I have spent the entire day today working on the notes I received back from my editor on my manuscript The Awakened Body.  As I am working through the edits, I am reflecting on the events of the past couple of weeks. I have been reflecting on the fact that when I first learned about saliva testing and natural hormone balancing 4 ½ years ago, my initial study was primarily about progesterone. My progesterone level was severely low at the time, so when I supplemented with transdermal progesterone, my response was dramatic. 

Along the way I began to learn about the relationship between the sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone), the adrenal glands, and the thyroid. Everything in the literature pointed to the significant interaction among the three. Thinking I was proactive, I would routinely have “a thyroid blood test” drawn at the time of my annual physical, but I really didn’t pay much attention to which thyroid test(s) I had.  My results were usually on the low end of normal, but “within normal limits.”

Recently I became aware of the Canary Club (www.canaryclub.org) and their home hormone test kits.  Since I was due for my annual saliva test, I decided I would like to evaluate their services myself, so I ordered the complete test kit: Estradiol, Progesterone, Progesterone/Estradiol ratio, Testosterone, DHEA, Cortisol x 4, Free T4, Free T3, TSH, TPO, and Vitamin D…D2, D3, and Total. 

I had never had the four cortisol tests done before…morning, noon, evening, and night.  In fact, never before had I tested my sex hormones, adrenals, and thyroid all at the same time.  Most all my results came back low, the exception being the progesterone which was within normal limits. The lab values confirmed the symptoms I am currently experiencing.  It really occurred to me that Progesterone is very important, but there is a whole lot more going in hormone balancing besides progesterone.

I scheduled a meeting with Dr. Whitney Gabhart, ND (www.whitneygabhartnd.com), to help me understand my results and develop a plan of action. Once she diagrammed out all the glands and my results, it became very clear what was going on…for example, why my TSH is high and my Free T3 low.  I also pulled the book back off the shelf, Feeling Fat, Fuzzy, or Frazzled? by Drs. Richard and Karilee Shames and started looking at it with new eyes.  I found the self-evaluations in Chapter 3 to be quite revealing and accurate.    I also ordered the book that Dr. Gabhart recommended, Hypothyroidism, Type 2, by Mark Starr, MD. 

The literature is pointing to a growing epidemic of thyroid abnormalities.  Suddenly it hit me that many of the reasons that we become low in progesterone are also some of the same reasons we become low in our thyroid levels.  Our toxic environment is making a significant negative impact on our health. 

The article I read last week by Dr. Karilee Shames also taught me the importance of having the thyroid values tested via blood spot, vs blood from the arm.  See blog article posted on April 9, “Must-Know Thyroid Test Info.”

Something that has become very clear to me is that one cannot look at the sex hormones separately from the adrenals and the thyroid. Now through my own testing I have personally witnessed what Dr. Gabhart taught me long ago about the “three legged milk stool.”  She said to me, “OK, Rosie, look at it this way. Picture the sex hormones on one leg, the adrenals on the second leg, and the thyroid on the third leg. Now break off a leg. Can you sit on your stool? How about if you break off two legs?”

The bottom line: one affects the other, and all of them are needed for healthy balance. Hmm…lots to reflect on and study.  To be continued…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 1:21 am and is filed under Hormone Balancing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.