Re: hormone test: blood vs. saliva?

It's been a long time since I posted (had Mirena removed June 19, 2009, so I'm over a year since removal) but I felt I needed to respond regarding neurotransmitters.

I have had 2 saliva/urine hormone and neurotransmitter tests done since removal. I am extremely uncertain about the accuracy of the hormone test, but the neurotransmitter test seemed right on.

The first test I had done was in the summer of 2009 to see where I was. At that time I had racing heartbeat, night sweats, and slept very little. I was wired all the time. My neurotransmitter test showed at that time, very accurately, that my cortisol and excitatory neurotransmitters were through the roof. I was prescribed some suppplements to deal with adrenal malfunction and help me relax, and eventually, progesterone cream.

I won't get into the whole story here, but I had a very poor reaction to bioidentical Progesterone Cream, which was at least as traumatic as the Mirena, and which I am still dealing with today, after being off progesterone for 8 months. The progesterone gave me horrific brain fog and terrible fatigue, basically, the opposite of the problems that I was dealing with a year ago.

I had a test done in June to see if my hormones had changed and if the Progesterone had washed out of my system, which didn't make much sense from the hormonal standpoint, but all of the neurotransmitters that had been high before, are now abnormally low. I am trying natural treatment for this, but feel it is mostly a matter of my hormones balancing themselves over time. My fatigue has lessened in the last 8 months, but very slowly.

So if you are curious, I think that urine/saliva tests can give you an accurate neurotransmitter profile, but the jury is out on their horomonal accuracy -- at least as far as I am concerned.