Functional Pathology Testing
Elissa utilises functional pathology testing to get to the bottom of your skin, hormonal or digestive health conditions origin. This is in order to facilitate the most effective and timely resolution of your skin and health concerns. The testing that is ordered will be specific to your individual case and may indicate any endocrine or hormonal imbalance, food allergies and sensitivities, liver function capacity, breath testing or stool analysis for gut health all the way through to genetic factors that can drive skin, hormonal, digestive or immune disharmony. The most commonly run of these are a functional urinary hormone metabolite test and the GI Map stool test this is an in-depth digestive stool analysis. These are provided by privatised, out of pocket, state of the art pathology laboratories. All testing is optional and at the patient’s discretion, functional testing may not always be indicated and treatment without functional testing is completely sufficient.
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These test vary drastically from the Medicare available testing. This is due to the huge financial burden pathology weighs on the health system and the financial limitations on comprehensive testing. Where possible we do consider Medicare covered pathology run through your general practitioner, however in many cases these are not adequate to gain a full picture of optimal physiological function in relation to skin, hormone and gut complaints.
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As an example, we utilise urinary metabolite testing to screen for hormonal variations, this measure is far more sensitive then serum hormones and allows us to view the metabolites of the hormones themselves, for each hormone there are numerous metabolites present, with many of these metabolites weighing in more significantly to a skin or health issue then the form you could have measured in a blood test.
Complete Stool Analysis is commonly run for individuals experiencing :
- Constipation
- Diarrhoea or ongoing loose stool
- Alternative stools
- Bloating
- Cramping or digestive discomfort
- Excessive flatulence, acid reflux or heart burn
- History of traveller’s infections with continued symptoms
- History of antibiotic use deemed to be more then moderate
- Recurrent infections of the urogenital tract including, thrush and or bacterial vaginitis
- Food intolerance and allergy symptoms
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Extensive Urinary Hormone Profile’s are commonly run for individuals experiencing:
- Hormonal pattern acne as identified by your practitioner
- Androgen excess symptoms such as hair growth pattern changes, excessive oil production
- Irregular Periods
- PMS
- Heavy bleeding, pain, clotting or irregular bleeding patterns
- Those experiencing acne related to hormonal pill cessation
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Collection may be stool samples or urine spot samples. These are painless, easy and straightforward to collect and your practitioner, the laboratory and a detailed instruction set, will support you through the process.
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Once your results are processed, your practitioner will go through them in detail within consultation, you will be given a copy to keep for your personal medical records and detailed with a safe, evidenced based plan to specifically target the physiological imbalances identified. This protocol plan may draw on supplemental, nutritional, herbal medicine, diet and lifestyle interventions and will be completely personalised and specified to your case and pathology results. Results are to be provided within consultation only.
