In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show I interview Dr. Carrie Jones of Precision Analytical on hormone balancing and testing.  We cover a lot of detail about reproductive and adrenal hormones including testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, DHEA and more.  Dr. Jones explains the causes of elevated and decreased hormone levels and some strategies on balancing these issues.  We also discuss the best way to test hormones including the DUTCH test which is my favorite hormone test offered by Precision Analytical.

Dr. Carrie Jones, ND, MPH is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and educator on the topic of women’s health and hormones. She graduated from the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM), School of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon where she also completed her 2-year residency in women’s health, hormones and endocrinology. Later she graduated from Grand Canyon University’s Master of Public Health program with a goal of doing more international education. She was adjunct faculty for many years teaching gynecology and advanced endocrinology/fertility and has been the Medical Director for 2 large integrative clinics in Portland. She is the Medical Director for Precision Analytical, Inc, creators of the DUTCH hormone test.

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to the Dr. Hedberg Show. This is Dr. Hedberg, and I'm excited today to have Dr. Carrie Jones, on the show. I've been listening to her and reading her material for some time now. And I've also heard her speak in person. So Dr. Jones, is a naturopath and she's definitely an expert on hormones, we'll be talking about all the different hormones today. So Dr. Jones welcome to the show.

Dr. Jones: Thank you Dr. Hedberg, I appreciate you having me on, hormones is my favorite subject.

Dr. Hedberg: Great. So, why don't you just fill everyone in on what you're working on these days and your area of expertise.

Dr. Jones: Yeah, so like you said hormones is it. So I went to school and did my residency in all things women's health, hormones and gynecology. And expanded a little bit into men's health and hormones, just by default as women would bring the men in in their life, and they would say, "He has a hormone problem too." So I always joke and my ongoing joke is that if something's wrong with your child, don't ask me. And if you hurt yourself, like you hurt your knee, don't ask me that either. But if you're a hormonal mess I can help you with that, that's what I'm good at.

Dr. Hedberg: Right. So you work for Precision Analytical which is the lab that I use for hormone testing and they do the Dutch test. So why don't we jump in and excuse me. Why don't we jump into the first hormone which is, I always like to start with start with progesterone. So why don't we start with cycling females. So when you talk a little bit about what may be some of the reasons why we would either see high or low progesterone, in a cycling female?

Dr. Jones: Yeah, and actually will start with a level because I think that's well, a lot more common. So there are two reasons that a cycling female will be low. One is she does not ovulate. So when a woman releases an egg she has two sets of cells around her follicles, and they convert into a third set of cells called the lutein cells. And that's what makes progesterone. So if she doesn't release the eggs, then she's not gonna get that little conversion and she's not going to make progesterone. Now the other reason the second big reason is she may ovulate. She might release an egg, she feels it, she notices it, her mucus changes what have you. She does the you know, ovulation predictor kit from the grocery stores,