Laboratory Services
For your convenience, Premier Women’s Health offers in-office laboratory services where required tests can be performed quickly and conveniently. This allows your care provider to make a faster diagnosis and get you back on the path to living a healthy and active life.
Our in-office laboratory services include, but not limited to the following:
Hemoglobin Testing
A hemoglobin test measures the amount of hemoglobin in your blood. Hemoglobin is a protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen to your body’s organs and tissues and transports carbon dioxide from your organs and tissues back to your lungs.
If a hemoglobin test reveals that your hemoglobin level is lower than normal, it means you have a low red blood cell count (anemia). Anemia can have many different causes, including vitamin deficiencies, bleeding and chronic diseases.
If a hemoglobin test shows a higher than normal level, there are several potential causes — the blood disorder polycythemia vera, living at a high altitude, smoking and dehydration
Cholesterol Testing
A complete cholesterol test — also called a lipid panel or lipid profile — is a blood test that can measure the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood.
A cholesterol test can help determine your risk of the buildup of plaques in your arteries that can lead to narrowed or blocked arteries throughout your body (atherosclerosis).
A cholesterol test is an important tool. High cholesterol levels often are a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease.
Glucose Testing
The glucose tolerance test, also known as the oral glucose tolerance test, measures your body’s response to sugar (glucose). The glucose tolerance test can be used to screen for type 2 diabetes. More commonly, a modified version of the glucose tolerance test is used to diagnose gestational diabetes — a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy.
Urinalysis
A urinalysis is a test of your urine. A urinalysis is used to detect and manage a wide range of disorders, such as urinary tract infections, kidney disease and diabetes.
A urinalysis involves checking the appearance, concentration and content of urine. Abnormal urinalysis results may point to a disease or illness.
For example, a urinary tract infection can make urine look cloudy instead of clear. Increased levels of protein in urine can be a sign of kidney disease. Unusual urinalysis results often require more testing to uncover the source of the problem.
Hormone Panel
Health challenges such as high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalance, diabetes, breast cancer, hormone imbalance and osteoporosis continue to take their toll on women’s health. Healthy life style choices, timely monitoring for these health threats in tandem with appropriate blood testing may help minimize these concerns
Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI/STD) Screening
If you are sexually active, getting tested for STDs is one of the most important things you can do to protect your health. Make sure you have an open and honest conversation about your sexual history and STD testing with your provider and ask whether you should be tested for STDs.
Urine Pregnancy Test
These products come with instructions. Follow them closely for the most accurate results. After testing, you can confirm results by seeing your doctor, who can perform even more sensitive pregnancy tests.
Reproductive Cancer Screening
A screening test is a test that is done when no symptoms are present. Examples of screening tests are colonoscopy for colorectal cancer and the Pap test for cervical cancer. Currently, there is no screening test for ovarian cancer. You should be alert to any changes in your body and discuss them with your obstetrician–gynecologist (ob-gyn) or health care professional. The earlier that ovarian cancer is diagnosed, the more likely that treatment will be successful.
Preconception Testing
Prenatal genetic testing gives parents-to-be information about whether their fetus has certain genetic disorders.
Genetic disorders are caused by changes in a person’s genes or chromosomes. Aneuploidy is a condition in which there are missing or extra chromosomes. In a trisomy, there is an extra chromosome. In a monosomy, a chromosome is missing. Inherited disorders are caused by changes in genes called mutations. Inherited disorders include sickle cell disease,
cystic fibrosis, Tay–Sachs disease, and many others. In most cases, both parents must carry the same gene to have an affected child.
BRCA Gene Testing
The BRCA gene test is a blood test that uses DNA analysis to identify harmful changes (mutations) in either one of the two breast cancer susceptibility genes — BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Women who have inherited mutations in these genes are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer compared with the general population.
The BRCA gene test is offered only to people who are likely to have an inherited mutation based on personal or family history, or who have a specific type of breast cancer. The BRCA gene test isn’t routinely performed on women at average risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
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