Posted by tealady on August 27, 2003, at 2:06:31
In reply to Re: Receive Mail-In Hormone test from home » jparsell82, posted by BarbaraCat on August 26, 2003, at 12:23:25
forgot sorry..the reason some specialist gynocologist trained docs didn't like saliva tests..or had some differing notion (from the naturopath trained doc) that saliva tests were inaccurate was that back in the mid 90's, at least in some parts of the US, the saliva tests used swabs and they found that the swabs actually altered the results of the saliva tests..leading to high estrogen and low progesterone ..I think from memory..and basically they were not consistent with blood tests. ..they blamed the swabs.
I know in Australia they don't use swabs in saliva tests...so I really don't now...although a compounding chemist described some low estrogen symptoms to me that his wife had and then went on to tell me that her saliva test said she had high estrogen and blood test showed low estrogen? So I didn't bother with the saliva tests after hearing what Vliet (and other gyn trained docs and researchers in this hormone area) thought of them.
I did have saliva cortisol (4 times a day ) test though...the docs reckon these are accurate even with the swabs..not in exact measurement amounts ..but accurate for ratios..which are important to know when trying to get a picture of circadian cycle of cortisol...
Perhaps since then the saliva tests have changed and these docs haven't found out?Jan
PS. I cannot comment much as I can't get my estradiol level anywhere even near the bottom of the range and I've been trying for 18 mths, sigh...
PPS this is what makes it sooo difficult for us...the docs themselves can't agree!
poster:tealady
thread:253283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030823/msgs/254613.html