How this index is built
This index compares what US telehealth providers charge for testosterone therapy and what their terms say. It doesn't judge which treatment is right for anyone.
Where the numbers come from
Every price starts as a figure read from the provider's own pricing page, product page or terms, and every figure carries the date it was read. Each price has one of five statuses:
- Confirmed at checkout: seen on the provider's own checkout page on the date shown.
- Read from the provider's own page: published on the provider's site on the date shown, not yet confirmed at checkout.
- Pages disagree: the provider's own pages give different figures. Both are described, and the price is left out of averages and never called cheapest.
- Reported: a figure from a named third-party review, used only where the provider's own pages can't be read or publish nothing. Shown, marked, never averaged and never called cheapest.
- Price not shown: the provider offers the treatment but publishes no price.
A provider is listed once at least one of its prices has been read on its own site. Providers whose sites block automated reading or publish no prices at all are tracked but held back until that changes.
How fresh a price is
Every price shows the date it was last read, not a date for the whole site; averages and first-year totals carry the date of the check they were worked out from. A price read within the last 35 days is shown as current. Between 35 and 75 days, it's marked as aging. After 75 days without a successful re-read, it's marked stale in red. A price that can't be re-read keeps its old figure and visibly ages; it is never quietly carried forward as current.
What goes into an average
The tracker's medians use only prices read on the provider's own pages within 35 days of the check. They leave out reported figures, figures a provider's own pages contradict, and per-service estimates such as Defy Medical's, which is an average of its patients' bills rather than a price. Enclomiphene isn't testosterone, so its prices are listed separately and never averaged with testosterone. Every average states its sample size.
How a first year is costed
Twelve months of injectable testosterone on the cheapest plan a new patient can buy, at the lowest published dose, plus the one-time fees a new patient must pay, including the first lab test. A first-month offer replaces month one. Follow-up lab tests count only where the price includes them; elsewhere the figure says they're extra. Where any required price is unpublished or contradicted, the provider is left out and the reason is given.
How providers are ordered
Lists are sorted by the lowest published price for the treatment shown, cheapest first. "Cheapest" tags go only to prices read on the provider's own pages. Nothing about the order changes because of money.
What the automatic checks do
Once a month, a script opens every source page and looks for each price on file. A price it finds on the provider's own page gets a new read date. A price it can't find, or a page it can't open, keeps its old date, is flagged for a manual re-check and is left to age. The changelog records how many prices each monthly check confirmed. Third-party figures aren't re-dated this way; they stay marked until someone reads them on the provider's own site. Every week, a lighter check reports only what has changed since the week before. Every day, the sources behind the DEA tracker are checked for new documents.
What affiliate links change
Some providers may pay a commission when a reader signs up through a tracked link. That money keeps the index running. It never changes a price, a status, a "watch out" note, or the order of a list. Every provider button says whether it's an affiliate link. Providers with no affiliate relationship are listed and called cheapest on exactly the same terms as everyone else.
What this index isn't
It isn't medical advice, a test of product quality, or a claim that any treatment works. Nobody here has used these services in order to review them. The value is in the prices and terms, checked and dated.
Corrections
Every page names its sources. If a number is wrong, email [email protected] with the page and the correct figure and it will be re-checked within a week.