Research · Price transparency, 2026 edition
Ten of seventeen TRT programs publish a price. Two publish a price you can actually use.
We read 17 prescription testosterone replacement records and asked one question of each: how far does it get toward a number a buyer can act on? 10 publish a charge and 9 publish the interval it recurs on. But only 2 price every mandatory fee, and only 1 also publish the amount taken before the first month. The gap between those numbers is what price transparency looks like in this category.
In one sentence
Across 17 prescription TRT records read in October 2026, 10 publish a charge and 9 publish a billing interval, but only 2 publish a monthly figure that includes every mandatory fee — and the cheapest complete cost, $199 a month at Fountain TRT, is roughly 7.1 times the cheapest medication rate quoted in the edition.
- 2 of 17
- Publish a complete monthly treatment cost
- 7 of 17
- Publish a medication-only monthly rate
- 7 of 17
- Publish no charge at all
- 1 of 17
- Publish all four numbers a buyer needs
charge, interval and every mandatory fee priced
a usable number that excludes a fee they name
not established, never zero
including the amount taken before the first month
Findings
Six things a transparent price would have to contain
Each finding is reproducible from the tables below. A count is a count of records, never of providers’ claims, and every figure carries the date its source page was read.
Sample: 17 prescription TRT records
Sources read Oct 23, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026
Laboratory work: 4 · Membership: 2 · Shipping and handling: 1
- 01
The disclosure ladder stops at two rungs, not four
10 of 17 records publish a charge and 9 publish the interval it recurs on, so a monthly figure exists for most of the edition. But only 2 also price every mandatory fee, and only 1 also publish the amount taken before the first month. Each step is a strict subset of the one above it: a record that cannot be totalled is not a cheaper program, it is a less finished one.
- 02
The two complete prices come from the two programs that disclose no extra fee
7 of the 10 priced records name a mandatory charge beyond medication, and every one of them leaves at least one such charge without a published amount. The only 2 records that close to a complete monthly cost are also among the very few priced records that disclose no required fee at all — the remaining one publishes a charge but no billing interval. Completeness here tracks what a provider publishes, not what it charges.
- 03
Laboratory work is the missing number that withholds the most totals
4 of the 17 records name required lab work and never publish its amount, more than any other gap. A membership with no stated period accounts for 2, and an unpriced shipping charge for 1. Across the edition that is 7 named mandatory charges with no published figure, and each one withholds a total rather than adding zero to it.
- 04
The cheapest monthly figure is a medication rate, not a treatment cost
The lowest usable monthly figure is $28 at Hone Health — a medication rate that excludes a membership the provider requires. The lowest complete monthly treatment cost is $199 at Fountain TRT, roughly 7.1 times higher. Both are correctly sourced. Quoting the first as "the cheapest TRT program" measures the price of a prescription, not the price of care.
- 05
Every researched interval is a calendar month — so the arithmetic should be boring
9 of 9 records that publish an interval bill by calendar month. None of the independently researched records publishes a fixed-day cycle; the one 28-day cycle on this site belongs to the sponsored placement and is outside this sample. Where the cadence is a calendar month, the monthly figure needs no conversion at all, which means any disagreement between two sources is a data question, not an arithmetic one.
- 06
Commitment tiers cut the monthly figure by 33.6% to 50%
4 records publish more than one way to buy the same program, and 3 of those publish tiers with genuinely different terms. On those, the longest commitment is 50% to 33.6% cheaper per month than the shortest — 2 of them by 40% or more. That spread is larger than most of the fee differences the edition measures, and none of it appears in an advertised "from $X/mo" headline.
The arithmetic behind each monthly figure, and the fixtures that gate it, live in the companion cost study. This page measures disclosure, not cost. To sort those same records by the figure they publish, the interval they bill on or the commitment they require, the program finder filters them without using any ranking.
The four-field ladder, and where it narrows
n = 17 recordsA price a buyer can act on needs four facts, and they arrive in order. Each rung is a strict subset of the one above it, so the sample can only narrow — which is the point of the ladder: a program that drops out is not cheaper, it is unfinished.
| Rung | Records | Share | Who clears it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01Publishes a chargeAny amount is published for the medication, on any cadence. | 10 | 58.8% | Fountain TRT, RexMD, Hone Health and 7 more |
| 02…and the interval it recurs onThe page states how often the charge is taken, so a monthly equivalent can be derived rather than guessed. | 9 | 52.9% | Fountain TRT, RexMD, Hone Health and 6 more |
| 03…and every mandatory fee pricedNo required charge is left without a published amount, so the monthly figure is the whole treatment cost and not a medication rate. | 2 | 11.8% | Fountain TRT, RexMD |
| 04…and the amount taken before the first monthThe starting charge — initial labs, a consultation or a prepaid quarter — is published, so a first year can be totalled. | 1 | 5.9% | RexMD |
The last rung asks for the amount taken before the first month: an initial lab panel, a consultation or a prepaid quarter. 4 of the 9 records with a usable monthly figure publish one, but only 1 also publishes a complete monthly cost, which is why the rung is measured as a subset rather than as a separate count.
Four cohorts: complete cost, medication rate, no interval, no price
Mutually exclusive · sums to 17This is the distinction the edition exists to keep: a complete treatment cost includes every mandatory fee, while a medication-only charge is the prescription alone and excludes something the provider requires. The two are never averaged together here.
| Cohort | Records | Comparable as |
|---|---|---|
| Complete treatment costA charge, a published interval and every mandatory fee priced. The monthly figure is what treatment costs, not what the medication costs. | 2 | A treatment cost |
| Medication-only chargeA usable monthly figure that excludes at least one required charge the provider names but does not price. Comparable as a medication rate, never as a treatment cost. | 7 | A medication rate only |
| Charge with no billing intervalAn amount is published but not how often it is taken. A supply period is not a billing period, so no monthly or annual figure is derived. | 1 | A charge, with no monthly figure |
| No charge publishedNothing appears on the pages read. Recorded as not established, never as zero and never as the cheapest option in the edition. | 7 | A count, and nothing else |
Treatment categories, recorded as published
Formulation never assumedA record whose source never named a formulation is reported as unestablished rather than pushed into the injectable column. That column is the largest single category in the edition, and it is a statement about publishing, not about what any program dispenses.
| Category as published | Records | Publishes a charge | Complete cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formulation not established | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| Injectable | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| Topical | 2 | 2 | 1 |
An injectable and a topical do not bill alike, so no blended range is published across categories. Where a program sells several formulations, the record sits in the category its primary source prices first, and the alternatives stay beside it on the profile.
Every published charge in the edition, and what it excludes
10 of 17 records publish an amountSorted by monthly figure, which is not a ranking. A medication-only record can sit below a complete one and cost more in practice, because the missing fee is the part that was never published. The source for each row is the page the record was read from; the check date is the pass that read it.
- Hone HealthMedication only
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- Injectable from $28/mo, medication rate, plus a required membership
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $28
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Hims & HersMedication only
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- Compounded injectable from $79/mo, medication only
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $79
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Peter MD (Peter Uncaged)Medication only
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- $139/mo on the one-month plan
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $139
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Taurus MedsMedication only
Formulation not established
- Charge as billed
- $149/mo, plus a $49 initial test and consultation
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $149
- Before the first month
- $49
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Blokes (Joi + Blokes)Medication only
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- $149/mo billed quarterly
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $149
- Before the first month
- $447
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Fountain TRTComplete cost
Topical
- Charge as billed
- From $199/mo, published as a flat all-inclusive monthly fee
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $199
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Maximus (Maximus Tribe)Medication only
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- $199.99/mo on the one-month plan
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $199.99
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Male ExcelMedication only
Topical
- Charge as billed
- $132/mo cream, 60-day supply billed every other calendar month
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $231
- Before the first month
- $99
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - RexMDComplete cost
Formulation not established
- Charge as billed
- $250–$299/mo subscription including medication
- Interval
- Calendar month
- Monthly figure
- $250
- Before the first month
- $99
Checked Oct 26, 2026Source - Titan TRTNo interval
Injectable
- Charge as billed
- $159 for a 30-day supply
- Interval
- No interval published
- Monthly figure
- Not derivable
- Before the first month
- Not established
Checked Oct 23, 2026Source
The 7 records that publish no charge are not shown as a row of zeros. They are counted in the cohorts above and named on the provider index, because a blank is a finding about the source rather than a price.
The mandatory charges that carry no amount
7 unpriced fees across 7 records| Charge named, not priced | Records | Which records |
|---|---|---|
| Laboratory work | 4 | Peter MD (Peter Uncaged), Taurus Meds, Blokes (Joi + Blokes), Maximus (Maximus Tribe) |
| Membership | 2 | Hone Health, Hims & Hers |
| Shipping and handling | 1 | Male Excel |
A record can name more than one kind of gap, so one record may appear in more than one row. Each record is counted once per kind, and the 7 records with a gap are named across the rows above rather than summed across them.
Why an unpriced fee withholds a total
The edition does not treat a published-but-incomplete figure as the whole cost, and it does not treat a missing amount as zero. Where a provider names a required charge and publishes no figure for it, the record keeps its medication rate and its all-in figure is withheld. The alternative — annualising a rate that silently omits a lab panel — produces a confident number that is wrong in the same direction every month.
The amount being published is not always enough on its own. One record publishes a $49 membership but not the period it recurs on, so the amount is recorded and the monthly figure still cannot include it: a cadence inferred from a checkout screen would be an invention, not a source.
Where a required fee is inside the recurring charge and the provider says so, nothing is added and nothing is deducted. Only a charge that is billed separately, and left without an amount, creates a gap.
Billing interval
What cadence the researched charges actually recur on
A charge without a cadence is not a monthly price. Where the interval is published, the edition records it exactly: never the supply period, never an assumed 30 days, and never a fixed 28-day cycle borrowed from another program.
Among the 9 records with a usable interval, 0 publish a fixed-day cycle. Every one of them bills by calendar month, so the monthly figure requires no conversion — and any residual disagreement between them is a data question rather than an arithmetic one.
One priced record publishes an amount with no interval at all and is counted separately. It cannot be annualised and no attempt is made to infer a cadence from the supply period printed beside it.
| Interval as published | Records | Programs |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar month | 9 | Fountain TRT, RexMD, Hone Health, Hims & Hers, Peter MD (Peter Uncaged), Taurus Meds, Blokes (Joi + Blokes), Maximus (Maximus Tribe), Male Excel |
| Charge with no interval published | 1 | counted, no monthly figure derived |
Two records describe a 60-day supply billed every other month. Because the provider quotes a monthly rate rather than an amount per shipment, the interval is recorded as a calendar month and the supply wording is kept on the profile. A supply period is never read as a billing period.
Contract commitment
What a longer term buys, in published rates
The edition records every published tier, each with the commitment it requires, and uses the shortest commitment as the program’s standing rate. The spread below compares the shortest published tier with the longest on the same program — it is not a comparison between programs. Where the same question is asked across the whole edition rather than within a single program, the month-to-month versus contract comparison sets the two billing models side by side.
| Program | Shortest term | Longest term | Reduction | Tiers | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximus (Maximus Tribe)None on the one-month plan; $149.99/mo requires three months and $99.99/mo requires sixSource | $199.99/moOne-month plan | $99.99/moSix-month plan | −50% | 3 | Oct 26, 2026 |
| Peter MD (Peter Uncaged)One-month plan price; $109/mo requires six months ($654 total) and $79/mo requires twelve months ($948 total)Source | $139/moOne-month plan | $79/moTwelve-month plan | −43.2% | 3 | Oct 26, 2026 |
| Blokes (Joi + Blokes)Billed quarterly at $149/mo; $129/mo on 6 months; $99/mo on 12 monthsSource | $149/moQuarterly billing | $99/moTwelve-month commitment | −33.6% | 3 | Oct 26, 2026 |
A discount is only counted here when the tiers carry different terms. A program that prices two different formulations on the same 60-day supply is a product split, not a commitment discount, and is excluded. Of the 4 records publishing more than one price, 3 price the same program at different term lengths, and 1 of those states that a term is collected up front rather than in monthly instalments.
Method
How disclosure was measured, and what was refused
Five rules, applied identically to every record. Each one exists to stop a plausible number from being reported in place of a published one.
The ladder
charge → billing interval → every mandatory fee priced → start amount
A record is counted at the last rung it clears, and every rung is a subset of the one above.
- 01
Fix the sample before counting anything
The sample is every independently researched prescription testosterone replacement record in the edition — 17 of them. The single sponsored placement is excluded even though it publishes a price, because its commercial details are advertiser-provided rather than read; a record held for approval is outside the edition and is not counted either. No sponsored or pending record can move a figure on this page.
- 02
Score each record as a four-field ladder
A record clears rung one when any charge is published, rung two when the billing interval is also published, rung three when every mandatory fee has a published amount, and rung four when the amount taken before the first month is published too. Each rung is a strict subset of the previous one, so the ladder cannot widen as it descends.
- 03
Keep complete costs and medication rates apart
A monthly figure is labelled a complete treatment cost only when no required charge is left unpriced. Every other usable monthly figure is a medication-only rate, even where the provider calls the plan all-inclusive. The two cohorts are never averaged together, and no cohort publishes a blended median across formulations.
- 04
Count published terms, not advertised claims
A commitment is counted only where the provider publishes tiers with different terms, and the reduction is computed between the shortest and longest published tiers on the same program. A percentage is never applied to a headline rate that the page does not itself attach to a term.
- 05
Carry the source and the read date with every field
Each record keeps the URL of the page it was read from and the date that pass ran. Records were read across 2026-10-23 (6 records); 2026-10-26 (11 records), so a figure is always reported with its own date rather than with a single edition stamp.
Cite this study
Attribution, in the form a publisher can reuse
The citation states the sample, the read dates and the counts a reader would need to check the claim. Two conventions travel with it: a monthly figure derived from a charge must be called derived, and a medication rate must never be reported as the price of treatment.
TRT Buyer Guide, "How transparent are testosterone therapy prices? A 2026 reading of 17 published program records," Open Water RX LLC. Sample: 17 prescription testosterone replacement records read 2026-10-23 (6 records); 2026-10-26 (11 records); 10 publish a charge and 2 publish a complete monthly treatment cost. https://trtbuyerguide.com/research/trt-price-transparency-2026
Published by Open Water RX LLC. Figures are arithmetic on published terms as read on Oct 23, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026, and are not a quote from any provider.
The dataset behind this page
Nothing on this page is a second dataset. The rows it counts are the published record sheet, already downloadable in full — charge as billed, cadence, every required fee, source URL and check date — so this page links the dataset rather than republishing it.
Limitations
- 01
A published price is not a quote. A program can re-price after an intake, a dose change can re-price the plan, and nothing here models a second year.
- 02
Disclosure is not quality and not value. A program that publishes less is not worse care; it is a record that cannot be compared on price, which is a different statement.
- 03
No clinical, outcome or suitability claim is made anywhere on this page. Treatment decisions belong to a licensed clinician.
- 04
Where a provider publishes a range, the low end drives the recorded figure and the range travels with it. A midpoint is never used and an average is never converted into a rate.
- 05
Records whose source never named a formulation remain in the counts and are excluded from any within-formulation comparison, rather than being pushed into the injectable column.
- 06
This is a reading of published pages on the dates shown. It makes no claim about a price that was never published, and it does not infer one from a competitor or a review site.
Records checked Oct 23, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026, each field dated to the pass that read it. A correction to any record changes these counts automatically, because every figure on this page is derived from the records rather than typed beside them.