Complete Full Hormone Panel - Blood/Urine/Saliva - What to test?

General Discussion
#1

I am planning to undertake some complete testing to assess my status in September (+3 months after definitely quitting the drug forever) as I have been kicked very hardly by persistent side-effects that worsen after leaving the treatment.

I was interested both in the hormonal side and the neurosteroids side of the issue but I know some tests are more reliable on blood serum, others in urine and others in saliva.

I had been recommended this ZRT Labs test on neurotransmitters + Urine Hormones add on:

However, I have seen this other one with Saliva Hormones:

What are the differences and, overall, what a complete analysis should include? May somebody list every element that can be potentially useful to test for our cognitive, sexual and physical symptoms?

Many thanks in advance!

#3

That first test that is taken from urine actually looks very interesting and should give you a lot of information about what is going on your body. So definitelty go for it and after you receive it, post your results here.

#4

DUTCH Test was other option but I believe it is less complete and more focused in hormones only:

My concern is that, even though it may reveal some abnormality in neurosteroids, my doctor says that the real normal ranges of neurosteroids are not known and the results do do not reflect reality (measurement in blood/urine and not in the neurogenic system). The second issue is that even if they are not “normal”, he stated that I will not be able to do much about it.

His advice was to save your money.

Is he being too pesimistic about testing or is he right and it is useless for neurosteroids?

#5

I think the more you know about your situation, the better you can try to tackle it with right kind of ways and directions. PFS is basicly so different in different individuals that any copied regimens likely wont work. You have to know what is going on in your body to know what to try to correct it. Or other option is just to wait if body can repair itself naturally. Still, the more you know, the better, even if you go the natural path. I would do the test in your shoes.

#6

Those tests are quite expensive. Whatever the results of the tests are, what do you expect to be able to do with them?

This sounds like sensible advice. There is currently no treatment for PFS.

#7

That is the main issue. These tests are expensive and my initial expectation was to correct neurosteroids levels if something is off in the GABA-Glutamate axis. However, are those really kind of useful as my doctor suggested? I have heard that other doctors would test serotonin, GABA, prenonalone sulfute, etc.

However, if my doctor is right my effort would be useless … but the doubt kills me. What if he is not right and I find out some unablance which I can actually supplement and give me an indicative of what may potentially be lacking in the neurogenic system?

I am currently following a conservative (no pharmacological) approach with this doctor and slowly improving some symptoms. I plan to keep going this way but I need to tackle the cognitive issues (lack of motivation, lack of concentration, no libido, non restful sleep) which I am pretty sure are due to GABA-Glutamate axis inbalances.