutch laboratories report total testosterone in nmol/L. American and many British labs use ng/dL. It is the same amount of hormone with a different number in front of it. Multiply your nmol/L by 28.8 and you have ng/dL.

This is exactly where it goes wrong when you hold a Dutch result next to an American forum thread.

Here is the case I see most often. Your result is 14 nmol/L, and an American forum tells you anything under 400 ng/dL is on the low side. Convert it and your 14 nmol/L is exactly 404 ng/dL. Same blood, different story, purely because of the unit.

We report free testosterone in pmol/L. For pg/mL, multiply by 0.288. Our reference range for men runs from 170 to 700 pmol/L, so roughly 49 to 202 pg/mL.

Reference ranges differ between laboratories. Always compare your result against the range printed on your own report, not one from another lab.

Which values are worth measuring together?

A single total testosterone tells you little. The picture only becomes usable when you put free testosterone and SHBG beside it. SHBG binds most of your testosterone, so a high SHBG can leave a perfectly normal total working out low for your body.

Say you have two men who both show 18 nmol/L total testosterone. One has an SHBG of 22 nmol/L, the other 52 nmol/L. The second man is left with clearly less free testosterone, while their totals look identical on paper.

That is why a normal result sometimes does not match how you feel.

The three values you read together:

• Total testosterone: all the testosterone in your blood, bound and free.
• Free testosterone: the small fraction your tissues can use directly.
• SHBG: the protein that decides how much stays free.

How the three relate is covered in more depth in our article on free testosterone and SHBG.

When should you have your blood drawn?

In the morning, and preferably fasted. Testosterone follows a daily rhythm, with the highest values shortly after waking. Draw in the afternoon and you measure a lower point of the same day, which makes your value look worse than it is.

Something else plays a part too. Testosterone also fluctuates from day to day within the same person, which research into intraindividual variation shows clearly (Brambilla, 2007).

This is why a low result is often repeated in practice before conclusions are drawn from it, as the Endocrine Society guideline describes (Bhasin, 2018). A single number is a snapshot, not a verdict.

For the preparation in detail, read how to test testosterone. The wider context of your values sits in our overview of testosterone symptoms and blood values.

Which route fits your situation?

No single route wins for everyone. It depends on your symptoms, your eigen risico, and how much control you want over which values get measured. These three situations cover most cases.

With real symptoms I would always start at the huisarts, even when that feels slower. A result with nobody to assess it solves nothing.

• You have clear symptoms: start at your huisarts. Symptoms deserve an assessment, and a self-booked test does not give you one.
• You want a baseline without symptoms: a self-booked test is often the practical route, since a GP usually sees no reason for one here.
• You are tracking values over time: pick a route you can repeat under identical conditions, so the same time of day and the same lab.

If you want to measure yourself, our testosterone test includes an assessment by a BIG-registered doctor.

Whichever route you take, book your draw in the morning. That one detail moves your result more than most of the things people worry about.

References

• Bhasin S, et al. Testosterone Therapy in Men With Hypogonadism: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2018. PMID: 29562364
• Travison TG, et al. Harmonized Reference Ranges for Circulating Testosterone Levels in Men of Four Cohort Studies in the United States and Europe. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2017. PMID: 28324103
• Brambilla DJ, et al. Intraindividual variation in levels of serum testosterone and other reproductive and adrenal hormones in men. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2007. PMID: 18052942
• Thuisarts.nl, patient information from the Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG).

Disclaimer

Every blood test result includes a professional assessment by a BIG-registered doctor. This article gives general information and is not a substitute for medical advice. A blood test is a tool to enter the conversation with your GP better informed, not a diagnosis in itself. For treatment decisions, discuss your results with your GP.