The Importance of hormone testing

Understanding your hormones through hormone testing  gives you the ability to take steps to improve matters. The sort of things that you can learn from hormone tests are the following:

Thyroid Disorders

A blood test for TSH, free T4, free T3 and thyroid autoantibodies can show you if your thyroid is either underactive or overactive. The cause of a thyroid problem may be autoimmune in which case thyroid autoantibodies will be abnormal.  Women are five to eight times more likely than men to develop a thyroid condition, and up to 20% of women at perimenopause have abnormal thyroid autoantibodies so getting a test for thyroid function is a really useful thing to do.

Fertility

If you’ve had difficulty conceiving or if you’re hoping to get pregnant  hormone tests can tell you how close you are to menopause or if you may have an issue with your ovaries. Other hormones that can be tested to gauge ovulation include progesterone levels.

Sex Hormones

Sex hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone regulate many other processes like libido, bone and muscle growth, inflammatory responses, cholesterol, and fat distribution.  Although hormone levels fluctuate, hormone testing for sex hormones can help give insights into any fertility issues, weight management, menstrual problems, hair growth, and many other health issues.

If you experience any of these symptoms, it may be time to get your hormones tested with a bioidentical hormone specialist:

Fatigue or low energy

Depression and moodiness

Anxiety or nervousness

Low libido

Irregular periods, painful periods

Peri-menopause

Fertility issues

If you are already taking bio-identical hormone therapy, then hormone testing is an important part of ongoing monitoring. Many practitioners find testing a useful aid to adjust doses of hormones in order to provide maximum symptom relief with minimal risk

Bioidentical hormones can be measured through blood or urine.

Blood testing of hormones should be done at a fixed time of taking the last dose of hormone therapy.

Urine testing, such as the DUTCH test, shows metabolites or breakdown products of hormones that have gone through liver metabolism. This is a great way of seeing that oestrogen is being metabolised down a more or less favourable pathway.  The DUTCH test, however, may not be suitable for some routes of taking hormones.