I take the precursors.....and a little of the estriol....and my tests reflect that....without that....well...who knows. I probably have a genetic issue somewhere since at menopause my body fell apart....almost literally. And, I do not think I am alone....also, estriol is now being seen as an issue for MS patients from what I read....so, I imagine there are quite a number of people who have conversion deficiencies. Thanks for your info.
Yes, I do think various hormone conversion problems are probably at the root of a lot of ailments. Hopefully, as technology advances, testing will become cheaper and more efficient, and the problem areas can be identified more readily and accurately. As it stands now, hormone testing is still pretty primitive — very occasional testing of a tiny fraction of the laundry list of hormones is the best that can be managed. Any resulting program of supplementation is going to be imperfect as a result. But I fiercely defend every American citizen’s right to experiment with hormone therapy (and any other kind of medical/health therapy) on their own terms. It really isn’t any of the AMA’s or the government’s business whether some of us end up making ourselves sicker through our experiments.