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Interpretation of hormone testing using saliva, dried blood spot, or serum can be tricky when women are using oral, patch, or other hormonal contraception methods. The types of hormones in these contraceptives are synthetic, and although they may be close to the molecular structure of our body's own estradiol or progesterone, they are not bioidentical. While bioidentical hormones used as supplements react in the same way as our endogenous hormones to the specific antibodies used during hormone testing, non-bioidentical hormones aren’t recognized by these antibodies so they are not measured by the same test. How does hormonal contraception affect test...

In our current medical paradigm, screening for cancer is considered a preventive measure by virtue of providing an earlier diagnosis. Getting an early jump on a disease process like cancer makes treatment exponentially easier and outcomes generally better. Under the current guidelines, that early jump on prostate cancer starts at age 55 for men at low to moderate risk and 40-45 for men at high risk. It takes years for cancer to grow to a detectable point after the tumor's initial induction from a normal cell to a cancerous one. There's been a lot of research done to determine what...

Testosterone replacement therapy cab be useful and it has the potential to drastically improve quality of life of those who need it when it is used correctly. However, many men who begin topical testosterone are given too much of the hormone. Explanations for this erroneous tendency are rooted in incorrect dosing principles that have been established on false assumptions, misconceptions, invalid conclusions and aggressive marketing instead of physiology and science. Why are testosterone replacement standards and prescribing processes so frequently misguided?  Testosterone Overdose Begins With Incorrect Dosing Principles For topical application, a physiologic daily dose of any sex steroid (in...

Cortisol should increase around %50 in the first 30 minutes on awakening then start to progressively drop the remainder of the day. Three, rather than one, early morning collections are what is needed to accurately assess the CAR; one immediately on waking, one 30 minutes later, and another at 1 hour. Diurnal Rhythm Assessment Thirty minutes after awakening from a good night's sleep, cortisol levels are at the highest they'll be all day. Following the morning peak, cortisol levels then fall to less than half that peak level by noon. They continue to drop to very low levels at night where...

I remember the uncertain winter of my entrance into perimenopause so well. It began in my late 40s, with hot flashes that came on like heat waves every half hour. In the dead of winter, I found myself flinging open windows to let in the freezing air; I soon found out that having hot flashes in winter was nothing like having them in summer, when the added heat and humidity made them feel more like mini-meltdowns.   How to Cool Down without Melting Down Perimenopause is a hormonally challenged transition during which the ovaries gradually begin to make less estrogen and progesterone; it...