Wellness Wednesday

Why dried urine hormone testing takes the gold. FullScript's upcoming supplement sale. Next week: winter cold/flu supplement guide.

Welcome to my new newsletter.

HELLO!  It’s Stacey Baganz (from Happy Hormones), here with my new Substack newsletter!  Most of you are already on my previous email list, so I have manually switched you over here to make it easy.  Of course, if you don’t like what you see, feel free to opt out at any time.

I’m testing out the Substack platform in hopes to be more consistent with posting and have more interactive options.  My platform will always be free for the most part.  Eventually I may have some upgraded features for paid subscribers but we’ll see how that evolves.

My hope for everyone is that you are able to take your health into your own hands, thru the choices that you make, driven by knowledge. I would love to see the topics of these posts manifest from the questions you have about nutrition, hormones, and overall natural health.

Please comment on the post or sent me a private email to stacey@happyhormones.info and let me know what information would help you best and I’ll try to cover those topics in the future.

Next week: Zinc for colds

A quick teaser for next week: all about Zinc - how you should take it, and how it’s showing amazing promise to keep you from getting winter colds if done the right way. All this coming on the heels of FullScript’s upcoming supplement sale, I’ll also have a downloadable “medicine kit” for all things colds and flu. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Please consider supporting the creation of these free posts by purchasing your supplements at FullScript.  You’ll automatically get 10% off thousands of physician grade supplements (why pay full price ever!).  Become a client and get 20-25% always! FullScript is having their twice yearly sale coming up (September 12th, 2023 at 10:00 PM thru September 15th, 2023 at 12:59 AM), so you’ll get an additional 5% off your discount. 

Question of the Day: Why dried urine testing for hormones?

Today’s question of the day comes from the fact that many people contact me wanting to know more about the DUTCH test, which is one of the most advanced hormone tests out on the market today. It’s an amazingly comprehensive test that deep dives into all your different hormones to gives you not only a picture of what your hormone levels are, but how you metabolize these hormones - and does that set you up for increased risk of hormone related issues. Better yet, Doctor’s Data has just come out with a similar test at almost half the price, so it’s REALLY AFFORDABLE.

I love working with women in perimenopause because I feel a part of their journey, and understand how bad it can suck with unwanted symptoms that most docs write off. With most MD’s I’ve encountered recently, it’s very black and white.  I either need a pharmaceutical or my uterus cut out……..there’s no grey area, nor trying to figure out the why behind any of it. 

I love functional lab testing because it shows the SCIENCE OF WHY.  Why are your symptoms there?  What is going on with your biochemistry and what nutrients do you need to rebalance it?  Dried urine for testing hormones is the go to for uncovering the answer when it comes to hormones. 

In my own personal journey of dealing with fibroids, I use this as example for how DUTCH test uncovered the WHY. Most fibroids are caused by an excess of estrogen that feeds them, and usually shrink at menopause since estrogen declines.  My gyno wanted to run some labs - and only ran estradiol to see if estrogen was the issue. It came back low - an anomaly she scratched her head at. How can you have fibroids if your estrogen is low? She then proceeds to offer 2 suggestions: birth control pills to balance hormones, or better yet just cut out your uterus.

I said a polite thank you, I’ll think on it. I knew my next move was to test my urine for hormones and sure enough the WHY was right there. It was a bright shining light on what the gyno could never wrap her head around.  You see the urine test breaks down all the kinds of estrogens (not just the one that the gyno tested).  And sure enough, I was metabolizing my estrogens into a more potent form that was stimulating growth inside my uterus.  Second, the tests shows that downstream, my methylation (aka detox) was lacking, so my estrogens were recirculating…….thus causing more potent estrogens to again hang around and wreak havoc.  To top the cake, my progesterone was on the decline because I am sometimes ovulating, sometimes not (thank you perimenopause).  Progesterone is what keeps estrogen behaving and in check.  Since my progesterone was low (of course the MD didn’t check that) in relation to estrogen, nothing was there to keep those fibroids from growing. In comes the need for a holistic minded prescriber who gave me oral bio-identical progesterone.

Now, had I just blindly listened to the MD and taken the birth control pills I might be having fibroids the size of watermelons sticking out of my belly by now.  How could an MD suggest estrogen to a women with an estrogen issue?  Well she didn’t think I had an estrogen issue cause she tested one measly marker.  And to top the cake, since I tend to metabolize estrogen into the more potent, cancerogenic form, taking birth control could have set me up for increased risk of cancer.  Standard blood tests tell you none of these things!

So, what to do now?  Well I am on a path to hopefully shrink these buggars, or I may be looking into focused ultrasound ablation.  I am increasing my estrogen detox by using DIM for Phase 1.   For Phase 2 estrogen detox I am using B vitamins, magnesium and Sam-E and ensuring adequate probiotics for Phase 3.  I am also taking glutathione and resveratrol to mitigate the risk of the more potent form of estrogen. I also know that high glycemic foods and alcohol push estrogen down the pathway I don’t want, so I am being careful of my diet and avoiding the booze.  None of these things would be considered or evaluated at my gyno office.

What else is cool about the urine hormone tests?  They evaluate all your hormones and their metabolites…….estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone.  They also check your adrenals (way more comprehensive than saliva testing, but more on that another day) which are critical for optimal energy, sex hormone health, optimal sleep, and weight balance.

There’s 2 companies using dried urine right now……..DUTCH (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) and HU-MAP (Hormone and Urinary Metabolite Assessment Profile).  I love them both.  HU-MAP is way more affordable right now, but lacks a couple markers that the DUTCH has (like B vitamins, neurotransmitters and melatonin). 

How can you get your hands on one of these?

Reach out to me to see how we can work together and I’ll order it and interpret it for you!

Or you can order it your self here, but be forewarned, you’ll look at it and wonder what foreign language it’s written in. 

There’s so much you can do with functional testing that goes way beyond standard care.  For women in perimenopause, it’s so important to know these metabolites to mitigate cancer risk and other nasty things that creep up as we approach the big change.

Until next time, remember

SEND IN YOUR QUESTIONS OR TOPIC SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE POSTS: stacey@happyhormones.info