As you likely expect, comprehensive hormone testing gives us an inside look at your hormone levels. Testing can be done on one day of your cycle or over the course of an entire cycle. In this article, we will talk about who may want to consider hormone testing, for what purposes, analytes that may be tested, how testing is performed and which testing may be right for you.
Who is comprehensive hormone testing for?
Comprehensive hormone testing may be recommended for anyone who has:
- Complex cyclical symptoms
- Many symptoms related to hormone health that do not clearly correspond to dysfunction in any one particular hormone
- Hormonal symptoms and a family history of hormone related cancers (to be as safe and effective as possible with treatment)
- Infertility or difficulty becoming pregnant
- Irregular cycle or loss of cycle
- Hormonal symptoms that do not improve with typical treatment
- Menopause
- PMS/PMDD
- Midcycle spotting
- And others
What is tested?
Test analytes may include estrogen’s and their metabolites, progesterone and metabolites, testosterone, DHEAs and other androgen metabolites, cortisol and metabolites; we may also consider neurotransmitter metabolites for dopamine, norepinephrine, melatonin, and organic acids that indicate nutrient deficiency and inflammatory markers that are important in hormonal function. I also commonly test full thyroid panels through blood which will need discussion in another article. Having levels of hormone metabolites gives us insight into how these hormones are being produced and broken down in the body, this information allows us to directly target any areas that are not functioning as they should be.
How is testing performed?
I most commonly use blood testing for sex hormones, this is the most cost effective and most used in research. However, for ease of collection and when frequent testing is done throughout a cycle, dried urine samples and/or saliva samples may be recommended alternatively. Urine and saliva samples can be done at home and mailed to the lab following collection. Depending on the testing kit that is right for you, testing may be performed on a single day for a snapshot of hormonal health, or over the course of a menstrual cycle to understand how your hormones are fluctuating in this time. Single day testing is usually done on day 3 or day 21 of your menstrual cycle (depending on the purpose of testing), which can be a single blood draw, or using 4 collections of urine / saliva over the course of 24 hours, cycle mapping uses 9 to 12 collections over the course of a single menstrual cycle.
Blood samples are collected through Alberta Precision Lab locations, dried urine and saliva samples are completed at home and mailed to Precision Analytical who offer DUTCH testing.
Which testing kit is right for you?
Single day testing is often recommended for anyone who is not cycling or experiencing symptoms during a recurrent time in their cycle (men, post menopausal women, PMS specific symptoms, some cases of fertility, etc.).
For a cycle mapping test kit, samples are taken throughout your cycle to map out how you’re hormones fluctuate over this time. This form of testing is especially helpful for some fertility cases, if differing symptoms are experienced throughout your cycle, if cycles are very unpredictable. .
If you have any questions about hormone testing, click here to send me an email or book an appointment to start working together, if you live outside of Alberta, see your local naturopath for more details.
