Salivary hormone testing is an accurate method to determine active steroid hormones (i.e. progesterone, estrogen, DHEA and testosterone) levels.

It is much more precise and useful than blood or urine testing for measuring active hormone levels. Blood testing measures total hormone levels but do not distinguish between active or inactive hormone. Urine hormone testing is useful for determining how hormones are metabolism by the body. All three methods of hormone testing provide different information regarding hormone but salivary testing is the most useful for determining the dosage of hormone replacement. In most cases doctors that use blood hormone testing only use it to identify low total levels of hormones before starting hormone replacement. Many doctors that use blood testing rely on patient symptoms to direct their treatment dosage since blood levels do not reflect active levels of sex hormones. Many patients are overdosed with bioidentical hormone replacement and exposed to potential adverse side effects from overdosing with hormone therapy. Hormone therapy is great if hormone levels are maintained within normal limits. Too much or too little hormone levels can result in undesired symptoms.