How To Get My Hormones Checked

How To Get Your Blood To Clot

How to Get Blood to Clot Faster

• Receive injections of desmopressin . This hormone causes the body to accelerate its own natural clotting mechanism.
• Exercise regularly.
• Avoid medicines and drugs that cause your blood to thin.
• If you take vitamin supplements, check with your doctor about the amount of vitamin E you should be taking.

How Early Can A Blood Test Detect That You’re Pregnant

Hormonal blood tests performed by a medical facility can detect pregnancy earlier than home pregnancy tests using urine. Blood tests can detect pregnancy between six and eight days after you ovulate. By contrast, home pregnancy tests should be taken after your period is late, which is between 12 and 16 days after ovulation. Waiting until this point can help you avoid false negatives or positives.

Risks Of Not Treating Hormone Imbalances

Hormone imbalances, when left untreated, are more than just annoying mood swings and bad PMS. They can be indicators that something more serious rarely, even cancerous is happening in your body.

Not getting your hormones back in balance could lead to other problems, like elevated cholesterol, osteoporosis, obesity, lack of sleep, and more.

Although truly identified hormonal imbalances often need medical or even surgical intervention, a healthy lifestyle can improve low-level symptoms.

Do your best to get:

• 6-8 hours of sleep each day
• 30+ minutes of vigorous exercise daily
• And a high-quality diet with enough protein and healthy fats and less sugar.

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Common Hormone Testing For Women

Before you begin your search and compare your options, lets take a look at 12 lab tests designed to help identify hormonal imbalances in women.

1. DHEA-S

This acronym stands for Dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate. This is a weak male hormone that adrenal glands produce in both men and women.

What It Measures

A DHEA-S test measures the level of this hormone in your blood. It is appropriate for women who appear to have too many male hormones.

Clinical Test Reference Range

Normal levels of DHEA-S will vary depending on each individuals sex and age. The average normal ranges for females measured in mcg/dL, as reported by Quest, are listed below.

• < 1 Month: 15-261

There is a particular group of steroids responsible for regulating your menstrual cycle and functioning as your main female sex hormones. This group includes the most predominant form of estrogen, called Estradiol, also referenced as Estradiol-17 Beta or E2.

What It Measures

An Estradiol test measures the level of Estradiol in your blood.

As its produced mainly in your ovaries, doctors can analyze this hormonal activity to see if your organs are functioning as they should.

Clinical Test Reference Range

Normal levels of Estradiol in women will vary depending on the menstrual cycle and age. The following Estradiol levels are considered normal for women, as reported by Quest.

• Follicular Phase: 19-144 pg/mL

Normal levels for postmenopausal women should be lower than 10 pg/mL.

What an Imbalance Means

3. Estrogens, Total

Now Lets Go Through What Some Of The Hormone Imbalances You Can Suffer From Look Like

First, we have some saliva test results from my patients. I use saliva testing a lot because its very easy for patients to do. You can do it at home and its also good because it gives us a slightly different look at the hormones compared to blood tests. This is because saliva comes out of your body, so its carrying hormone levels which are very similar to what are next to your cells.

Whereas the blood is telling you about whats being transported out to your cells, which is slightly different.

In this example here, what we can see is the testosterone is high. It should be 100 but its up over 200, so thats double the amount of testosterone. Also, you can see progesterones on the lower side as well. This combination of low female hormone and high male sex hormone spells trouble for your skin because its going to trigger excess oil production, particularly in the week before a period.

In this next chart, weve got high testosterone, low progesterone and high estrogen. You can see the progesterone is not out of range, but its sitting down the bottom end. This test was done 21 days from the start of a period and at this point in the cycle, progesterone should be at the upper end, not the lower end, of the range.

The other hormones are up at the top end of the ranges. High testosterone is particularly problematic because its going to increase oil production, and the high estrogens are an issue too because theyre contributing to progesterone suppression.

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Why Is It Important To Keep Hormone Levels Incheck

A balance in the level of hormones in your body is vital to your health. Even a slight imbalance can have adverse effects and cause severe health issues. This is why it is important to keep a keep a track of your hormone levels. Typically, you can visit the doctor every now and then and undergo testing.

But for many, scheduling a doctors appointment is a hassle, and they are looking for ways to check their hormone levels at home. But is this as reliable as a hormone blood test at your doctors office?

Who Gets An Estrogen Test

Doctors may recommend testing of estradiol or estrone for symptoms such as:

• Menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats and irregular menstrual periods

If you take hormone therapy to treat symptoms of menopause, your doctor may give you an E1 or E2 test to see how well treatment is going.

Girls whose sex organs develop earlier or later than normal may also get tested for E1 and E2 levels.

Doctors usually test E3 during pregnancy, when it temporarily becomes the main estrogen. Abnormal levels of estriol may be a sign of problems with the babyâs health — but youâd get a lot more tests to find out for sure.

You might need several tests to track changes in your estrogen levels over time.

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Your Genetics And Deficiencies Were Not Your Choice Correcting Them Will Be

You dont know what you dont know and for whatever reason, growing up you may not have known that the food you were eating, liquids you were drinking, and habits you were developing were detrimental to your future selfs hormone system.

After this piece thats no longer an excuse because Im telling you now, everything you do and all that you are stems from the levels within.

I went from being motivated, energized, and hyper-focused to lethargic, weight was starting to pack on, and I didnt have that sense of irrational confidence which once raged strong within my soul.

After coming to terms that something was wrong, I took Phil up on his offer to enter his hormone, training, and nutrition program before it was released to the public.

This is the greatest decision Ive ever taken with regards to optimizing my mental health and physique.

Notably because, it worked.

I had my hormones checked and lo-& -behold my T levels were in the tank and it was causing all sorts of other hormones to be out of whack. It was like I had a Go-Kart engine in my soul when theyre used to be a V-8.

The way Phil broke it down and this is especially important for men, is that Testosterone is our Master Switch and if that switch is OFF or jacked up, its going to cause the rest of the system to go haywire.

There Is A Similar Test Advertised On The Internet Can This Test Be Taken At Home

Samples of urine, saliva, faeces and finger-prick blood, which can be collected at home, are currently used by the NHS for specific tests, especially in relation to children.

It is recommended that all tests are overseen by the patients GP and/or endocrinologist. This is because it is important that a doctor has carried out a full examination of the patient and talked to them face-to-face to ensure that they can properly interpret the results of any tests. The advantage of a professionally collected sample , eg, blood from a vein, is that enough is taken to allow double-checking of extreme results, repeating the analysis after dilution, investigating possible human or biological interference, allowing additional tests to be carried out if required without the delay and discomfort of taking another sample.

Some internet laboratories are acceptable, but the small volume of self-taken samples creates limitations. With hormones, it is often best to measure more than one at once in order to get the full-picture.

It can be difficult for internet laboratories without full knowledge of individual medical details, for example, the drugs being taken, to appreciate the significance of the results, or fully interpret them.

It is important to take care when comparing results from different laboratories because significant variation can arise from differences in the measurement technology.

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The Brightest Sunrise Follows The Darkest Night

Not too long ago I looked like the Pain photo above and now I look better than the Gain photo.

I was trying to outwork an unbalanced body and mind but I couldnt do it as I was always so freaking tired

Now, Im crushing the workouts and continuing to take those energy levels to the rest of my day.

If youre in a tough spot mentally or physically, I strongly encourage you to get your hormones checked, it literally saved my life.

Looking at the bigger picture, it also made me a better husband to my wife and father to my son and daughter getting my hormones optimized was like putting the oxygen mask on, I had to help me before I could help anyone else.

I fixed my hormones, got sober, the weight is falling off and muscle mass is growing look at how that list started though

I found out what was happening within and went from there.

Why Cortisol Testing Is Important

Cortisol testing is important because that system does not always function in the normal, healthy manner outlined above. Sometimes cortisone levels can stay too high for too long, which can have far-reaching effects on your health, such as:

• Anxiety
• Problems with memory and/or concentration

Issues That Can Cause Abnormally High Cortisol Levels include:

1- Chronic stress: The bodys natural fight-or-flight stress response system is set up to manage short-term stress situations. Stress in todays world is often a longer-term health issue. Rather than being stressed by a sudden encounter with a predator, a situation that can be resolved quickly by running away, we are more likely to face ongoing problems that cause stress, like job pressures, for instance, or financial ones. This can cause long-term activation of the stress response system, leading to chronically high levels of cortisol.

2- Problems with the pituitary gland: Tumors on the pituitary gland or excess growth of the gland can cause it to release too much ACTH, increasing cortisol levels.

3- Problems with adrenal glands: Tumors on the adrenal glands can cause overproduction of cortisol.

4- Other tumors: Growths in other areas of the body can increase cortisol production.

5- Medications: Overuse of corticosteroid medications or long-term use of them can lead to abnormally high cortisol levels.

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When To Test For Hormone Imbalance

So when do we want to test your estrogen and progesterone to best understand what the relative balance or imbalance is? Most of the time when there’s hormone imbalance going on, the women is premenopausal or perimenopausal. This would be from age 17-18 all the way up to say 50 or even 55. If you are still menstruating you are susceptible to the relative balance of estrogen and progesterone. Imbalance is more common closer to menopause though. When we check your estrogen and progesterone typically, we want to do this at the peak of the progesterone. We do that because low progesterone is often times part of the problem and causing the imbalance and other times it is high estrogen. To verify this you want to check the levels at a specific time of the month when the progesterone is peaking. For any female that is menstruating, we want to tested for estrogen and progesterone on cycle day 21 or close to it. If you have a shorter cycle that peak of progesterone may come a little bit earlier. If that is the case, you may want to do it on cycle day 19 or something close to day 21.

Hormonal Imbalance And Women

Female hormones are powerful chemical messengers that regulate the reproductive system and influence many other vital systems. When they are present in the body in the proper amounts and ratios, they work in concert with one another to promote optimal health and well-being. However, when female hormonal imbalance becomes an issue, the consequences can manifest themselves throughout the body, taking a toll on a woman’s health and quality-of-life. When the condition is accurately identified and treated, the balance of female hormones can be corrected, reducing the symptoms and health risks associated with hormonal imbalance.

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The Skin Health Tests

The symptoms: Acne, along with constipation and a low libido, are all signs that you might be suffering from a hormonal imbalance that topical skin products just wont touch.

The hormone: Oestradiol is a form of oestrogen produced in the ovaries.

What will it tell you? High oestradiol is linked to higher than normal levels of oestrogen, or oestrogen dominance, which upsets the normal balance of hormones and can lead to symptoms such as acne, constipation, low libido, depression, as well as an increased risk of oestrogen-driven womb and breast cancer.

Hormonal Imbalance And Weight Gain

Hormones play an integral role in metabolism and your bodys ability to use energy. Hormone disorders, such as Cushing syndrome, can cause you to become overweight or develop obesity.

People with Cushing syndrome have high levels of cortisol in their blood. This leads to an increase in appetite and fat storage.

Hypothyroidism, if the condition is severe, can also lead to weight gain.

During menopause, many women gain weight because the metabolism slows down. You may find that even though youre eating and exercising like normal, you still gain weight.

The only way to treat weight gain from a hormone disorder is to treat the underlying condition.

During a normal, healthy pregnancy, your body goes through major hormonal changes. This is different than a hormonal imbalance.

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Hormonal Changes In The Menstrual Cycle

For women who have periods, your female hormone levels control the menstrual cycle. Your cycle length is measured from the day your period starts, to the start of your next period. On average the menstrual cycle lasts for 28 days â but your menstrual cycle can last for anywhere between 21 to 40 days.

A blood test can help you to track the hormonal changes which occur during your menstrual cycle.

How To Test Cortisol Levels

Cortisol levels are measured with lab tests. These may be blood tests, which measure levels of the hormone in the bloodstream, or saliva tests, which measure cortisol levels in a saliva sample. Cortisol testing is typically done early in the morning, when levels are normally highest. Often, to produce the most accurate results, testing is repeated in the afternoon of the same day. Cortisol testing is often done in conjunction with ACTH level tests, since this pituitary gland hormone works to regulate cortisone levels. ACTH tests measure levels of the hormone in the bloodstream.

Getting tested can be done through your health care provider, who can order your tests for you, take your blood or saliva samples or send you to a lab to have them done. Then, your provider will let you know your results once they are delivered to his or her office.

You can also order these lab tests yourself online or over the phone from independent testing services, like Health Testing Centers. Ordering your own tests is generally less expensive, since you skip the cost of an office visit, and more efficient, since the results are delivered directly to you.

However, it is important to note that if your tests show that your cortisol and/or ACTH levels are abnormal too high or too low following up on those results with a visit to your healthcare provider is essential. Abnormal levels of these important hormones require further examination and testing.

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What Is High Estrogen In Men

Too much estrogen in the male body can interfere with fertility, sexual function and even raise the risk for chronic diseases. One cause of hormone imbalance in aging men is that is testosterone is converted to estrogen, which can result in an excess of estradiol. Lab testing can reveal hormonal imbalances of estrogen and testosterone.

Here Are Our Tips On How To Get What You Want And Need Out Of Hormone Testing

Your visit to the OBGYN:

• Get the test taken during the first few days of your cycle , if possible.
• Ask your OBGYN for a hormone panel test that includes estrogen, progesterone, FSH and LH .
• Ask additionally for a thyroid test, blood sugar test and Vitamin D3 test. These are also important indicators for hormonal health.
• Ask that they also run a general blood test you want to be checked for iron saturation, anemia, and C-reactive proteins particularly.
• Ask for a print out of your results to take home if they are not made available online for you to access.

Assessing the results:

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