So, Tell Me More About HTMA Testing
HTMA testing (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) is a simple & easy test you can collect from yourself at home & mail off the lab right from your mailbox! Some people are intimidated by having to cut their hair, but don’t let that stop you, I promise the wealth of information you gather from this one test is totally worth it.
Once you clip your hair sample, it goes into an envelope, and into your mailbox to make its way to the lab. After processing, they send me the results & I’m able to examine each of the individual minerals and several heavy metals. There’s 37 data points in total!
In my practice I use HTMA testing to help my clients address symptoms of hormone imbalance like PMS, painful period cramps, and heavy menstrual bleeding.
How is HTMA Testing Helpful?
Our body deposits minerals into our soft tissues (our hair is a soft tissue) in very specific patterns based on what’s going on within the body.
From these patterns we gain insight into your thyroid health, how your body is responding to stress, if your blood sugar is balanced, what the balance is between your estrogen & progesterone, & a lot more nerdy-science stuff that you don’t need to worry with, because I’ll take care of it for you.
The bottom line: it tells us what is causing your hormones to be imbalanced, causing all those pesky, unwanted symptoms.
I use your test results to make a fully customized care plan for you that includes changes to your diet, lifestyle, & supplements that will correct the mineral deficiencies or imbalances and therefor your hormonal imbalances as well.
How is HTMA Testing Different from Blood Work?
When you have blood work drawn, for the most part, you are only capturing data from that single point in time. An HTMA test provides us with data from the last 3 months. Lab work is great in times of acute illness, but when you’re trying to get to the root cause of symptoms that you’ve been struggling with for quite some time, an HTMA test is much more informative.
With an HTMA test we’re also looking at a different part of the body. To put it simply, blood work is looking at what’s floating around in your blood, while HTMA testing shows us what’s actually getting inside your cells. You may be wondering why that’s important, it’s because the inside of the cell is where the majority of our hormones need to be in order to do their designated job.
Certain minerals like potassium and magnesium are intra-cellular minerals, meaning that they are primarily found inside the cells. HTMA testing lets us see that intra-cellular data whereas a blood chemistry panel is only examining the very small percentage of those minerals that stay within the blood serum.
Okay, but How Much Hair Does it Take?
Not much! The testing kit comes with a scale so you can feel confident you are providing the lab with enough hair, without cutting more than you have to.
It ends up being about a “heaping teaspoon” worth of hair. You do have to ensure that you are cutting your sample from your scalp so that we get the most current & accurate data, but you can cut the hair from the backside of your head in multiple different areas so that its easily covered & never noticeable, even for those with short hair!
How do I know if I need an HTMA test?
If you are a breathing woman with a symptom, we should run an HTMA test on you, basically.
But more specifically for the clients I work with most often, if you’re experiencing unwanted symptoms like:
- hair loss
- fatigue
- PMS
- heavy periods
- heavy menstrual bleeding
- weight loss resistance
- anxiety
- mood swings
- bloating
- etc.
Then getting an HTMA test is the best place for us to start so that we can get to the root cause of your symptoms and take action that is aligned with exactly what your body needs.
Will I need a repeat HTMA Test?
This is individualized, but what I can say is that in general, when you are initially working on getting your minerals replenished & balanced, I recommend getting your initial test, repeating in about six months so that any necessary tweaks can be made to your care plan.
After that repeat test it will really depend on where you are with your symptoms, how you feel overall, and what your goals are. In some cases, repeating in another six months might make sense, but for a lot of my clients they transition at that point to testing once per year, or as needed based on symptoms.
I recorded a podcast episode a while back about the importance of HTMA retesting, you can listen to it here!
HTMA Testing is a Very Powerful Tool
Every client I’ve worked with, as well as everyone I know who has ever had an HTMA test, says that they find the results to be incredibly informative, validating, and helped them to feel confident that the changes they were implementing were the right ones!
If you’re interested in getting HTMA testing done, you can order one today through my lab bank!