What is the volume of saliva you are being asked to supply? This will tell you how many metabolites you are likely to investigate with a lab analysis.
The only likely hormones your Dr will analyze for are testosterone and possibly E2. It is very, very difficult to tell if a saliva sample has been manipulated by dilution. The majority of hormones are found in the saliva in their free form only - carrier proteins are generally far too large to diffuse through the cells of the salivary gland (no active transport of any steroid occurs into the saliva). This means that in two individuals with identical plasma concentrations values of salivary testosterone can vary by more than 7 fold - simply because of the differing levels of free T. Dilution therefore will not be detected.
Some tips to ensure that your saliva contains the lowest possible quantity of testosterone
- Never, ever sample directly after cleaning your teeth. Or at any time when you have a cut in your mouth. Damage caused in both cases causes seepage of plasma into the saliva. Plasma contains free and bound T - therefore the same quantity of plasma can contain 200 x the T levels as the same volume of saliva. ie any blood leakage into your saliva will cause a rocket in testosterone detected.
- Rinse your mouth heavily with tap water, removes blood and dilutes saliva. Chewing to induce saliva will have no effect as testosterone concentrations in saliva are independent of salivary flow rates
- Collect your sample of saliva at the time you know your testosterone is at its lowest ie just before your dose. You then need to pop it in a freezer for storage until you send or deliver to the lab. It will defrost very quickly (minutes) when removed. There is even some evidence in the literature that freezing and defrosting your sample numerous times causes a false low value upon analysis - exactly what you want.
Hope that helps?