Are you doing the Right Lab Testing for your Fertility?

 I wanted to come on today and talk to you a little bit about the importance of lab testing and why it's so critical when it comes to your fertility.  I use functional lab testing all the time. I absolutely love it because it's just another way to really help you get to the root cause and delve a  little bit deeper to find out what exactly is going on and why you are struggling to have a healthy baby. Now there are so many different types of tests out there it can get a little confusing.  Let’s go over a few tests today and Ill let you know what some of my favorites are.

 Normally when you go to the doctor's office to get your blood drawn, this is the conventional way of lab testing. There's also saliva testing, urine testing, hair testing and you can test for gut health with a stool sample. So exciting, I know!

  There are a lot of methods that I prefer over others, for example when you're testing hormones it is really important to test using the best method.  When you go and get blood tested for your estrogen levels or testosterone then what that blood testing is actually doing is testing the bound hormones in your body. The bound hormones are not what is being used at that moment. We are looking for the free hormones, which are freely being used in your body. So blood testing is not as accurate since it does not test for the free hormones.

 Saliva is much more accurate at testing the free unbound hormones which gives a much better reading of what your body is doing right now.  so I really prefer saliva testing when it comes to testing your hormones.

There is also the dried urine test which is  known as the Dutch test and is really popular. It gives you so much information but it might not be the best for testing  progesterone. In urine it can only test the progesterone metabolites, which is the broken down progesterone. Urine does not give the most  accurate picture of this very important fertility hormone and neither does blood, but saliva does.

 So what I do when I am working with clients is I always start with their gut health.  You might be thinking, Caitlin, my gut health is perfectly fine. I go to the bathroom every day and it's no big deal. But there are so many things that are related to the gut that at first glance might not seem to be related. Things such as anxiety, infertility, mood swings, depression, weight gain, acne, PMS, cramps, heavy periods and so much more. All health really begins in the gut,  when we can fix out gut problems many of the other seemingly unrelated problems will fix themselves.  This is why I always start my clients with gut testing. 

The 2 different lab tests just on gut health that I do really get into the nitty-gritty and give us an amazing starting point for fixing your fertility and overall health. These tests help us to improve liver function, balance blood sugar, determine if you are getting enough essential fatty acids which is huge when it comes to fertility and so much more. 

So it's really important to know that you're getting the proper testing done and at the right time and in the right form. If you would like to delve a little bit deeper, I am running my Fix Your Fertility program and you can just give me a call and we can chat and see if you are on the right track, digging deeper in your fertility getting to the root cause so you can have that healthy baby. I'd love to talk more, let me know if you have any questions about lab testing and where to start on your fertility journey.