Salivary hormone testing is an effective way of getting both baseline hormone values and monitoring the results of hormone therapy. With the many types of hormonal conditions that you can assess with salivary testing, taking action to implement it into your practice makes sense. As research exposes the effect that hormones have in all areas of wellness, this practice will become even more in-demand.
What Can You Learn From Salivary Testing?
This type of testing is useful for women who are experiencing hormone imbalances through their monthly cycle and for those who are post-menopausal. The testing can reveal testosterone levels, estrogen dominance, and other imbalances in the hormone levels that can affect both physical and mental health.
Men can also benefit from saliva tests for hormones. Issues that affect libido and erectile dysfunction are often connected to hormonal conditions.
Both men and women benefit from hormone testing, and imbalances can occur in any age group. The range of individuals who benefit from this type of testing is huge, and learning to perform this test and accurately read the results allows you to offer a valuable service to your patients.
Understanding the Saliva Test Process
There is more to saliva hormone testing than taking the sample and processing it. To provide your patients with service that will leave them feeling their best, it is important to use this testing properly. Get the training that you need to diagnose and treat male and female hormone imbalance, perform thyroid testing, determine adrenal dysfunction, and more.
You will also need training on the administrative portions of testing the saliva to develop effective treatment plans for hormone imbalances. Activities such as billing insurance, integrating the service into your practice, marketing, and handling cases where the patient is under another practitioner’s care and needs modifications to their treatment plan are all part of implementing this testing method at your facility.
Getting the Training You Need
Get the training you need to interpret salivary test results through fully online training courses. These courses are open to a variety of health care providers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and compounding pharmacists. Receiving this training gives you access to the latest information on this type of testing and bioidentical treatment.
After the course, you will be comfortable ordering and understanding the results of salivary tests, be able to provide a proper dosage of bioidentical compounded creams, recommend supplemental treatments such as herbal blends and vitamins to enhance the results of hormone therapy, and have a better understanding of adrenal fatigue.
Limited class sizes ensure that you have time to ask questions and also encourage discussion. At the end of the training, you should feel confident in your ability to prescribe cortisol, estrogens, and testosterone and provide thyroid treatment. If at any time after the training you have questions or concerns, you should have access to the medical director to address them.
Benefits of Online Training
Regular continuing medical education is important to ensure your skills stay up to date. It also allows you to hear and learn about advancements in treatment options. You want the best for your patients and to provide quality care. Continuing medical education is also a necessary part of maintaining your license.
While in-person training is an available choice, the switch to online continuing medical education has many benefits. The classes are more accessible and affordable. You may find that you retain the information better as you can focus on what you are hearing rather than the mingling and socializing that is common with in-person courses.
An important and valuable benefit of online training is your ability to select exactly what you want to learn. You aren’t limited to the continuing education classes that are close enough for easy travel and that allow you to fit the course into your jam-packed schedule. Instead, you can select the courses that offer the most benefit and best fit into your practice.
What to Look for in an Online Continuing Education Provider
When you are ready to make the next move in your training, select a company that has experience providing the specific training you need. Online training is different from classes taught in-person. Online does not mean less personal. A quality education provider will limit the class size, which ensures that you get the personal attention you need to be successful.
The goal after training is to feel confident when working with your patients. If the training doesn’t provide what you need to begin using your newfound knowledge immediately, it is not a complete course.
Before booking your course, ask about the satisfaction rate from previous clients. A high percentage of past students who felt the course was worthwhile and who received the information needed to begin using those skills in a clinical setting indicates the course is worth your time.
If the company is reluctant to provide you with the information about satisfaction rates and return participants or is so new that these numbers are unavailable, you may want to spend your time and money elsewhere.
Salivary hormone testing has a great deal of nuance. Patients often come in who are taking prescription medications such as antidepressants, anxiety medications, sleep aids, and stimulants to treat symptoms that are often the result of low progesterone, estrogen, or testosterone or a thyroid that isn’t functioning properly. Understanding how these medications work and how they interact with the treatment plan needed to get hormone levels where they need to be is a complicated process.
You cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach to treat these conditions. To provide your patients with the help they need to feel their best while protecting their mental health requires training and willingness to listen and learn. Once the hormones come into balance, your patients may not need their other medications. This is a rewarding process but does need specialized education.
Receiving training from a company with experience offering fully online courses in saliva hormone testing and related wellness courses such as medical weight loss and neurotransmitter and leaky gut training ensures you are receiving your continuing education from a business that understands the importance of quality online training. Online education is different from in-person education and requires a different approach.
We hope you found this helpful. If you are ready to extend your knowledge and use salivary hormone testing in your medical practice, learn more about the training required by registering today. You can also chat with us now to ask any questions, find out more about the various continuing education courses we offer and see when you can fit one of our courses into your schedule.