Salivary Hormone Analysis
Testing Hormones such as Oestrogen and Progesterone Through Saliva
Mar 22, 2009
Many practitioners including Naturopaths, Nutritionists, alternative practitioners and some Doctors use Salivary Hormone Analysis instead of blood testing.
Why Use Saliva and not Blood?
Saliva is used to measure hormone levels because it can more accurately measure the 'free bio-available' hormones carried in the saliva.
Hormone levels in the blood are hormones that are bound and have already been taken up by the body; that is, they are not the measurements that are freely available to the body as seen in saliva.
Testing the saliva can help identify hormone imbalances generally not picked up by blood tests. If you believe that you may have a hormone imbalance but the blood tests have returned normal, you should consider asking for a saliva test.
Which Hormones can be Tested in the Saliva?
Oestrogens, Progesterone, Testosterone, DHEA-S, Cortisol and Melatonin can be tested with saliva.
How Do I Get Tested?
Saliva testing can be done in the privacy of your own home where tests can be posted (in some countries) to your house and are picked up when completed.
Depending on where you live, you may need a practitioner's referral form to receive the test; ask your health practitioner.
Depending on what hormones you are testing, you may need 1, 2 or 3 saliva samples.
With pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) for example, you may need 3 samples done on day 14, 21 and 28 of your cycle to see the reference range of hormone levels.
This test will normally test oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Women with PMS are normally seen with abnormally high amounts of oestrogen on these days.
Oestrogen dominance can cause an array of unwanted symptoms, some of which are mentioned below.
What is a Reference Range?
A reference range is the range your hormones should fall into according to age, health, disease, gender etc. It is based on healthy population studies and serves as a guide as to the target of healthy hormone range.
How Do I Know if I Have a Hormone Imbalance?
Most people 'just know' if they have an imbalance and can feel that there is something wrong just by the symptoms they are experiencing.
Here are some examples:
Testosterone and DHEA-S Imbalance may lead to low libido, depression, fatigue, aches and pains, thinning skin, anxiety, decreased urine flow, erectile dysfunction and foggy thinking.
Oestrogen and Progesterone Imbalance may lead to hot flushes, headaches, irritability, weight gain around hips, low libido, prostate enlargement and nervousness.
Progesterone Deficiency/ Oestrogen Dominance may lead to weight gain, low libido, PMS, infertility, miscarriage, anxiety, mood swings, acne and joint pain.
These are just some examples of what salivary hormone analysis can tell us. As mentioned before, blood tests can and often do show up as normal when it comes to hormones. With women especially (because we cycle) our hormones are always changing at different times of the month.
This is why a random blood test may not show up the differences in levels at different times. Saliva, taken on particular days and in the privacy of your own home will take into account our changing hormone levels.
