Recent blood work revealed that I have a very high total estrogen level.

Hi Catherine,

Recent blood work revealed that I have a very high total estrogen level–647. I am dismayed that the different forms of estrogen are not revealed. I would sleep much easier if I knew that Estriol (E3) was the dominant estrogen in my body. Would saliva testing break this information down?

Also, I recall from Dr. Lee’s book that blood testing for hormone levels is not the most accurate way to measure hormone levels. My doctor leans towards natural treatments, and has put me on a therapy in pill form of “EstroFactors” (which claims to promote estrogen balance). I have been using 1/4 tsp progesterone cream faithfully for 2 1/2 months now, breaking for my menstrual period. The results of my progesterone level shows it at 2.5 ng/mL. I had been on progesterone cream for 6 weeks when the blood was drawn.

I need any reassurance you can give me, in light of the somber findings of estrogen’s role in promoting cancer.

Thank you so much, Catherine, for your work on our behalf!

Lori

Dear Lori,

Experts now agree diagnosis and prevention of disease using saliva assays is “the” way of the future and medical practitioners are gearing up for this new technology. Physicians experienced in saliva analysis are able to predict, diagnose or prevent many health problems and diseases.

Blood serum & blood plasma testing of sex hormones is obscured and irrelevant, and no longer the gold standard.

Blood tests do not capture the portion of our sex hormones which remains “free” [meaning not bound to proteins]. “Free” or “bioavailable” hormones represent the amount of hormones that the tissue actually receives and responds to.

What is important is how much progesterone circulates through the target tissues for progesterone action. Saliva tests reflect tissue levels of sex hormones, and serum tests to not.

Serum concentrations may not increase but there may be dramatic changes at the cellular level.

Blood tests can’t be reliably used to determine the bioavailable level of progesterone applied transdermally because very little bioavailable progesterone is carried in blood plasma which is what’s measured in a standard blood test.

Progesterone is fat-soluble, not water-soluble meaning it is repelled by water and attracted by fats. It circulates in blood bound to proteins. Being lipophilic (fat-loving) and not water soluble, the majority of free progesterone molecules are carried by red blood cells whose membrames are made of fat, and not the watery serum of the blood.

When blood is drawn from your arm it is promptly shipped off to a local lab for analysis. The vial containing your blood is popped into a machine called a centrifuge where it is spun at tremendous speed to separate the watery (serum) component from the red blood cells. Typically, when testing hormone concentrations, scientists analyse this watery blood serum while discarding the red blood cells altogether.

Analysis of hormone concentrations using blood serum actually measures a mere 10 percent window of our hormones, and its this 10 percent which is then magnified to 100 percent, and said to be truly representative of our body’s hormone levels. Not true. And this ‘anomaly’ might explain why our GP keeps upping our dose of estrogen and/or progesterone, because blood tests show no measurable increase of hormone concentrations.

In actual fact, when blood serum levels of progesterone are seen to rise, it is probably a sign of overdosing.

Transdermal progesterone is absorbed through the skin into the underlying fat layer, from which it diffuses into the capillaries permeating the fat, where it can be taken up in the blood as needed. Creams utilise fatty and cellular tissue as ‘resevoirs’ for storing progesterone which is why creams achieve a more sustained level of progesterone exposure.

Progesterone is quickly absorbed, showing up in saliva within just a few hours. Conversely, serum levels of progesterone will rise in about three months of using cream.

Salivary hormone profiles can measure free hormones (progesterone, estrogens, cortisols, testosterone, DHEA, melatonin). When blood flows through the capillaries of saliva glands, the free hormone passively filters into the saliva.

Saliva testing is quicker, less expensive, non-invasive, and less painful than blood tests, and the home collection kits allow you to check your hormone levels (up to six hormones can be monitored from each single sample) at the same time each day throughout your cycle (follicular phase, luteal phase, or full cycle investigation) for a more accurate profiling.

Saliva testing, therefore, provides an accurate measurement of free hormones that are actively filtering out of blood into tissue of the body.

Lori, by all accounts, EstroFactors is a supplement that support healthy estrogen metabolism and detoxification. You might also consider DIM supplements which help promote healthier estrogen metabolism by shifting the production of estrogen metabolites away from dangerous 16-hydroxy in favor of beneficial 2-hydroxy metabolites.

A Urinary Hormone Profile can determine 2 & 16 Hydroxy Estrogen Metabolites. This snapshot of your 2/16 ratio and your Estrogen Quotient (EQ) will enable you to estimate your own risk of breast, uterine, and other estrogen-related cancers.

You need to get your GP to more accurately determine hormone concentration levels and, if need be, Lori, reduce your estrogen load, guidelines of which are outlined in my ebook ‘A Woman’s Guide to Using Natural Progesterone‘.

Practitioners interested in learning more about salivary & urinary hormone profiles are generally well supported by the labs who make these tests available. The ‘good’ ones offer a comprehensive source of pathology information, references, clinical workshops, and here in Australia doctors can login and pull down patient reports directly from the internet.