It’s normal to be curious about the age at which you’ll reach menopause. We get it—you want to feel prepared and plan ahead for big life changes. You may be wondering, does menopause automatically happen once you turn 50? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple– it’s one of many menopause misconceptions. Despite advances in technology and science, there’s no definitive menopause age calculator or test that can predict the age you’ll…
What to Do When You Have a Haemolysed Blood Sample
Read moreWith any type of blood collection, haemolysed blood samples can happen. They are very common—in fact, they are actually the number one cause of rejected samples by labs, second only to insufficient sample size (1). But we know it can be frustrating to hear that your sample couldn’t be analysed—especially if you’re someone who doesn’t like having blood taken. In this blog post we will walk you through what happens…
5 Things AMH Testing Can (and can’t) Tell You About Your Fertility
Read moreAnti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) is a really important hormone for your fertility and overall health. Because of how closely it is linked to your eggs, AMH testing can help you understand your fertility and give you insights into your overall reproductive health. There are some myths out there about exactly what AMH testing can and can’t tell you, so in this blog post we’re going to explore exactly that and give…
Oestrogen 101: What it is, what it does and how it changes
Read moreOestrogen truly is the matriarch of female sex hormones. It helps to control the menstrual cycle, enable ovulation, produce female sex characteristics helps us to feel feisty, frisky and fabulous. There are three different types of oestrogen, also sometimes spelt estrogen (the American spelling). Like all of our hormones, our oestrogen levels can sometimes become off-balanced—with many different lifestyle and genetic factors impacting its production and regulation throughout the body.…
Prolactin 101: Everything you need to know about prolactin
Read moreProlactin is perhaps best known as the ‘milk hormone’ because of its vital role in breast growth and breast milk (lactation) production. But prolactin actually has a myriad of functions within the body, playing a vital role in overall health for those both assigned-female and male-at-birth. In this article, we’ll dive into exactly what prolactin is, what its functions are in the body, discuss imbalances in its levels and the…
Luteinising Hormone: What Do Your LH Levels Mean?
Read moreLuteinising hormone (LH) plays a huge role when it comes to fertility and ovulation, despite it being one of the lesser known cycling hormones. In this article we’ll explain exactly what luteinising hormone is, how it works and take a deep-dive into its importance for female fertility. We’ll also take a look at LH levels and why they’re important, as well as how to recognise the symptoms of low or…
What Do Your SHBG Levels Mean?
Read moreSex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is an important protein involved in the regulation of our sex hormones. Just like our menstrual cycle, thyroid and fertility hormones, our SHBG levels can affect our reproductive health—including our ability to conceive. So what is a good, or ‘normal’ range for our SHBG levels? And how do we know when ours might be too high or too low? We’ve broken down all you need to…
Follicle-Stimulating Hormone: What Do Your FSH Levels Mean?
Read moreFSH stands for Follicle-Stimulating Hormone and is one of the main hormones involved in the regulation of your menstrual cycle and ovulation—making it an important hormone not only for your health but your fertility too. In this article we’re giving you the lowdown on everything you need to know about your FSH levels, including how to know what normal FSH levels look like, symptoms of high and low FSH levels…
What is AMH and what can AMH testing tell me?
Read moreKey takeaways Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) is an important hormone when it comes to our fertility. Produced by the follicles that house our eggs, our AMH levels can give us a insight into your reproductive health because it is reflective of your ovarian reserve (egg count) and whether fertility treatments like egg freezing or IVF might be right for us. But as always, getting the straight-talking info we need on our…
Why should you test your hormones?
Read moreFirst, let’s get back to basics… What even are hormones? Put simply, hormones are small chemical messengers that travel through the blood to different parts of your body. They help control many different functions from growth and development to metabolism (how your body gets energy from the food you eat), menstrual cycles, fertility and mood, just to name a few! Hormones are made by special cells in a network of…