Home Hormone Testing

- Roger Mason

     

Our hormone levels are central to our health, how we feel, our immunity to disease, and how long we live. Have you noticed medical doctors almost never check any of your hormone levels, much less several of them? Do you know anyone who even knows just one of their hormone levels? Doctors, unfortunately, know almost nothing about how to test your hormones or administer bioidentical ones if you are low. Yes, this includes endocrinologists. If you are too high only diet and lifestyle will lower them. Doctors charge extortionate prices for office visits and blood tests. You can saliva test most of them and get blood tests without doctors on the Internet. Saliva tests cost about $30 per hormone. You are looking for the youthful levels you had at about the age of 30. Let's quickly review our basic hormones and see how to test them.

DHEA can be tested with a saliva kit. If you are low normal or worse simply take oral DHEA tablets. Men can take 25 mg and women about half that generally. Be sure to retest after about 90 days so you'll know you're taking the right dose.

Testosterone can also be tested with a saliva kit. You only want your FREE level and not your bound or total. Women need to test their testosterone just as much as men do. If low normal or worse use a natural transdermal cream or gel which generally delivers about 20% into the blood. Men need about 3 mg (15 mg cream) and women about 150 mcg (about 750 mcg cream). NEVER USE ORAL OR INJECTIONS OR METHYL TESTOSTERONE. You can make your own transdermal DMSO solutions if you want as they are not FDA approved. Please read my book Testosterone Is Your Friend. Read the Article New Way to Use Testosterone and men can use 3 mg daily sublingually of salts such as enanthate. Women can use about 150 mcg the same way. You can get testosterone legally and inexpensively on the Internet.

Even endocrinologists don't test pregnenolone. People over 40 should take pregnenolone generally. Men can use 50 mg and women half that. Very few companies offer a pregnenolone saliva test and some are unreliable unfortunately. After about 90 days see a doctor for a blood test to make sure you're taking the right amount.

People over 40 generally need melatonin. This can only be tested at 3:00 AM with a saliva kit. In 2006 the current melatonin saliva kits seem to be unreliable unfortunately. Take melatonin only at night. Men can use 3 mg and women can use 3 mg four or five nights a week. Reliable saliva tests will be available soon.

Your free T3 and free T4 thyroid hormones cannot be tested with saliva currently. Please see the article Test Your Thyroid for $75 in our library and get this done without a doctor (you'll also get your TSH with this.) Do not bother with your T3 uptake. Your TSH means nothing without the free T3 and free T4 values. Do not accept low normal values here. If low you can start with 12.5 mg of T3 (Cytomel) or 50 mcg of T4 (Synthroid). These are bioidentical to your own hormones and have no side effects when used properly. You can get them legally and inexpensively from Mexican Internet pharmacies.

You can test your AM (and PM) cortisol with saliva. High cortisol indicates stress. Low cortisol may call for cortisol (hydrocortisone) tablets. You can test your AM, noon, evening and PM cortisol with four sample saliva kits for a more comprehensive picutre.

Men over 40 can use transdermal progesterone without testing as can post-menopausal women. Pre-menopausal women should test their progesterone according to their period with a saliva kit. Use a good brand of natural USP progesterone cream with 800 to 1000 mg per two ounce jar.

Insulin per se should not be tested, but rather your fasting blood sugar should be 85 or less. Please remember that figure- 85 or less. If not get a one hour/one draw glucose tolerance test or GTT. You drink a 75 g cup of glucose and have your blood sugar measured an hour later to see the response. Insulin resistance is epidemic.

Women should saliva test all three estrogens- estradiol, estrone and estriol. Doctors don't even know what estriol is or care. If low use a natural transdermal cream or gel or get a compounding pharmacist to make sublingual drops of natural estrogens. Men over 50 can test their estradiol and estrone with saliva as rising estrogen is a problem for aging males.

Growth hormone cannot be tested with saliva and you need a 4 blood draw test in 12 hours (every three hours) at a lab to get accurate results. It is better to go by RESULTS here after you take it. If you are over 50 you can probably benefit from 1 IU a day sublingually in DMSO for double absorption. Who wants to use needles? You can buy Chinese Jintropin legally on the Internet for about $120 for 30 IU (a one month supply). NONE of the over-the-counter products have any value at all.

Cholesterol is in fact a hormone. Make sure yours is about 150 and your triglycerides under 100. Most American adults run levels of about 240 total cholesterol!

You will never enjoy full health unless all your basic hormones are at youthful levels. Remember that our hormones work harmoniously together in concert as a team, so balance as many as you can.