Identify the naughty hormone

Is the phrase "oh, girl, you are so hormonal" or "are you on PMS?., drives you crazy and you feel like the whole world is against you?

Well, don´t worry, you are not alone. It is not you but your hormones!!!

It is crucial to identify a hormonal imbalance and which hormone is not functioning correctly. Hormones are functioning in a very complex way and in continues intertwine and fluctuance, so it is not always an easy task to do.

Allopathic medicine doesn't always help in this process because it doesn´t establish a diagnosis before all the preliminary stages to a clinical hormonal imbalance. Your hormones are affected by so many elements. It´s crucial to have a holistic approach to balance them.

Unfortunately, modern medicine is not applying this holistic approach. Most of the allopathic doctors are lacking the basic knowledge of nutrition. They don´t think that nature has much to offer when it comes to hormonal imbalance symptoms. Most of them believe that the only way to go is to take synthetic hormones, antidepressants and other medication, which creates a vicious circle of dependency and secondary side effects. They are not addressing the core of the problem, and that is leaving women helpless and frustrated.

Did you ever feel like a crazy woman when you visited your GP or gynaecologist? Did you try to explain all your symptoms and the only response you received is “Don´t worry, that´s normal” or “You are thinking too much”, or “Are you too stressed”? Well, you are not the only one. Most of the women find themselves in this situation and the reason why is because modern medicine doesn´t have a solution to your symptoms until it becomes clear that you are suffering clinical hormonal imbalance.

That doesn´t change the fact that you suffer discomfort, pain and other depleting symptoms like depression, anxiety, irritability, weight problems, skin problems, digestive dysfunctions, painful periods, fatigue, loss of concentration and libido, loss of hair, cravings, etc. All that makes you feel like you are not living.

It is important to find the right specialist, who is not only interested in prescribing medication like the contraceptive pill, antidepressant or hormonal replacement therapy.

It should be a medical specialist who truly listens to you and is open to collaborating with you in finding the best path to balance your hormones through supplements, herbal remedies, dietary and lifestyle adjustments and bio-identical hormones. Integrative medicine or biological medicine practitioner or gynaecologist is going to be the most adequate.

Another difficulty you might be facing is the traditional medical testing. Usually, you will be tested through your blood serum to see your hormonal levels. Unfortunately, this way of testing does not show the early stages of hormonal imbalance of some hormones. That leads to the frustrating situations where women are having symptoms, yet their test shows nothing wrong.

According to Dr John R. Lee, a pioneer and expert in the study and use of the hormone progesterone, natural hormone replacement therapy and inventor of the term “estrogen dominance”, salivary testing of hormones is more appropriate and reliable.

Salivary testing is quicker, less expensive, and less painful than blood tests. The saliva test is more appropriate for some type of hormones such as the reproductive hormones (estrogen, progesterone, etc.) and the cortisol. It shows the levels of bioavailable hormones which are the real indicators of our hormonal health. The real bioavailable hormone will not show a change in the bloodstream because when the ovary makes it, it wraps it in protein to be water-soluble in the blood (not usable by the body). Bioavailable hormones do not cover themselves with a protein. They are transported in other parts of the blood, the watery serum. They are carried on fat-soluble cell membranes like red blood cell membranes which are not in the plasma.

At any given moment, most of the hormones in your body are unusable- tightly bound to proteins in the bloodstream. Only 1-2% are free or bioavailable to enter tissues through the body. One of the tissues that bioavailable hormones enter is the saliva gland, and they then freely pass through into the saliva. By collecting saliva and measuring its level of hormones, it is possible to determine the number of these available to other tissues. The second advantage of saliva testing is the frequency that allows you to test your hormones during the day to establish their fluctuation, which is so typical of them.

Conventional blood tests measure only the total level of hormones in the bloodstream they don’t provide an accurate picture of available hormones and their pathway of metabolites.

Through the years the hormonal testing has been going through some discoveries and improvement. Although the saliva test is more accurate than the blood test for some hormones, the latest studies have shown that the best way and more comprehensive way to test your hormones is through a dry urine test, DUTCH TESTING. The Dutch model of testing has been made to improve on the saliva testing. The Dutch test detects, more specifically, the metabolization of hormones, and it looks more in-depth at why a patient has problems with some hormones and why is she/he suffering particular symptoms. It doesn´t only show the total level of free hormones, but also their detoxification pathways and the functioning of the metabolites. To see which test is the best for identifying the imbalance of different hormones, check the article "ABC of testing for hormonal balance- part 1: Hormonal foundation", ABC of testing for hormonal balance- part 2: Specific testing

So, ladies, you need to stand your ground and demand the appropriate testing of your hormones. You should test your hormones both in the blood, urine or in the saliva. There are a few reliable laboratories online where you can purchase your DUTCH urine panel and the saliva testing kit. You will have them delivered to your doorstep. Those kits can be required by your specialist as well, and if you are lucky enough, your health insurance company will pay for it. If you are not one of the lucky ones, you can purchase the complete hormonal panel somewhere around 160-500 $. There are a few reliable companies. I recommend the following:

• DUTCH Test – Advanced Hormone Testing

• Laboratory ZRT

• Canary Club

• My Med lab