HORMONE THERAPY: FREE HORMONE LEVELS

<< RETURN TO Table of Contents

Free Hormone Levels (Saliva Testing Method)

The following information provides sample "reference ranges" for free hormone levels (also called bio-availalble hormones). For people who are self-medicating or wish to monitor their own hormone levels a new method has recently become available for doing so. It uses samples of saliva, which can be shipped through the mail and do not have the limited "shelf-life" or storage problems of serum (blood) samples.

This method of hormone testing was endorsed by the World Health Organization, especially for use in third world countries where collection of serum samples presents specific storage and transportation problems as well as the risk of infection from the invasive method of drawing blood from a vein. Saliva testing was developed over 15 years ago and has proved quite accurate and useful in evaluation of bio-available hormone levels (i.e., hormones that are not bound to proteins and are "hormonally active" within the body).

Saliva testing, however, is best used for some conditions in conjunction with serum testing, rather than as a replacement for it because it cannot show the concentration (total output) of any given hormone in the bloodstream. For example, Saliva testing can tell you how much bio-available "free" testosterone you have, but cannot tell you what percentage of the total that represents. It would also not be able to accurately reveal conversion factors of testosterone to DHT or progesterone to testosterone because the total, unbound amount in the bloodstream would need to be known to best evaluate how much was undergoing conversion as opposed to inert binding.

That being said, it can be a valuable tool for anyone who wants to more regularly monitor their hormone levels (that is, more regularly than the often sparse lab work done by Endocrinologists), and especially useful to those who do not have access to an Endocrinology lab for testing.

The following sample reference ranges came from ZRT Laboratories in Beaverton, Oregon, which is owned and operated by Dr. David Zava, one of the principle developers of commercially available saliva hormone testing, and co-author with Dr. John Lee of the best-selling book on breast cancer prevention: "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life." Each lab providing saliva hormone testing will have established its own reference ranges that compensate for methodology or equipment used in their lab, so results from one lab are NOT directly comparable to those of another lab. Testing is usually done by mail and kits can be purchased online with a credit card from a number of sources. Some labs, like ZRT, can even bill your insurance IF you get a doctor in your insurance network to order/refer the testing first. Go to "Google" and search for "Salive hormone testing" for a list of kit retailers. A kit, by the way, would consist of plastic test-tubes with stoppers, some stickers to put on the tubes, instructions on how and when to collect samples, a questionaire/survey about your health, and mailing instructions on how to send your samples to the lab.

HORMONE / SEX		RANGE
Estradiol (E2)
Male		0.5 - 1.5 pg/ml
Female
	Pre-Menopausal	1.0 - 5.0 pg/ml
	Post-Menopausal	1.0 - 1.5 pg/ml
	ERT Therapy	1.5 - 10.0 pg/ml
Progesterone (Pg)
Male		25 -100 pg/ml
Female
	Pre-menopausal (follicular)	25 - 100 pg/ml
	Pre-menopausal (luteal)	100 - 600 pg/ml
	Post-menopausal	25 - 100 pg/ml
	Oral micronized Progesterone	100 - 1000 pg/ml
	Progesterone topical cream	500 - 3000 pg/ml
Estriol
Male		less than 1.5 pg/ml
Female		5 - 20 pg/ml
Estrone
Male		less than 3.0 pg/ml
Female		2 - 10 pg/ml
Testosterone
Male		50 - 200 pg/ml
Female		20 - 50 pg/ml
Androstenedione
Male (should be at the high end of range)		25 - 200 pg/ml
Female (should be at the low end of range)		25 - 200 pg/ml
DHEA-S
Male		3 -10 pg/ml*
Female (pre-menopausal)		3 - 10 pg/ml*

* I'm assuming measure is in picograms per milliliter as other measures, though it was not stated on the information from which I transcribed this chart.

<< RETURN TO Table of Contents