Saliva vs Blood Hormone Labs

[Guest guest]

This debate comes up in every group, so out of curiosity, I tested saliva and

blood one day apart. I use topical estrogen and progesterone, and was

meticulous about not getting any on my fingers for 3 days before saliva testing.

Results? The estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone were well correlated,

with saliva and blood lab falling in roughly the same place within the range.

The surprise was the huge disparity in DHEA-S. In saliva, my DHEA was at the

bottom of the range, and in blood, top of the range. I found some research that

says the DHEA-S molecule is too big to make it into saliva, so that could

account for the disparity. Yet I've seen other folks with high DHEA saliva

labs, so don't know.

Anyway, just food for thought. When in doubt, symptoms trump labs.

Barb