Hormone Testing
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free skin care · Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:16 am

I know this forum is chockfull of knowledgeable women who knows lots about healthcare...maybe you can chime in.

I keep reading conflicting data on the best methods of testing for female hormone levels (as well as thyroid, DHEA and other hormones).
Some recommend blood test, others saliva and others - urine.

Is there no definitive answer on this issue?

BFG

free skin care · Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:21 am

Barefootgirl wrote:

I know this forum is chockfull of knowledgeable women who knows lots about healthcare...maybe you can chime in.

I keep reading conflicting data on the best methods of testing for female hormone levels (as well as thyroid, DHEA and other hormones).
Some recommend blood test, others saliva and others - urine.

Is there no definitive answer on this issue?

BFG

The one I have seen and read as very unreliable is the Saliva testing, from a few OB/GYN's I have seen a blood test as the preferred method.

free skin care · Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:50 am

I had saliva testing, apparently this is more accurate than blood tests.

It's amazing what they can tell from our saliva!! It is expensive though.

free skin care · Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:15 pm

Some studies?

Dr. Vliet
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Saliva Hormone Tests: Myths and Reality
Monday, July 19, 2010 9:36 AM
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Over the years, I have found many problems with the widely touted saliva tests for hormone levels. In my experience, saliva tests are not accurate for measuring hormone levels or for hormone deficiencies.
As early as 1995, I tested several hundred patients with saliva tests and blood serum tests both done on the same women at the same time of day. I started out with an open mind, looking for a simple, reliable, inexpensive way to measure hormone levels that would correlate with women’s symptoms and would assist me in determining the dose for various prescriptions. I was shocked at what I found.
All of the test reports I received on my patients had widely varying numbers, as you would expect. But the shocking finding was that all of the explanatory reports for all of the patients had the same “diagnosis:” progesterone deficiency (a medical diagnosis only in the sense of infertility), “estrogen dominance” (not a real diagnosis), and adrenal fatigue or insufficiency (correctly called Addison’s disease, when proper tests have been used to diagnose it).
Yet blood tests from the same patient told an opposite story – markedly low estradiol, normal or high progesterone, and normal or high cortisol. Higher-than-normal cortisol is expected in menopausal women as part of the body’s stress response to the loss of estradiol.
None of the patients I tested had a blood test that showed a deficiency of the adrenal hormone, cortisol. Addison’s disease is medically urgent to diagnose and treat, and it has very characteristic body changes – marked weight loss, marked muscle wasting and weakness, darkening and splotchy skin, and loss of all body hair. It’s hard to miss.
Compounding pharmacies and some non-M.D./D.O. practitioners widely promote saliva tests sold through their practice. Some practitioners use saliva tests because under current prescribing regulations in most states, they cannot order blood tests. Such practitioners claim that saliva tests are more “reliable” than blood tests because they measure the free hormone. It turns out these claims are false, based on newer research.
Saliva tests were initially thought to have some promise because they were considered to be easy and convenient for patients. But infertility and most menopause specialists stopped using these tests because they simply weren’t reliable – they didn’t correlate with women’s symptom descriptions, they didn’t correlate with tissue samples results (such as endometrial biopsy), and they definitely did not correlate with the more useful serum hormone assays that are widely used in fertility and menopause centers throughout the world.

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/dr_vliet/saliva_hormone_test/2010/07/19/332931.html

Opposing view?

The Key to Resolving Hormonal Imbalances
By Sherrill Sellman, ND

As we journey through the seasons of our lives, hormone levels will vary according to age, nutritional status, stress, and underlying health issues. Steroid hormones, such as progesterone, estradiol, estrone, estriol, testosterone, DHEA and cortisol play vital roles in the maintenance of good health. Therefore, an accurate measurement of hormonal levels is essential to monitor physiological changes as well as to offer a diagnostic assessment.

While men, especially during andropause, are able to receive important information about their hormonal status through salivary testing, reliable testing of hormones is especially important for women. The many physiological and emotional symptoms that occur with PMS, infertility, perimenopause, and menopause reflect significant hormonal shifts, imbalances, and fluctuations. Hormone testing also is important in revealing some of the hidden causes of hormonal imbalances addressed in my previous article, such as adrenal exhaustion.

Since steroid hormones play such a vital role in the maintenance of optimal health, knowledge of an imbalance in any one or more hormones can help to illuminate the cause of health problems.

The conventional approach for testing hormones requires a blood test, which measures the hormones found in blood serum or blood plasma content. While a blood test has been the most common way to test hormones, it is now realized that it is not giving the whole story.

So, what kind of testing would provide the most dependable information about hormone levels and why? Substantial clinical and scientific research has shown that saliva testing, which has been used in scientific testing for decades, is a highly accurate way to assess hormone levels.

http://www.vrp.com/hormone-support/salivary-hormone-testing-the-key-to-resolving-hormonal-imbalances

The most recent information I have heard is blood tests are more accurate, but that could change a few months down the road!

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