Lume Minute: I want my hormones checked. Will this be helpful?

Today’s question for Dr. Woganee Filate is:

I want my hormones checked. Will this be helpful?

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why testing for menopause is not recommended
• When bloodwork might be indicated
• When measuring follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is helpful

Lume Women + Health will be opening soon! They understand the unique challenges women face during perimenopause and beyond. Be sure to check out their dedicated menopause program that provides personalized support, medical guidance, and lifestyle optimization education to help you manage symptoms, improve your well-being, and thrive during this life stage.

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Transcript

Mikelle: 0:01

Welcome to a Loom Minute brought to you by. This is Perimenopause and Loom Women's Health Clinic Bringing a fresh approach to women's health. Loom's state-of-the-art Toronto Clinic offers personalized in-person care for the midlife woman. In these bite-sized episodes, we're teaming up with Loom's medical team to help you make sense of perimenopause, one question at a time. Our goal To give you reliable, bite-sized information that fits your busy life.

Woganee: 0:31

Today's question for Dr Waghani-Filate is I want my hormones checked. Will this be helpful? Such a great question and we get asked this question all the time because, like with other health conditions, you check your blood levels, you check your sugar levels, your kidney function, but for menopause it's actually not helpful information. The time leading up to the menopause period is the time of fluctuating hormones. Your estrogen levels are up, they're down. They're up, they're down, same with the progesterone. So it's not actually helpful information. You know, one day you might check your estrogen level and it's low. A couple weeks later it might be high. So it doesn't really provide us a lot of diagnostic information.

Woganee: 1:14

Instead, you know, as I try to remind patients, menopause is a clinical diagnosis, meaning we go based on symptoms, changes in your menstrual cycles, presence of symptoms classically associated with the menopause transition and your age. So that's really how the diagnosis comes about. So, for the average woman, blood work is not helpful, but there are some cases where blood work is useful. So, as we said, we usually rely on our menstrual cycles to tell us where we are along in the menopause transition and when, in fact, we're in on our menstrual cycles to tell us where we are along in the menopause transition and when in fact we're in menopause.

Woganee: 1:48

But what if someone isn't menstruating? For example, they've had a hysterectomy so they can't use their periods to tell them when they've been period free. In that case there may be a role to measure hormones, and we're not measuring the estrogen and progesterone per se. We're measuring a hormone called FSH follicle stimulating hormone and usually when you're approaching menopause or postmenopause that value is high. Another group where measuring that FSH is helpful are those that take birth control pills. So again, your doctor may ask you you know, stop the pill for a couple of weeks and then they will test that FSH level.

Mikelle: 2:33

Thanks for joining us for today's Loom Minute. For more information, follow this is Perimenopause and check out Loom Women's Health Clinic. There's a link in the show notes. This information is not intended as medical advice. The intent of this information is to provide listeners with knowledge to support more efficient and effective communication with their medical providers.