While hormone labs are an indicator of where your hormones are currently at, they are completely ineffective at uncovering the ROOT CAUSE.

If your budget allows for you to get a full hormone panel in addition to other necessary functional labs then great. If not, then a hormone panel is one of the last labs I would suggest.

Why? Because unless you are going through perimenopause or menopause, a hormonal imbalance indicates that your body is under stress. That stress can be either internal, external, or a combination of both.

Internal stressors are usually a result of pathogens, toxins, blood sugar dysregulation, increased intestinal permeability, yeast overgrowth, etc…

Instead, the top 3 functional labs I personally would recommend that really help us discover the root cause are the hair tissue mineral analysis test (hair test), comprehensive stool test, and organic acids test(urine test).

As far as external stressors, we have to eliminate what we can and learn how to effectively manage the rest through practices such as breathwork, meditation, prayer, nature walks, laughter, meaningful social connections, etc…

If you can also afford a hormone panel I would recommend it to help us determine how we can best support your hormones while addressing the underlying issue but I don’t believe it’s always necessary.

While less accurate than a saliva or dried urine test, a blood draw is another option to test your hormones. This can be done through your primary care practitioner if they agree to it. Not all will since conventional primary care practitioners have not been trained nor do they properly understand hormones.

So if your budget is tight and you’re trying to figure out what functional lab to order, I would choose one, two, or all three of the ones mentioned above.