Saliva home test kits

[021mk]

Has anyone tried one of those online-orders saliva hormone test kits? My doctor is refusing to test me for striadol, and I found this place online where they test hormones using a mail order saliva test.
Also, I do not have gycomastia, could my striadol still be high?

[DavidZ]

Originally Posted by 021mk

Has anyone tried one of those online-orders saliva hormone test kits?

I wouldn't trust 'em.

Originally Posted by 021mk

My doctor is refusing to test me for striadol, and I found this place online where they test hormones using a mail order saliva test.

I think you mean estradiol (aka, "E2").

Originally Posted by 021mk

Also, I do not have gycomastia, could my striadol still be high?

Yes.

[marianco]

Originally Posted by 021mk

Has anyone tried one of those online-orders saliva hormone test kits? My doctor is refusing to test me for striadol, and I found this place online where they test hormones using a mail order saliva test.
Also, I do not have gycomastia, could my striadol still be high?

If a person joins the Life Extension Foundation (lef.org), then they can order their own blood tests. Lef.org has an extensive list of blood tests to choose from. They have contracted with Lab One to do the blood draws and testing. One can save up to 50% off the price of the lab tests this way and a person does not need a prescription. This is a great service. The problem is the long turn-around time.

It's too bad Quest Labs only has a limited set of lab tests for which people can order for themselves. They don't include the hormones other than thyroid.

I am still trying to evaluate the utility of the saliva reproductive hormone tests - other than Cortisol and DHEA - which I have found extremely useful in testing for adrenal fatigue.

The saliva tests are apparently useful for measuring tissue levels of hormones as opposed serum levels. For example, when using transdermal progesterone, the saliva tests will measure a change within days, whereas the serum levels may not change for weeks. The saliva tests also give you bioavailable hormone levels as opposed to the total of bound and free levels.

What makes me hesitant is that occasionally, the saliva reproductive hormone tests are completely off. For example, I had a patient with off the chart levels of testosterone, DHT, progesterone - which did not make sense for his clinical presentation. The blood tests I ordered were much more in line with the clinical exam. When spurious results occur, I wonder if the lab would be open enough to allow the patient to redo the test for free.

What makes the saliva tests attractive is the relatively low cost - particularly for people without insurance coverage. Also, the test kits can be kept and used at any time. A person doesn't have to find the time to go to the clinic lab to get blood drawn.

[021mk]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll wait on the test for now.

[Sunkist]

Two things I found my self as anecdotal:

First I tried to correlate the two by doing one of the 'inexpensive' saliva tests in the morning right before a blood draw. There was extreme variability, but the was also some correlation... assuming the blood tests were accurate which is now coming into question on a greater basis. If one is looking for very accurate, then the standard, tho not 'gold standard' is the common TT, etc blood assay. I did this three times before discontinuing and it seemed the higher the TT, the more relatively restrained the salivary content was. So it seemed it was centered at a certain level, and anything off of that would be proportionally negatively skewed toward the center, whether high or low.

This genre of test would seem to have a place if the test was correlated for the person with a baseline blood test. One must remember that direct blood assay will theoretically yield the circulating level of any substance... duhhh. But salivary levels require secretion from a gland, thus would not be true measures. In Fl levels, they tend to remain more constant, while the blood levels fluctuate more with ingestion.