Hormone testing - what are your options?

Hormones are complex, so of course testing them accurately has it's challenges! As you know our hormones change throughout the day, throughout the month and vary month to month...so for these reasons alone they are a challenge to accurately test and assess. 

The typical days 1-3 blood test really has limited clinical value. Your hormones aren't doing much days 1-3...much better to catch them when they are doing something interesting later on in the cycle!

In this blog I want to talk to you about:

- the challenges of testing hormones

- why choosing a hormone test should be personalised to YOU

- my favourite and most clinically helpful, was of assessing your sex hormones

Choosing the best test for you and your hormones is personalised and should be based on your goals, symptoms and budget. For example if your goal is just hormonal acne and you have regular menstrual cycles, I might not even suggest testing your hormones as the evidence shows that blood levels of steroid hormones don't always vary between acne and non acne patients. However if your goal is hormonal acne and improving fertility, and your menstrual cycles are a little all over the place, I might recommend testing your hormones.

BEFORE we test any hormones however I will always recommend a baseline set of bloods to include thyroid, anaemias, inflammation, liver + kidney health, nutrient deficiencies, immune system....these markers will help us determine how well your stage is set up.

REMEMBER - HORMONES ARE LIKE ACTORS ON A STAGE AND WILL ONLY PERFORM AS WELL AS THE STAGE IS SET UP. 

So having a comprehensive set of bloods can help us to assess that stage and create a personalised programme to improve the set up. 

NEXT my most preferred option for assessing hormones is the Lifecode Nutrigenomics Hormone Report. This will tell us your genetic preference, strengths and vulnerabilities to making, receiving, metabolising and excreting steroid hormones and how balanced the set up is between your brain and ovaries. 

Find out more about why I use nutrigenomics here

Clinically I find this information FAR MORE HELPFUL than assessing hormones in the blood. 

WHY?

- because if you're menstrual cycles are a little erratic, say one is 24 days, the next is 28...it's hard for us to know at what day in the cycle is best to assess

- DNA doesn't change, so this information is the same month to month and year to year meaning its reproducible...this cannot be said for any other hormone assessment as our hormones are SO dynamic.

- it give us an insight into how your hormonal circuit pathways are set up and how this might be impacting your symptoms such as acne, anxiety, PMS..

- it's a GREAT INVESTMENT as we can refer back to the results as your health goals change year to year and as your hormones go through natural shifts and transitions, e.g. postnatally, perimenopause 

- and the report comes with evidence based recommendations on how to support YOUR gene function and hormone health using personalised diet and lifestyle medicine

So to recap:

- testing hormones is challenging 

- it requires a bespoke approach

- a blood sample days 1-3 has little clinical value, you are much better off at testing on days 14 (approx) and days 21 (approx) when your hormones are actually doing something - more on this in my next newsletter

- Nutrigenomics DNA testing assess's how you are set up to make, receive and remove your sex hormones, and offers far more clinical value in understanding and supporting hormone symptoms and creating a personalised support programme

Find out more about my DNA Packages here

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hope you found this helpful, reach out if you have any questions hello@trueskinnutrition.com

Chloe

xx