Bluebell
Senior Member
- Messages
- 392
I am having blood drawn on Monday for a repeat CA-125 test, and I think I should probably also order a blood test on my sex hormones:
a. Because my DHEA-S is very low and I am going to consider supplementing with low-dose DHEA (5 mg capsules from Enzymatic Therapy), and they recommend getting a baseline test done of one's sex hormones before doing that. (And they recommend further testing 6 weeks out and 3 months after beginning to supplement, to make sure the DHEA isn't making the sex hormones go haywire, which I would do.)
b. And because I'm guessing it might be a wise thing to do to test my sex hormone levels, which I've never had tested before, in case I do have some kind of cancer (which my previous CA-125 test apparently should predict with 98% :thumbdown: certainty, given the high score I had on it).
As usual, the private lab test companies offer several permutations of female hormone tests -- some with one subset of hormones, others with different subsets of hormones, all at different price points.
I don't have the funds to do much testing, so I only want to do tests that are sure to provide useful, relevant information.
I also don't want to falsely economize by choosing a test panel that might miss out one or two of the really important hormones, and then in the future regret that I had not tested them.
I have tried to research this online, but I must not have the right search terms because I can't find any guidelines for exactly what sex hormones a woman should test before starting DHEA supplementation and/or if she is concerned that she might have a hormone-linked cancer.
Can anyone tell me, of the following female hormones, which should I definitely get tested, which would be nice to get tested, and which would be irrelevant?
(And have I left any important female hormones off this list??)
dihydrotestosterone DHT
estradiol
estrogens total
estriol
estrone
follicle-stimulating hormone FSH
luteinizing hormone LH
pregnenolone
progesterone
prolactin
sex hormone binding globulin SHBG
testosterone, free
testosterone, serum
testosterone, total LC/MS-MS
a. Because my DHEA-S is very low and I am going to consider supplementing with low-dose DHEA (5 mg capsules from Enzymatic Therapy), and they recommend getting a baseline test done of one's sex hormones before doing that. (And they recommend further testing 6 weeks out and 3 months after beginning to supplement, to make sure the DHEA isn't making the sex hormones go haywire, which I would do.)
b. And because I'm guessing it might be a wise thing to do to test my sex hormone levels, which I've never had tested before, in case I do have some kind of cancer (which my previous CA-125 test apparently should predict with 98% :thumbdown: certainty, given the high score I had on it).
As usual, the private lab test companies offer several permutations of female hormone tests -- some with one subset of hormones, others with different subsets of hormones, all at different price points.
I don't have the funds to do much testing, so I only want to do tests that are sure to provide useful, relevant information.
I also don't want to falsely economize by choosing a test panel that might miss out one or two of the really important hormones, and then in the future regret that I had not tested them.
I have tried to research this online, but I must not have the right search terms because I can't find any guidelines for exactly what sex hormones a woman should test before starting DHEA supplementation and/or if she is concerned that she might have a hormone-linked cancer.
Can anyone tell me, of the following female hormones, which should I definitely get tested, which would be nice to get tested, and which would be irrelevant?
(And have I left any important female hormones off this list??)
dihydrotestosterone DHT
estradiol
estrogens total
estriol
estrone
follicle-stimulating hormone FSH
luteinizing hormone LH
pregnenolone
progesterone
prolactin
sex hormone binding globulin SHBG
testosterone, free
testosterone, serum
testosterone, total LC/MS-MS