What do your FSH levels mean?
The short answer
Nobody we follow has said what your FSH should be. It comes up in the interviews we follow, but never with a number.
For FSH, the range shifts with cycle phase and menopause. Read yours against the range printed on your own report.
A typical lab range is 1.7–12.5 mIU/mL.
Labs print different ranges by sex: about 1.7–12.5 mIU/mL for women and 1.5–12.4 for men.
What FSH measures
A pituitary hormone that tells the ovaries or testes to mature eggs or sperm.
It rises when the ovaries or testes stop responding. That makes it a fertility and menopause marker.
Checked against MedlinePlus — Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) Levels Test.
What changes your FSH?
About where you are in your cycle.
“FSH is rising it has a little bit of a peak just before ovulation”
About women nearing menopause.
“the canary in the coal mine as a woman is getting close to menopause from a biochemical standpoint is a rising FSH during that phase so FSH should normally be very low during day three four five which is usually when a woman is still in her period”
About sleep and the time of day.
“for reproduction, FSH and LH are released from the brain in the early morning hours. If you are not sleeping long enough, your body's not getting to the stage where your brain is able to interpret and respond appropriately”
About men as they age.
“naturally as we age cells do not as well. They do more poorly. LH and FSH from the brain aren't secreted as as regular a fashion as they need to be”
About women on the birth control pill.
“when you're taking those high doses of estrogen and progesterone it's suppressing the pituitary hormones namely the LH and FSH”
About men taking testosterone.
“alternatively you give testosterone and when you give testosterone you have to be mindful of the fact that your LH and FSH are going to go to zero because your body is going to stop making testosterone this is a very potent feedback loop”
Common questions
What is a normal FSH level?
The normal range for FSH depends on cycle phase and menopause. Read your number against the range printed on your own report. The quotes on this page say what moves it. Labs print separate ranges for men and women. No physician or research scientist we follow has said how FSH differs between men and women.
What does your FSH number mean?
Where it sits against the range your own report prints next to it. Nobody we follow has drawn a tighter line inside that range.
What does the FSH test measure?
A pituitary hormone that tells the ovaries or testes to mature eggs or sperm. It rises when the ovaries or testes stop responding. That makes it a fertility and menopause marker.
Why is there no target here?
Because nobody we follow has named a number for FSH. If that changes, it will be here.