Why Use Saliva
In dozens of studies, saliva has been shown to be a reliable alternative to blood in assessing hormone levels. All hormone levels for saliva represent the "free" or "unbound" form of the hormone. This is at a significantly reduced cost compared to blood.
Benefits:
• Less expensive than testing blood or urine
• Easy and convenient
• Does not require needles/venipuncture nor visits to the doctor or to the lab
• Faster turnaround time than urine tests
• Proven Accurate Provides accurate analysis of the hormone at a specific point in time
• Valuable Widely used for most steroid hormones |
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Why Use Urine
Urine is a filtrate from the blood that accurately represents what is in the body.
Urine testing not only allows direct measurement of free hormone levels, but also measurement of hormone metabolites which indicate the effects of hormones on the body.
Consequently, urine testing provides much more information on hormones in the body than any other hormone testing methodology.
24 hour collection of urine is the gold standard and the most accurate means to assess hormones and other factors in the body. For some people, however, this can be a difficult task. Fortunately, the majority of hormones are produced overnight, therefore, overnight collection provides fairly reliable results. Blood and saliva are spot tests whose values will vary throughout the day. Urine, however, represents a sample collected over a longer period of time. By analyzing such a sample, the peaks and troughs are averaged out thereby providing a far more accurate assessment of hormones and their metabolites.
Benefits:
• The most accurate representation of in vivo hormonal activity
• High patient compliance
• More economical than blood tests |
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