saliva test results

Hi ladies! I'm hoping someone can shed some on the results I just got back from my saliva testing. They only did estradiol, progesterone and testosterone (I couldn't find a more comprehensive test that would ship to California; something about the laws here restricting the sale of self tests). The results were as follows:

estradiol 8am: 7.70 pmol/l (ref. range 3.00 to 12.00)
progesterone 8am: 1,350 pmol/l (ref. range 50 to 325)
testosterone 8am: 137.9 pmol/l (ref. range 15.0 to 88.0)

OK, so what I want to know is: why don't I have much of a libido, and why haven't I grown a beard if I have so darn much testosterone? (Of course it does explain why I love to drive so much.) Should I stop the progesterone cream and wait a while and re-test? Should I up the estrogen? I know they're all interdependent; just don't know which one to vary first. Also there's a note at the bottom in very tiny print that says "women using hormone replacement therapy (particularly hormone creams) or birth control pills may have results outside the reference range that may not be abnormal for a supplemented individual".

Has anyone else gotten results like this? What symptoms did you have, and what did you do?

please?

s,
-Linda

Linda,
I am by no means an expert on test results but I'll give you my thoughts on this. I think that lack of libido can be a result of an overall hormonal imbalance as much as a lack of testosterone. I do think I've read that high testosterone can also result in a lack thereof. It's all about balance. In your case your progesterone is high and it looks like your estrogen is in the middle so may be okay, but you are still out of balance.

What symptoms are you having? What are you currently taking for hrt?

I'm going to send out an APB for Lauren as she may be able to help with this.

Hi Kim, thanks for the reply.

I started out on Vivelle dot 0.1 only. I had a lot of bloating and weight gain, sore joints (especially ankles), and the dreaded brain fog , but no hot flashes or night sweats (had had them before the surgery). My hands looked like they were going to pop and my ankles had no ankle bones in sight. My libido was very good for about 6 weeks post op and then dropped off to almost nothing and has pretty much stayed there (I'm almost 6 months post op now). My DR suggested I try lowering the Vivelle dosage to 0.075, which I tried to do but had awful hot flashes and mood swings; plus my skin started breaking out and the joint pain increased. So, I went back to the Vivelle 0.1 and tried adding progesterone cream. That cleared up my skin and reduced the bloating and sore joints. My ankles still hurt when I get up in the morning but it's not as bad as it was, and now I can actually see my ankle bones. But still no libido to be found, and my weight is still way up (I started gaining weight before the surgery as I was perimenopausal, and it has continued after the surgery; I've gone from a size 4 two years ago to a size 12 now ). At that point I did the saliva test, with the results above. Since then, just these past few days I've tried adding Damiana and I think it may be helping a bit with the libido but it's still too early to tell. And now I'm noticing a little vaginal dryness, nothing bad yet but just so it's slightly uncomfortable. I feel pretty good most of the time, it's just the weight gain and lack of libido that are bothersome, plus the sore ankles. I was thinking before I got the results back that maybe testosterone would be helpful but now I see that it's already high????

I'm at a loss here as to what to do next. I'd appreciate any insight you or Lauren might have.

s,
-Linda