Dr. Ramsey:
Yes, but 30 is a little too late, I would say. What we try to do in replacing hormones safely is mimic the prime, which is really in the 20s and research says after the age of 25, everything starts to decline, not just hormones, but enzyme secretion, ability to absorb nutrients decreases,
thyroid hormones decrease. So age of 25 is really a turning point. So if we are going to do baseline testing, I would say do it earlier: 18-20 years old. Why would we do that? Because as we age, what we want to do is to mimic our 18-20 year-old hormones as best as possible because we want that vitality, you know, we want that strong collagen, we want that protection for cardiovascular risks. If we test in the 30s, that is really not baseline; that is actually later. Is it a good idea; is it necessary? Yes and no. We do not like to force women into a number. There is not one number everyone’s estrogen levels should be or one number everyone’s progesterone levels should be. We all were unique at 20. We are all unique at 50. So what baseline testing will do is give us an idea of what we were trying to target with our therapies. So if we have a baseline at 18, and it says our estradiol levels are 200, when we are 50 and they are really 0 and we augment them, we're looking for 200. If a 20-year-old's estrogen levels are 120, that is optimal for that person. We want to try to mimic that as much as possible at 50. That is the benefit of baseline testing.
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