Hey group, I did a second cortisol saliva test. I have failed 5 SST and was put on 15mg hydrocortisone for over a year. My endo weaned me off & after a month of no HC retested and this 8am was 450nmol and the rise was 550nmol. It has been 4 months since I have had no HC and I have been feeling ever so poorly and have been spending more of my time in bed rest.
I purchased a medicheck cortisol test in April 2019 but it took many months to come off HC and I have just done the test this week they said they could not give me a doctors interpretation of this now. Can someone help me?
Cortisol - 8am Waking 3.620 nmol/L
6.0 - 21.0<6.0 Possible Addison's
(Range: 6 - 21)
Noon 3 .240 nmol/L (Range: 1.5 - 7.6)
I napped at 2pm & woke at 4pm
4pm <1.5 nmol/L (Range: 0 - 5.5)
11pm <1.5 nmol/L range 0 - 2.0>5.0 possible Cushing's
What does this mean for my adrenals and do I need HC? Thank you
Glucose and Cortisol Blood test interpretation help needed please!
got saliva results ( cortisol )
Advice on lowering high-ish saliva cortisol levels 
Genova cortisol saliva results 
Cortisol saliva results
Yennn
Unfortunately you've chosen a test that's not a particularly good one. This test doesn't include DHEA which is important to test alongside cortisol as it helps determining stages of adrenal fatigue.
What is also not particularly good about this test is that when you see the numerical results as you have shown, the range for samples 3 and 4 have zero as the lower limit. As ranges are based on healthy people, it anyone did actually have a level of zero they would be far from healthy.
Also, for samples 3 and 4 there is no actual level, it just says <1.5 and this tells us nothing.
Would you be able to swap your photo for the one where it actually shows the bar graph where your level is plotted. That helps to tell us the actual level for those samples.
Hey Susie how are you?
I changed the picture does that help at all?
I did a regen lab one with dhea before and posted and not one person still to this date could tel me what the dhea result meant
587 pg/ml range was 106-300
Highly elevated with low low low and then high at bed time cortisol.
I have seen 5 different endos and I’m so so so frustrated after two years I’m still not gtn anywhere with finding out answers or treatment.
Thanks for helping me.
No, that doesn't show a bar graph with your level plotted on, it's just got the same information. This is what I mean, see the picture in this post:
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
I did a regen lab one with dhea before and posted and not one person still to this date could tel me what the dhea result meant
Nobody is going to be looking at your post of 2 years ago now, and the results wouldn't mean anything anyway, things wont be the same. Did you look into high DHEA yourself as suggested, you can do your own research.
Yeh I looked into it and couldn’t find anything on low cortisol with high dhea. I follow dr myhill who has a lot of information online about Cortisol saliva test.
The post that I did post two years ago got a lot of comments but also no one had came across low cortisol high dhea.
I went back on medicheck it only allows me to check the bar graph one test at a time I will upload the one at 8am
Which test would you recommend me to do if not the medicheck one?
Thanks
We already know the levels for samples 1 and 2, they're in your post. We need to see exactly where on the bar graph samples 3 and 4 - which just say <1.5 - are.
Regenerus and Genova Diagnostics both test cortisol plus DHEA, I use Regenerus as they contact you direct when results are ready, Genova send them to ThyroidUK who then send them to you.
Doh 3Rd time lucky! I loaded 3 let me know hand u have seen it thank you and I will load 4. I don’t think ki would use regen again as they couldnt interprate the results. I think we spoke about low cortisol and high dhea back two years ago as u just done a cortisol saliva test at the same time and we were both baffled as to why I had such a highly elevated dhea.
There is currently no picture at all.
No, Regenerus don't interpret results, this is be explained on ThyroidUK's website on the page which gives information about how to order tests from Regenerus. Same goes for Genova.
Think I clocked upload before the picture was downloaded. That is it on now. Medicheck has a doctor that gives an interpretation but i took me over 6 months to wean off HC and now they don’t interpret.
As I have used Regenerate before and for results I couldn’t find any one or doctor or functional doctor to interpret I’m reluctant to pay and do another cortisol Test.
Is there any information you could give me with these results and why possible I could do. I have literally been aliens the bend with test, 5 SST 5 endos Dutch plus test I just want to know what to do and help my struggling adrenals. Thank you for your help.
Sample 3 result is very close to the bottom of the range and should be close to 50%. Optimal results for a cortisol saliva test are
Morning at the top of the range• Noon approximately 75% of the range• Evening close to 50% of the range• Nighttime at the bottom of the range
I can't tell you what you should do, I'm not qualified and you seem to have a complicated and confusing history as far as adrenals are concerned.
These results show very low levels overall and humanbean has given sage advice based on these results. But previous tests at hospital seem to have shown no problem so this is beyond anything I have any knowledge or experience of.
Complicated and confusing is the best words you can use to describe this.
I have been to the gps plenty of them been to the nhs Endo’s been to private contacted Endo society seen the best pituitary Specialst in my area. All my doctors notes and letter are them contradicting and in the end all the Endo’s group together keep themselves right and say sick day rule of HC to ensure they are protecting themselves but I am still left sick and unable daily. Thank u for u help I don’t really know where to turn to next or where to ask. I have failed 5 SST some are borderline just fails and some are completely off, with results as 316 range 430nmol and doc say mri are fine and it is not secondary and my results on blood aren’t low enough to dx addisons. Feels so so lost with it all that I took a chance to purchase a saliva test on my own and try and advocate and figure this out myself.