[Pink.Chiffon]

EllaC
and you know blood tests are useless! ive been told this over and over. theres many studies too so my bloods put me in the normal range too and i am sooooo not normal! has to be saliva. so in essense your hormones might NOT be what you think they are..
its like "conventional ranges" for thyroid bloods too. Oprah did a whole show of women who had "normal" thyroid ranges due to coventional blood testing only to actually have had thyroid disease which blew out of proportion, some developed thryoid cancer, some had their thyroids removed too!
I think your hormonal picture might be very diff with the right testing and at the right time in your cycle. i only harp on and bring this up cause i dont want you to get hurt by herbals like i did



I had never heard that blood test are so inaccurate for hormones !! I am really surprised considering I pay a lot of money to see a bioidentical hormone replacement specialist who has been doing blood tests and urine tests, but is only doing urine tests for cortisol levels. I will have to do some research on that, because if there is a more accurate test I want to bring it up with my doctor. When I get my blood drawn they do stress the importance of when my last period was, but nonetheless, since I pay out of pocket for the testing, I at least want accurate results.

Edit: I looked at my lab test results and turns out the hormones are actually done using a 12hr urine collection. I did a little bit of research, and according to meridianvalleylab.com/about-hormone-testing a 24hr urine test is the most accurate for most hormones (female hormone, androgen balance, adrenal health, growth hormone). They say this is well established in the medical literature. Saliva is best for cortisol and menstrual cycle evaluation.

Yeh i was recently instructed to do a 24hour urine collection for estrogen metabolism (again non funded and at a huge cost to me). And yeh for cortisol/adrenal def urine. The blood spot tests Im completely confident are rubbish. Prob is theres a huge cost involved in doing saliva and most medical practises arent subsidized so bloods are cheap and easy to order. 
Urine and saliva are the way to go.

Yes I think you're right. Blood is good for measuring thyroid I think, but in terms of sex hormones, it isn't optimal. That's what I liked about the meridian valley lab website. It just said which tests where best for measuring what. I did read one of the biggest disadvantages of saliva is the sample size is so small that measurinf accurate amounts of anything that is going to be in low amounts is tricky, and as a biochemist who has worked in quality assurance (measuring trace amounts of stuff in samples) I get why saliva is maybe not ideal for measuring most things. Probably urine is best for sex hormone panels, but I noticed they have both 24 hour urine and dry urine tests. I guess in the US its not so bad. I think I pay $500 for my urine tests but I only get it done 1-2 times a year.

Also really glad I found out my hormone tests weren't being done with blood work! : think the blood work is for measuring thyroid and thyroid antibodies.