Saliva hormone testing

Saliva hormone testing measures hormone levels in a saliva sample you collect at home. Six profiles are available, covering the oestrogens — oestradiol, oestrone and oestriol — along with progesterone, testosterone, DHEA-S, cortisol and melatonin. Because saliva can be collected at several points across a day without a needle, it suits questions about how a hormone changes through the day — the cortisol pattern from waking to bedtime being the common one — rather than a single reading at a single moment.

A blood test measures total hormone, most of which is bound to carrier proteins and not immediately available to tissues. Saliva reflects the unbound, bioavailable fraction. Neither is simply better: blood is the standard your GP and specialists work from and is the right test for most clinical questions, while saliva is easier to collect repeatedly and is used when the pattern across a day matters more than a single number. They are not interchangeable, and a saliva result does not replace a blood test your doctor has asked for.

No. The kit is ordered online, posted to you, collected at home and sent to the laboratory — you do not need to come to the clinic at any point. If you would like help interpreting the results, a consultation with one of the naturopaths at Brunswick Health can be booked separately, in person or by telehealth.

The kit contains the collection tube or tubes, the instruction sheet for that kit, a specimen bag and a return envelope. In outline: fast overnight from 10pm with water only before a morning sample, avoid alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes on the day, and do not brush, floss, use mouthwash or wear lipstick or lip balm for two hours beforehand. Wash your hands, rinse your mouth with water twice, wait fifteen minutes, then let saliva pool and fill the tube completely without coughing or clearing your throat into it. Cap it, wipe it, and write your name, date of birth and the date and time of collection on the tube. Follow the timing on your own sheet exactly — the timing is what makes the result readable.

Yes, and it takes no more collecting than the stress profile on its own. The two combined profiles run the four-point cortisol day and the full female or male panel from the same set of tubes, with the sex hormones read from the 6am to 8am sample. They cost less than ordering the two profiles separately. If you are still cycling, the collection day for the combined female profile is day 21, so both timing rules land on the same morning.

It follows the question you are asking. Cycle, fertility or menopausal symptoms point to the female hormone profile; testosterone and energy questions in men point to the male one. A pattern that follows the clock rather than the calendar — wired at night, flat at 3pm, waking unrefreshed — points to the stress profile, which measures cortisol four times across a day. Sleep onset itself is the sleep profile, melatonin and cortisol from one midnight sample. If it is both hormones and stress, the combined profiles cover the two in one collection. If you are not sure, call the clinic on (03) 9380 8099 before ordering rather than after.

For the female hormone profile, day 21 of your cycle if you are still menstruating, collected first thing in the morning between 6am and 8am. If you are menopausal or postmenopausal, any day works, still as a first-morning sample. Progesterone and the oestrogens move through the cycle, so a sample taken on the wrong day measures something real but answers a different question. The cortisol kit is not cycle-timed at all — it is collected at set times across a single day.

Four samples on the same day: between 6am and 8am and within half an hour of getting up, then 12pm to 1pm, 4pm to 5pm, and 8pm to 10pm. That spread is the whole point of the test — it is what shows the shape of your cortisol curve rather than one point on it. DHEA comes from the first tube, so it costs you no extra collection. All four have to be from the same day; a set collected across two days cannot be analysed. Label each tube with the time you collected it, and keep the tubes in the fridge until the last one is done.

Melatonin, which is an optional extra on the stress profile and costs more than the four-tube version. Use it only if you ordered melatonin: collect at midnight, in a dark room and away from screens, and write “melatonin” on the tube along with your name, date of birth and the time. Light suppresses melatonin, so a tube filled with the lamp on measures the light in the room as much as the hormone.

Collect the next day at the right time rather than later the same day. Waiting a day costs you nothing; shifting the time changes what the number means, particularly for cortisol, which falls steadily from waking through the evening. On the stress profile that means starting the whole set again the next day, since all four tubes have to come from one day.

Give it a few minutes rather than rushing — tilt your head forward, let saliva pool at the front of your mouth, tap the tube as you go so the bubbles settle, and think about lemons or a favourite food, which works better than it sounds. Do not top the tube up with mucus or anything cleared from your throat, because that cannot be analysed. A tube filled short cannot be processed: a replacement kit is posted out and charged at 30% of the kit price, so the extra few minutes on the day are worth it.

Keep the sealed tube in the fridge overnight after collecting, never the freezer. On the day you post it, wrap the tube in foil, seal it into the specimen bag and post it that day in the return envelope, with your completed questionnaire kept separate from the sample rather than tucked in beside it. Collect on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday so the sample reaches the clinic before Friday instead of sitting in a mail centre over the weekend, and wait out a heat wave — the sample has to hold at room temperature in transit.

NutriPATH, an Australian laboratory specialising in hormone, metabolite and allergen analysis. It is accredited to ISO 15189 by NATA — the National Association of Testing Authorities — which is the standard for quality and competence in medical laboratories, and holds CLIA accreditation as well. Accreditation is what separates a laboratory result from a reading: it means the methods and the equipment are independently assessed against a published standard rather than taken on trust.

Yes. Reports and client details are handled under the Australian Privacy Act, and Brunswick Health has been operating under those obligations as a health clinic since 1990. Your report is emailed to you, and nobody else receives it unless you ask us to send it on.

Results are emailed within 10 to 14 business days of the laboratory receiving your sample. Add postal transit time on top of that — allow around three weeks from the day you post the sample to the day the report arrives.

You can, but tell whoever is interpreting the result, because it changes what the numbers mean. Hormonal contraception, hormone replacement therapy and topical hormone creams all affect saliva readings, and topical creams in particular can produce very high saliva values that do not reflect what tissues are receiving. The kit asks for a gap between your last dose and your sample — 24 hours for creams, gels and capsules, and three days for patches, sublingual drops and troches. Where those hormones are prescribed, talk to whoever prescribes them before skipping a dose rather than deciding it for a test. Either way, list everything you take, because a result read without your medications can be badly misleading.

No. Saliva hormone testing is a measurement, not a diagnosis. It does not diagnose, exclude or treat any medical condition, and it is not meant to stand on its own. If you have symptoms that concern you, book a naturopathy consultation and bring them — some of what people order this test hoping to explain needs blood pathology that saliva testing cannot provide, and the naturopaths here can arrange it through a private laboratory — paid directly to the lab, without a Medicare rebate.

Medicare does not cover saliva hormone testing. Most private health funds do not cover it either, though some pay a benefit when a naturopathy consultation is involved and naturopathy is included in your extras cover. Check with your fund before ordering rather than after.