How to Lower SHBG (and Free Up More of Your Testosterone)

If your total testosterone came back "normal" and you still feel flat, look at the SHBG line on the same lab report. Sex hormone binding globulin is a protein made mostly in your liver, and it locks onto testosterone in your blood so tightly that the bound share can't be used. Roughly 44% of a man's testosterone rides on SHBG, about 54% sits loosely on albumin, and only 1 to 2% floats free. Men who want to know how to lower SHBG are usually after that free share. Here's what the research says moves it, and where pine pollen fits.

What SHBG does to your testosterone

SHBG works like a parking lot for testosterone, and a car in the lot goes nowhere. Your body can make a decent amount of testosterone and still leave you with a modest free number if SHBG is high, which is why some men with a mid-range total still score low on free testosterone.

Normal SHBG levels in men

Mayo Clinic Laboratories lists an adult male reference range of 13.3 to 89.5 nmol/L for men 18 and over. Other references quote a tighter 20 to 60 nmol/L for adult men. Ranges differ by lab and by assay, so compare your result with the range printed on your own report, and track it over time on the same lab where you can.

Why SHBG climbs after 40

The Massachusetts Male Aging Study enrolled 1,709 men aged 40 to 70 between 1987 and 1989 and retested 1,156 of them 7 to 10 years later. Feldman and colleagues reported in 2002 that SHBG rose about 1.6% per year with age, while total testosterone fell about 1.6% per year within the same men followed over time. Free testosterone took the hit from both sides.

A second paper from the same cohort (Longcope and colleagues, 2000, 1,552 men) found that age and body mass index were the main drivers of SHBG in older men. Age pushed it up. Higher BMI went with lower SHBG, which is one reason a lean older man can end up with a surprisingly high reading.

How to lower SHBG naturally

These are the levers researchers have measured.

Eat enough protein

In the Longcope analysis, protein intake was inversely related to SHBG (P < 0.03), and fiber intake went the other way. The authors wrote that diets low in protein in elderly men may lead to elevated SHBG. Calories, fat and carbohydrate showed no significant link. If you're over 50 and living on toast, salad and coffee, protein is the first thing to fix.

Don't under-eat for years

Cangemi and colleagues compared 24 men who had practiced calorie restriction for an average of 7.4 years with 24 endurance runners and 24 men on a typical Western diet. The restricted group had higher SHBG and lower total testosterone than both other groups (P ≤ 0.001). Cutting for a few weeks is one thing. Running a permanent deficit is a reliable way to push SHBG up.

Boron

In a 2011 study in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, Naghii and colleagues gave eight healthy men 10 mg of boron a day for a week. SHBG dropped significantly six hours after the first dose, and after seven days mean free testosterone had risen while estradiol fell. It's the most quoted SHBG finding for any mineral.

Magnesium, alcohol, thyroid and liver

Magnesium is usually talked about alongside SHBG, but the best data are on total testosterone. In 399 Italian men over 65 from the InCHIANTI study (Maggio, 2011), higher blood magnesium went with higher total testosterone (P = 0.001).

Alcohol is less simple than forums make it. A 2024 meta-analysis in Andrology (21 studies, 10,199 subjects) found chronic drinking in healthy men linked to lower total testosterone, and SHBG slightly lower too. Cutting back protects your total. Long-term liver damage is a separate story, since cirrhosis is one of the listed causes of high SHBG, as is an overactive thyroid. If your SHBG is far above the lab range, those are the two things a blood panel checks first.

How to lower SHBG and increase free testosterone with pine pollen

Pine pollen is the pick here, and SHBG is the reason. In a 2025 pilot published in Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports, Haase, Wolkodoff, Beal and Mordkin gave a pine pollen tincture to men aged 25 to 50 for eight weeks (1 mL a day, five days on and two off). Eleven men finished. Their average SHBG fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L (P = 0.0016), and average free testosterone rose from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL, about 12% (P = 0.0427). The sexual function score on their symptom survey went from 15.27 to 20.09 out of 25.

The earlier 2024 pilot, from Wolkodoff and the same team, took 10 men aged 47 to 78. Over 8 weeks their average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL, and their qADAM symptom score rose from 23.9 to 31.7. So one study moved total testosterone in older men, and the next moved SHBG and free testosterone in younger ones.

Men who take pine pollen daily describe it in plainer terms. Stronger morning wood is the one that comes up most, followed by more drive and more interest in training. It's also the oldest item on this list. Chinese herbal texts have recorded pine pollen (song hua fen) since the Tang dynasty, and Scots pine pollen was the first plant in which testosterone itself was isolated, by Šaden-Krehula in 1971. For the full background, read our complete guide to pine pollen and how it's used.

Mara's Pine Pollen tincture

Mara's tincture is made from wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen. Cracked cell means the grain's tough outer wall has been broken open. It's spagyric: the pollen is extracted, then the minerals left behind are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle.

It tastes soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. Most men take 1 to 2 droppers a day, under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds or stirred into water or a shake after training. A 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days and sits in dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract, so it can live on your desk or in your gym bag. If you want to hear how it fits into other men's mornings, see this honest pine pollen review.

Pine Pollen considerations

The product page recommendation: "Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it."

Questions men ask about SHBG

What is a good SHBG level for a man?

Mayo Clinic Laboratories gives 13.3 to 89.5 nmol/L for adult men, and some references use 20 to 60 nmol/L. Read your result against the range on your own lab report.

How long does it take to lower SHBG?

In the 2025 pine pollen pilot, the drop from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L was measured after eight weeks. The boron study saw a fall within six hours of the first 10 mg dose.

Does high SHBG mean low testosterone?

Not always. Your total can sit in range while a high SHBG leaves less of it free, which is why labs often report free testosterone alongside it.

How do you lower SHBG in males over 50?

The Massachusetts data point to protein first, since low protein intake went with higher SHBG in men aged 40 to 70. Eating enough over the long run, boron, and a daily pine pollen tincture round out what men use.