At the Women to Women clinic we have learned over the years that many laboratories don’t really offer very helpful stool studies. Several patients become discouraged when their stool analysis comes back with a “normal” result while they are miserable with persistent digestive symptoms. Quite often, all we need to help explain what’s happening is a test which is a little more specific.
Stool Tests Related to Your Digestive Well-being
We’ve experienced great outcomes over the past several years using two tests that are completed by a group of top-quality labs. The first test is the Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA) that checks the stool for malabsorption, yeast, parasites, pH imbalance, the need for digestive enzymes and bacterial overgrowth. The second test is a Comprehensive Parasitology Test (CP x2) with a purge, which is a much more in-depth test for parasites.
These tests are not usually done in hospitals or in traditional medical offices, but they are vital for finding the source of gastrointestinal distress. They should be considered even if, and maybe especially if, standard stool testing has found nothing unusual. We suggest these labs for complete stool analysis:
Genova: 1-800-522-4762
Metametrix: 1-800-221-4640
Diagnos-Techs: 1-800-878-3787
Doctor’s Data: 1-800-323-2784
Parasitology Center: 1-480-767-2522
Metametrix testing: 1-800-522-4762
You may contact these labs directly or request that your healthcare provider order these tests on your behalf.
The first four labs listed offer both stool studies in one test; the last lab listed only offers the CP x2. For difficult cases, I prefer to have the CDSA completed at one of the first four lab centers, and the CP x2 done at the Parasitology Center. I find that the Parasitology Center picks up on parasites that no other lab has found.
The newest of all the tests is the Metametrix test which is looking both at culture based and molecular approaches for stool based gastrointestinal diagnostics. O and P technology, which is offered at most hospitals, can only identify a limited number of parasites and is considered the gold standard methodology for parasite detection, while the PCR technology of the Metametrix GI effects test provides an expansive assessment of anaerobic gut microflora.
