Female & Male Hormone Testing & Balancing

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy

We offer Edmonton a wide range of hormone optimization strategies for both men and women.

Our Practitioners usually begin with Salivary, Urinary or Blood hormone testing. 

Often times, we start with gentle natural hormone balancing options including vitamins and herbs.

However, when stronger options are needed, our Nurse Practitioner can prescribe bioidentical hormones.

Our NP can also provide Testosterone Replacement Therapy (also known as TRT).

Testing

Successful treatment of hormonal health concerns usually begins with effective testing.

If we are able to run comprehensive hormone testing it allows our practitioners to make extremely specific recommendations to address female health concerns. It all starts with hormone testing. 

Our basic hormone screens always include: Estradiol, Progesterone, DHEA, Testosterone and Cortisol as well as Thyroid Testing (TSH, Free T3 & T4). 

Salivary hormone testing is a cost effective test method that lets our practitioners understand your free hormones at the level of the tissues.

Saliva allows for precisely timed Cortisol testing as well as an easy, needle free, at-home option.

Dr. Muradov & Dr. Deol have used salivary hormones for many years and can attest to their clinical validity.

Blood hormone testing is the lowest cost methodology with rapid turnaround in the Edmonton area.

Blood allows us to understand pituitary signals such as FSH & LH and how they affect both women's and men's health concerns.

For patients considering HRT, we usually work with blood based hormone testing and monitoring.

Urinary hormone testing ("DUTCH" Testing) lets us understand both male and female hormones and their metabolites.

Urinary testing also looks at various nutritional metabolites that are not available in blood testing.

DUTCH testing can provide amazing insight but can be quite costly especially for HRT & TRT monitoring.

Hormone Health in Edmonton

Most commonly we treat fatigue, weight gain, PMS, menopause and low libido at our Edmonton office.

Treatments 

Hormonal treatments vary depending on your test results.

Our Naturopaths often start with Vitamins, Herbs and Supplements to gently balance hormones in many hormonal health cases.

Treatments used: Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs, Nutraceuticals & Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Vitamins - water soluble B6, B5 and B12 as well as fat soluble vitamins A, D & K

Minerals - magnesium, manganese, boron, zinc, selenium, copper and iron.

Nutraceuticals - glucarate, indole-3-carbinol, DIM,  chrysin, creatine and carnitine.

Herbs - Rosemary, Vitex, Black Currant, Milk Thistle, Green Tea, Fadogia, and Tongkat Ali.

Hormones - Bioidentical Progesterone, Estrogen, Testosterone and DHEA

For example, Estrogen excess is a commonly seen issue and it can be an exacerbating factor for PMS, irregular, heavy or painful cycles.

We may try to improve Estrogen removal through the liver with Rosemary and bowels with Glucarate as well as increase Progesterone with Vitex relative to your particular Estrogen level.

If needed, bioidentical Progesterone is used to offset Estrogen dominance from our Nurse Practitioner.

Another example, androgen deficiency is commonly found and often completely overlooked by previous practitioners.

Low Testosterone and/or DHEA has been seen many times by our Naturopaths in our Edmonton patients and can contribute to low mood, energy, libido, muscle mass and can play a role in female weight gain. 

Our office works with bioidentical Testosterone and DHEA Replacement Therapy as it is challenging to seriously impact androgen values with natural therapies. 

Other Treatments

Occasionally, IV therapy is used for female concerns such as fatigue or low mood.

Our Naturopaths usually suggest IV Therapy if hormonal augmentation is not completely successful in normalizing mood and energy.

IV Vitamins can be used for cases of extreme PMS or cramping and can work quite well in our experience using them in our Edmonton patients.

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Sometimes our Naturopaths will suggest accessory food sensitivity testing if there are simultaneous digestive issues alongside the female health concerns which is common in our Edmonton patients - this can improve hormonal excretion. 

BHRT FAQ

When would someone need Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Occasionally, natural hormone balancing techniques such as vitamins, herbs and supplements are insufficient to address some hormonal issues especially severe age-related declines.

Hormonal optimization sometimes requires the actual addition of a hormone such as thyroid hormone or testosterone for patient to feel their best

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Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy allows us to very deliberately and specifically improve hormone levels.

How do you know if you need Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Our practitioners begin with comprehensive hormonal testing in addition to clinical symptoms to determine if Hormone Replacement Therapy is right for you - which testing will be determined in your initial consultation.

We work with all available hormone testing methods (blood, urine & saliva).

Is Hormone Replacement safe?

The Women's Health Initiative study looked at oral, synthetic Estrogens and Progesterone and found HRT increased risk of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer.

Our practitioners recommend bioidentical hormones which, unlike either synthetic oral hormones, are applied topically (bypassing the liver) which avoids certain adverse cardiovascular and inflammatory consequences. 

Nor do the preparations we recommend have Estrone (E1) which is considered the "harmful" Estrogen.

Lastly, synthetic Estrogens and Progesterone (Progestins) are altered in such a way that receptor "cross talk" occurs and a range of side effects occur not seen with bioidentical versions. 

E3N study (2008) found Estradiol with natural Progesterone had no increased risk of breast cancer.

Furthermore, newer guidelines do suggest Hormone Replacement Therapy for younger postmenopausal women with moderate to severe symptoms and no contraindications to estrogen use.

This is principally because the Women's Health Initiative also demonstrated the adverse effects in older postmenopausal women (over age 60 years), and this is not the age group that presents with new onset of menopausal symptoms.

Can Naturopathic Doctors prescribe hormones?

Unfortunately in Edmonton and Alberta, Naturopathic Doctors do not have prescription rights, however our Nurse Practitioner is responsible for prescribing BHRT, HRT and TRT for our patients.

Thyroid Hormone Replacement 

Thyroid hormone replacement has been one of the most frequently used, and effective hormone replacement strategies we have seen in our Edmonton patients.

As with other hormones, effective treatment starts with advanced testing - we always test TSH, Free T3 and Free T4.

We often detect milder cases of Hypothyroidism, where serum levels of free T4 and free T3 are often in the normal range (though typically in the low-normal range).

Even these "mild cases" can have pronounced symptoms including fatigue, weight gain, low libido, low mood, hair loss and menstrual irregularity seen in more advanced cases.

Although herbs and nutrients can stimulate and improve Thyroid values - in our experience they often fall flat in terms symptom resolution.

Frequently, a trial of desiccated thyroid can be helpful in when the case has evidence of hypothyroidism (fatigue, cold temperature, weight gain, dry skin, menstrual cycle abnormalities) in addition to suboptimal or low lab values.

Normalizing Thyroid function can often improve many chronic health concerns.

For instance, some women experience a normalization of menstrual bleeding after receiving a trial of thyroid treatment.  

Hormone Concerns?

Get in touch 
(780) 757-8378