How Partner Clinics Use GlycanAge: 7 Real-World Case Studies From the GlycanAge Network

Partner clinics use GlycanAge to turn glycan biomarker data into a practical clinical workflow: baseline a patient, start or adjust a protocol, retest at the right interval, and use the change in biological age to validate whether that protocol is working. This pattern shows up most clearly in HRT management, thyroid optimisation, and longevity clinic intake, where clinics like Raffaele Medical in New York have applied it to hundreds of patients.

The cases below come from clinics already running GlycanAge as part of patient care, not projected or hypothetical outcomes. Each one follows the same workflow: a baseline test, a clinical decision, a retest at a defined interval, and a measurable shift in biological age that clinicians used to inform the next step of care.

For the full partnership model behind these cases, see GlycanAge for Healthcare Providers, Functional Medicine Clinics & Corporate Wellness Programs.

Case 1: Switching from Oral HRT to Bioidentical Estradiol Reverses a Decade of Biological Aging

Estradiol's effect on glycan-based biological age is supported by controlled research showing estrogen suppression raises glycan age while supplementation prevents it. 

"I would love to monitor my patients before they start HRT. We want to know how quickly we can reverse this pro-inflammation. This inflammation is really crucial to our future health."

— Dr. Louise Newson, Menopause Specialist, Founder of Newson Health

A 55-year-old woman, four years post-menopause, had been on oral estrogen-progesterone therapy and was living a disciplined, metabolically healthy lifestyle. Despite this, she reported poor sleep, joint aches, and vaginal dryness, and her baseline GlycanAge sat above her chronological age, a sign of immune aging her existing treatment hadn't fully addressed. Her clinicians switched her to a bioidentical estradiol cream with gradual dose adjustments. Over the following 12 months, her GlycanAge fell by 10 years, a change that was not evident from her symptoms alone but showed up clearly in the molecular data. For clinics managing HRT patients whose symptoms have plateaued, this case shows why a glycan retest, not just a symptom check, can reveal whether a formulation change is actually working at a biological level. 

Case 2: A Full Hormone Protocol Reverses Untreated Menopause in a 56-Year-Old

A 56-year-old woman arrived at the clinic six years after menopause, having never used HRT. She presented with severe depression, chronic fatigue, and weight gain, and her baseline GlycanAge was markedly higher than her chronological age, reflecting the toll of untreated menopause on immune and systemic aging. Her care team initiated a comprehensive regimen of transdermal estradiol, testosterone cream, oral DHEA, and progesterone. Her GlycanAge dropped by 8 years within three months and by 11 years at the one-year mark, alongside significant improvements in mood, energy, and overall function. This case illustrates how a multi-hormone protocol, retested at both an early and a later interval, can capture both the initial response and the sustained trend.

Case 3: HRT Optimization Lowers Biological Age Even Without a Baseline Gap

A healthy 46-year-old man working with Dr. Joseph Raffaele, founder of PhysioAge, showed no gap between his biological and chronological age at baseline, despite testosterone and estradiol levels that were below optimal. After starting HRT and retesting over time, his biological age dropped by 20 years, a result drawn from retesting the same patient against his own baseline rather than from a single snapshot. This case matters for clinics because it shows GlycanAge's value isn't limited to patients who present with an elevated result at intake. A normal baseline doesn't rule out benefit from hormone optimization; only a retest reveals that.

Case 4: A Controlled Trial Confirms Testosterone, Not Metformin, Drives the Glycan Shift

Raffaele Medical partnered with the University of Malaga on a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 82 men with obesity and low testosterone, randomised to testosterone, metformin, testosterone plus metformin, or placebo over 12 months. Participants on testosterone therapy showed a statistically significant reduction in biological age as measured by the GlycanAge index, along with decreased agalactosylation and increased galactosylation and sialylation of IgG glycans. Metformin therapy produced no statistically significant change in GlycanAge or glycan composition, a finding replicated in a separate cross-sectional cohort of 129 participants at Raffaele Medical. For clinics considering metformin as part of a longevity protocol, this is the clearest evidence to date that its effect on glycan-based inflammaging markers is not established in non-diabetic patients, unlike the consistent, significant effect seen with testosterone therapy.

"What I love about the GlycanAge test is that you can see changes within three months, and they're quite stable. I've done mine repeatedly, the first time it was 22, then 23, and my latest was 21. That's very stable for a biomarker of aging."

— Dr. Joseph Raffaele, MD, Founder, Raffaele Medical, New York City

Case 5: Postpartum Inflammation Uncovered and Resolved Through Diet

A 34-year-old woman, recently postpartum with no disease symptoms, tested her GlycanAge and discovered elevated chronic inflammation, an early sign of disease development her routine checks had missed. Testing also surfaced an underactive thyroid. Her specialist built an action plan around dietary changes, including a larger variety of plant foods, a reduced daily fasting window, and increased caloric intake. These changes helped manage her thyroid condition, reduced her inflammation, and lowered her biological age by 7 years in just 4 months. She has since retested every six months for five years, using each result to fine-tune her protocol rather than treating the original test as a one-off purchase.

Case 6: AI-Assisted Lifestyle Coaching Delivers a 10-Year Reduction for a Time-Pressed Executive

A 32-year-old male client at a partner longevity clinic had a demanding executive lifestyle that left little room for consistent routines or recovery. He completed a GlycanAge baseline test in March 2025. The GlycanAge AI Interpretation Assistant helped his care team interpret the result, triangulate it against his other health data, and translate it into a set of personalized lifestyle changes. Over the following six months, he implemented those changes, and his October 2025 retest showed a 10-year reduction in biological age. This case shows how AI-supported interpretation can turn a single baseline number into a structured, trackable protocol, even for patients whose main barrier is time rather than access to information.

Case 7: What Raffaele Medical's Full Patient Cohort Shows

Across its full patient population, Raffaele Medical has built GlycanAge into HRT management for hundreds of patients, with 75% decreasing their biological age and more than 1,500 cumulative years of biological age reduced across the cohort. This cohort-level result demonstrates that the individual reductions in Cases 1, 2, and 3 are not outliers; they reflect a consistent pattern across a large patient population managed through the same clinical workflow. For a clinic evaluating GlycanAge, this is the clearest proof point that the model scales beyond a handful of case studies.

These seven cases share a common thread: a clinic establishes a baseline, changes one variable, whether that's an HRT formulation, a hormone therapy choice, or a lifestyle protocol, and retests at the interval matched to that intervention. Pharmaceutical and HRT-based protocols typically show measurable shifts within 3 to 4 months, while lifestyle-based protocols need 6 to 12 months to capture a genuine, sustained trend. GlycanAge sits on top of existing blood work rather than replacing it, adding a dedicated chronic-inflammation signal most standard panels don't carry.

"Glycans attach to antibodies and regulate inflammation. They're not just biomarkers, they're functional effectors that decide whether a specific antibody promotes or suppresses inflammation."

— Prof. Gordan Lauc, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, GlycanAge; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zagreb

Clinics interested in building this workflow into their own practice can review the full clinical documentation, pricing, and onboarding process, and start the conversation about integrating GlycanAge into patient intake and retest protocols.

Explore the partnership model and start onboarding your practice. 

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External sources

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979073/ — Vinicki M, Pribić T, Vučković F, Frkatović-Hodžić A, Plaza-Andrades I, Tinahones F, et al. Effects of testosterone and metformin on the GlycanAge index of biological age and the composition of the IgG glycome. GeroScience. 2025;47(2):1777-1788.