Salivary Hormone Testing

[Guest guest]

Speaking of how/when to test estrogen levels.

Has anyone ever tried a salivary Hormone Test? Dr. Lee mentions it in his

book " What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenapause " . I was

wondering if they work and if they're worth the money. I know you write to

one of these companies, they send you a months worth of tubes to put a

saliva sample into everyday for a month. At the end of the month you send

all the tubes to the company and they measure your monthly hormone levels.

- Debbie

[Guest guest]

I've done the salivary tests and they seemed pretty accurate. My

doctor didn't think they were as accurate as blood hormone tests, but

the results of both have been very similar for me. There isn't as

long of a history of use and data collecting for the salivary tests.

You can get hormone tests from:

ZRT Laboratory

1815 NW Pl Suite 3090

Beaverton, OR 97006

http://www.salivatest.com/contact.html

Their tests are saliva tests. You collect a saliva sample and mail it

to them. I had progesterone, cortisol, testosterone, estradial,

estriol, and estrone tests. the price was $280.00. Individual tests

run from $30.00 to $60.00

Another way to order tests is through:

The Life Extension Foundation

http://www.lef.org/index.shtml

http://www.lef.org/newshop/cgi-shop/showCategory.cgi?catid=23000 -

Tests page

These are blood tests. They arange for you to go to a nearby medical

facility to have your blood drawn.

There is a lot of debate on what type of test is best. Some doctors

prefer testing for hormone metabolites in urine, others prefer blood

tests, and some use saliva, which is fairly new.

When to take these tests is also an unknown. You can do an average

for the whole month. It'll tell you if you are generally high in

estrogen. You can test on days 19-21. These days are when estrogen

and progesterone level out and are not at their peaks. This will

probably give a more consistent result. Your estrogen shouldn't be

high at this time. If it is, it indicates an anovulatory cycle. You

can test at mid cycle and see what your levels are at their peaks.

In my opinion, don't just test etradiol. Estradiol can be quite low

in your 40's, but estrone very high. Some research done in Japan

found that fibroids convert estradiol to estrone. In my case, my

estradiol hovers between normal at mid cycle to very low at 19-21

days. But, my estrone is always high--off the charts. Estrone tends

to be the dominant estrogen as womem get into their 40s. Estrone is

1/10th as potent as esradiol, but it has been implicated in estrogen

related cancers.

Tish