[Babakins]

Hey Drunk Bambi are you doing the Durkan diet? If so be careful, it sounds good in theory but it is just an advanced Atkins diet. Everyone I know who has done it couldn't maintain without rebound weight gain which went on super fast. No matter what the Maintenance phase says. So it forces you to either stick to it for life or not do it.

Let us know how you get on with it. Personally I think it's an irresponsible diet and gained huge favour after Kate Middleton said she was on it. It is a short term quick fix, which some people want though.

[Kaitlyn Kitten]

Hi, Bambi.

From what I've read on this forum, my understanding is that PM won't help you very much if you are estrogen dominant, and that it would be wiser to go on BO.

Hi Intersex!

Could you please explain this? I believe im estrogen dominant. Low estrogen/lower progesterone and higher androgen. Confusing freaking hormones.

[mochaccino]

You can't know for sure until you get blood and saliva testing done. Right before I got tested, I looked at several different questionnaires and checklists etc. They all seemed to say that I had high testosterone and otherwise normal hormones. When I got my test results back, they said that I was very deficient in testosterone, and had borderline deficient progesterone, along with borderline excessive estrogen. The questionnaires almost could not have been more wrong.

[Kaitlyn Kitten]

I suppose that's the most accurate way to find out. I know for certain that I have excess androgen, but it looks like Ive got every possible combo of progesterone and estrogen when I look at the symptoms. Do you recommend doing the home saliva tests or actually going to the doc?

[AbiDrew85]

I suppose that's the most accurate way to find out. I know for certain that I have excess androgen, but it looks like Ive got every possible combo of progesterone and estrogen when I look at the symptoms. Do you recommend doing the home saliva tests or actually going to the doc?

The results are gunna be the same. The doc MIGHT push you towards bloods instead, but the results will still be very similar. The main consideration will be cost. Going to an endo will cost more unless you have insurance that'll cover the visit, if you DO though, generally that'll cost near nothing because of coming under "preventive care" if the doc marks it right.

[mochaccino]

Online labs like to claim that their tests are the same as the ones ordered by doctors. That's technically true, because doctors could use the same sort of tests if they wanted to, but they usually don't, so that claim is very misleading. Actual doctors will typically order much more accurate tests than the ones offered by online labs. Basically, when you order from online labs you're usually getting the cheapest version of the test, which is not necessarily innacurate, but it might not be the best version of the test for your particular situation. There are multiple ways to test for various hormones, and their accuracy depends on the situation.

The other major advantage of using a doctor is that your tests might end up being covered by insurance. The online labs are a little expensive.

I personally still chose to order a test online anyway. I didn't have any symptoms, so I didn't see how I would convince a doctor to order several different hormone tests for me. Then again, I didn't even try.

Bottom line is, you should get the tests done by a doctor if you can convince one to order them for you. Online labs are not as accurate.

[mochaccino]

Abi, we were typing at the same time. How do you know that the results are very similar? I've heard that the tests typically offered by online labs are not as accurate, but I couldn't find out how far off they usually are on average. Obviously, I assumed the results wouldn't be extremely far off, or I wouldn't have ordered the tests online. Do you have any more info about how accurate they really are? I really wanna know.

[AbiDrew85]

Abi, we were typing at the same time. How do you know that the results are very similar? I've heard that the tests typically offered by online labs are not as accurate, but I couldn't find out how far off they usually are on average. Obviously, I assumed the results wouldn't be extremely far off, or I wouldn't have ordered the tests online. Do you have any more info about how accurate they really are? I really wanna know.

Sadly, not really. But yeah. The saliva results are generally more accurate on some things, mainly free T and cortisols, and less accurate for everything else. And I'm not even sure they'll do thyroid with saliva at all. Which is why docs generally push towards bloods. A few tests compared to how many? Let's go blood.

And that's the major difference, really. You -CAN- get bloods done with an online lab as well, but it costs A LOT LOT LOT more and most generally you're gunna take one look at that price tag and say "no way!"

Exactly what the error delta margins are for each test for both saliva and bloods, I don't really know. I imagine if I spent enough time and maybe a little coin I could dig it up somewhere. But I'm not honestly all that motivated, lol.

[Kaitlyn Kitten]

Thank you both for your feedback! I'm mostly concerned with hormones at the moment so a blood test would probably be more accurate. I was on Yasmin BC for about 2 years and ended up losing weight on its; I was at 88 pounds. So clearly I had an adverse reaction to it and its messed with my hormones ever since. That can be my excuse to get blood work done.

[mochaccino]

Ha ha Abi, I'm not motivated enough either. No way am I paying for the research that would answer my question, especially since I would barely even understand it. Maybe one day I'll find a real endo on a blog or forum who just happens to be unusually willing to answer complicated questions from people that are not his/her patient. Otherwise, I don't expect to ever get answers to questions like these.