Timing of female hormone testing

[Esq]

I'm a fairly long-standing Defy patient, and my wife now is interested in getting all her levels checked. Rather than going through the whole Defy initial consult process without having any idea of where her levels are, I purchased the Hormone & Wellness Panel for Women from DiscountedLabs as a starting point. That includes CBC, CMP, lipid panel, free and total testosterone, estradiol, DHEA, TSH, progesterone, and FSH and LH.

I'm well aware that for men, natural levels should be checked as early in the morning as possible and fasted. Is the same true for female hormone levels?

 

[MarkM]

Yes, just like men, testing for women should be done first thing in the morning, before 10 AM at the latest, and should be done in the fasting state.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

From Allison Woodworth:
Is there a better or specific time to get labs done in terms of the menstrual cycle?

"Most prefer female labs drawn on day 19-21 since this is when the body’s peak level of progesterone is produced. Also, sometimes progesterone is only taken cyclically during the luteal phase for estrogen dominance so we want the labs drawn when they are actually taking the progesterone and to see how high the level is when combined with the body’s peak level of production.

If someone is only prescribing testosterone to women then I can see how they may recommend having them drawn on a different cycle day, per this article. I have found that this is not a great strategy though since pre-menopausal woman are very likely to experience estrogen dominance symptoms when prescribed testosterone (at a therapeutic dose) when it’s not balanced with a low-dose progesterone. If progesterone is not prescribed they are not likely to tolerate a testosterone dose high enough to significantly improve their symptoms."

 

[Jones]

This is true, for women with 28 day cycles that ovulate on day 14. To be more specific, the best day to evaluate progesterone levels is when its at its highest, which is 7 days after ovulation.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

If you still have a menstrual cycle, timing of the month for estradiol and progesterone test is essential. Wrong timing will often render your lab result useless because at certain times of the month, healthy women with normal and suboptimal hormone profile will have similar numbers to menopausal/peri-menopausal women.
During early follicular phase, E and P are naturally very low and in the menopausal range, even if you are a healthy 28 year old with fully functioning ovaries and fertility. So testing on the wrong days does not give you any useful data on your ovarian function
See below to get an accurate visual idea of how extreme the fluctuations in E and P are through out the menstrual cycle and how closely the levels look to menopausal at certain periods of the month:

SOURCE: Establishment of detailed reference values for luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, estradiol, and progesterone during different phases of the menstrual cycle on the Abbott ARCHITECT analyzer - PubMed

 

[Nelson Vergel]

 

[Nelson Vergel]

The best information on HRT for women

 

[Nelson Vergel]

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