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Reproductive hormone testing
There are three ways hormone testing can be conducted: blood, saliva, and urine. Out of the three methods urine is the most accurate, followed by saliva and then blood serum results respectively. Our preferred method for testing is saliva as it is not only accurate but also moderately priced when compared to urine testing.
Urine testing, while highly accurate and can be time consuming which is why we save this test for specific conditions and situations where we need the most accurate data possible. These tests analyses Oestrogen(s), Progesterone, Testosterone, DHEAS, Stress hormones including Androstenedione & Cortisol levels as well as excretion ratios (to tell us how your body is actually dealing with the hormones once you have made them).
Understanding your hormones is crucial for women’s health as they impact so many aspects of wellness. Yes, it true… they are vital for reproductive health, but they can also have a huge impact on many other areas on health such as fatigue and energy levels, sleep patterns, mood, brain fog and night sweats to name a few. So, if you are someone who is struggling with hormonal health imbalances be it PMS, heavy bleeds, cyclical headache, PCOS, endometriosis, amenorrhea (no period), irregular periods, issue with ovulation, menopausal symptoms such as sleepless nights or hot flushes (also known power surges), getting to know the lay of the hormonal landscape is going to be an integral part of treatment.
While we can usually gauge a lot through our thorough case-taking and piecing your symptoms together, hormonal health isn’t something we usually like to take an educated stab at. Especially for women, whose hormones are well, (let’s face it) – complicated and extremely complex! Having the specific data can be very helpful when designing a treatment strategy.
The testing not only gives us information around the way your body is making hormone but also how its breaking it down – which for your naturopath, is equally as important. It may be that your body isn’t actually making too much (or little) of anything but rather, the detoxification pathways aren’t coming to the party and working effectively.
Stress and adrenal hormone testing
As an extension of hormonal health testing, adrenal and stress hormones can be informative for many health conditions. Every person has two adrenal glands – they are about the size of a walnut and they sit on top of your kidneys. For such small glands, they pack a big punch and have a multitude of roles and responsibilities in the body.
In today’s busy world it’s common for our adrenal gland to be picking up the slack more often than they were ever designed to do. And while it’s ok (and in some cases essential ) to tap into your reserve tank every now and again, if your body is doing this on a regular basis, you could be heading for Burn Out very quickly.
Testing the stress and adrenal hormones is done via a saliva test. It helps us undertstand how your body id reacting to a stressful situation and can also be used as a tool for evaluating adrenal imbalances. There are many factors that can play a role in adrenal function such as lifestyle factors, physical activity, and psychological stresses (be that real or perceived). This test looks at specific hormones over a 12-hour period and it evaluates bioactive levels of the body’s important stress hormones such as cortisol (stress hormone) and DHEA (your building blocks for hormones).
Biochemical imbalances underlying adrenal dysfunction may show up in your body as anxiety, headaches, fatigue, depression, brain fog, poor energy levels, salt cravings, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbances, impaired immunity, chronic fatigue syndrome, obesity, blood sugar imbalances and a host of other clinical conditions that may affect our day to day lives.
Thyroid health and testing
The simplest way to describe emotional fatigue is that feeling you get after you’ve had your heart broken when the tears have stopped, the raging tide of emotions has settled, and you’re just left with this blank sense of not much. Emotional fatigue can leave you feeling a little lack-lustre and not really wanting to do much. You get through your day when you have to and can flick the switch if a deadline or commitment is looming, but you just don’t really feel very inspired of motivated to do anything. Common contributors to emotional fatigue: relationship stress, parenting, stressful working environments that have become ‘personal’, ongoing challenges with metal health like anxiety and depression, the death of a loved one.
