need some help selecting salivary cortisol test

[Redlester]

Hello All. I am trying to order a salivary cortisol test and am finding it a bit confusing. I would like to test the cortisol awakening response as well as cortisol levels generally, but it would seem Regenerus don't do this and while Genova do they want a "practicioner code" to enable an order to be placed. Can anyone advise me about how to go about this?

[humanbean]

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

The above link tells you about how to order a Genova test.

[Redlester in reply to humanbean]

thanks Humanbean. I was on Medichecks this morning and noticed that they have a salivary cortisol test and wondered why it never gets a mention on here as people only seem to reference the genova and regererus tests. Is there something wrong with the medichecks one???

medichecks.com/products/str...

[humanbean in reply to Redlester]

Yes.

1) They don't test DHEA.

2) They use reference ranges for some of the samples which include zero e.g. "< 1.5" for example. I really don't think having zero cortisol is healthy for anyone, so it should never be included in the "normal" reference range.

3) The test method they use also can't give accurate levels when they are very low. So they don't give an actual result, they tell you your cortisol was "< 1.5" or whatever.

Being told that you have a cortisol level that is < 1.5 and that the reference range is also < 1.5 is not helpful or informative. We need actual numbers and reference ranges that don't include zero.

[Redlester in reply to humanbean]

Thank you so much for explaining this humanbean - I will completely discount their test and order elsewhere. You are quite right - would imagine someone with zero cortisol would be almost not alive!!