Saliva Hormone Testing

Before you begin a bio-identical hormone replacement therapy program, you must have your hormone levels tested. There are two ways in which to have your hormone levels tested. The usual way is to have a blood test which measures the blood serum or the blood plasma content of the hormones. The second way of testing available hormones in the body is saliva hormone testing. Saliva hormone testing is a more accurate form of testing because it actually measures the amount of sex hormones in the tissues whereas blood serum tests cannot.

It is possible to ask your bioidentical medical professional to have a saliva test rather than a blood serum test performed when you have to have your hormones tested. You can also purchase a saliva hormone test from a compounding pharmacy. You will perform the saliva test at home, take your results back to the compounding pharmacy and they will ship your results off to a lab. The lab will then return your results to the compounding pharmacy, you pick up the results and head over to your doctor’s office to then have a prescription made up for the bio-identical hormones you need.

The reason that hormone blood tests are not as accurate as a saliva hormone test is that bioavailable “free” hormones do not circulate in blood serum. Saliva hormone tests are able to demonstrate the levels of free hormones in the blood which not bound by serum binding proteins. These “free” hormones can then enter the tissues and are said to be “active.”

Saliva hormone testing will show the total amount of hormones that can be used by our cells. In this way, saliva testing is the more accurate method of testing hormones because these “free” hormones can actually be used by our cells. Blood testing will only show the hormones circulating in the body, whether or not they are available to be used by the cells.

A saliva hormone test can be simply performed at home if you purchase a home saliva test kit. Saliva test kits are available from Amazon.com, the safest online store on the internet. There are a variety of tests kits available at Amazon, including a hormone kit from ZRT Laboratories which tests any two of the following hormones: (Progesterone, Estradiol, DHEA, Testosterone, Morning Cortisol, Estriol, and Estrone) for $65. A larger saliva test kit is on sale at Amazon and this will test any five of the female sex hormones (Progesterone, Estradiol, DHEA, Testosterone, Morning Cortisol, Estriol, and/or Estrone). As well, there are also saliva test kits for men at Amazon, so men can also test their hormone levels in the privacy of their own home. If you are experiencing the symptoms of andropause or menopause, it’s time to get the results and find out which hormones you need to supplement.

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Biomimetic Hormones | Saliva Hormone Testing