Testing sex hormone levels - blood or saliva?

[Rachel357]

I have never had my sex hormones checked and I would like to get this tested soon, as a few months ago I had symptoms of oestrogen domininance. I was going to order the Medichecks Well Woman Ultravit blood test, as it contains a lot of useful tests, but I'm not sure if it is best to get it tested through saliva? Can anyone recommend a good test? Thank you.

[radd]

Rachel357,

Have you considered urine testing to assess sex hormone levels ?

[Rachel357 in reply to radd]

No I hadn't. I will have a look into it, thank you.

[radd in reply to Rachel357]

Rachel357,

Look into the DUTCH (Dried Urine Test Comprehensive Hormones) which is terribly expensive but saved my life.

Four (or five, if including an overnight wee) urine collections are taken and dried on special paper at specific times over approx 14 hours (dinner, bed, waking, 2 hour after waking, + overnight if necessary).

This is thought to be an improvement on saliva, blood serum or even 24 hour urine collections as after measuring free cortisol it combines those four/five samples to investigate the metabolites (what hormones are broken down into) in oestrogen, androgen, progesterone and cortisol.

It is immensely in-depth, and even considers issues such as the genetic defect MTHFR that many Hashi sufferer's suffer 🙄, ... related to methylation (metabolisation, detoxification, etc) ... so for instance may inhibit turning a 2 hydroxy oestrogen into a 2-methoxy oestrogen due to lower conversion rates, or production/metabolism problems (ie not clearing oestrogens in the way that is needed, which could be why oestrogen can appear elevated), or showing how low cortisol levels in serum or saliva are not necessarily an indication that overall cortisol production is low.

It depends on how far you wish to go into all this but like I say, it saved my life but you will need a practitioner to help interpret the results.

[Rachel357 in reply to radd]

Thank you for the information. I really would like to do the Dutch test but it's too expensive for me at the moment. What sort of practitioner helped you with the results?

[humanbean]

There is another choice too. Some companies offer 24-hour urine testing. I can't offer any advice on which of these might be best.

[endofdays]

what are the symptoms of oestrogen dominance?

[Rachel357 in reply to endofdays]

I had very tender swollen breasts and extreme anxiety. Irregular periods is another symptom. A few weeks after I came off Levo and started with the NDT all these symptoms disappeared, but I still want to get it checked.

[endofdays in reply to Rachel357]

Wow that's quite something that Natural thyroid helped. So glad for you. I'm in the menopause it's the sweats and rubbish sleep that gets me. I'm on 125 levothyroxine. My hands are so dry and cracked, it's awful. Wondered if I would need oestregen? Any idea?

[Rachel357 in reply to endofdays]

It sounds like you might need it. I think you should go and see your GP and get your hormone levels tested. Hope you feel better soon.

[endofdays in reply to Rachel357]

thank you rachel. My doc said there's no point checking hormones cos Im in the menopause?

[Rachel357 in reply to endofdays]

Oh, that doesn't sound right, but I don't know much about the menopause. Have you tried Evening Primrose Oil? It's supposed to help balance hormone levels and is also good for symptoms such as dry skin.

[endofdays in reply to Rachel357]

I have got the evening primrose and drink sage tea. But I think I need to change my doctors!! 😔 Thanks so much for your reply.

[G2G2]

Depends what you read if saliva or DUTCH test is more accurate. The jury appears to be divided. I did DUTCH because I couldn't produce enough saliva. Guess I can't spit

[endomad]

I recently had all mine checked at gp surgery by blood test. My gp said hormone results hard to read but was happy to do test for me to get hormone group to decipher. As i suspected i was estrogen dominant, which apparently hampers thyroid hormone uptake.

Some time ago i had hideously painful fibroids, consultant said i would need hysterectomy, after 4 months of ndt they just disappeared, consultant was amazed. Just goes to prove all our hormones need to be in harmony, one out all out. xxx