Breaking Down Hormone Testing

The DUTCH breakdown 🍓 🔎🧬

Happy Thursday babe,

I know, I know - we’re a little late over here 😞

But like many of you, summer often = travel - which then often means we’re thrown off our routine.

The other thing that summertime travel often brings?

delayed, missed, early or irregular periods

And that’s because our body and our hormones operate on a clock ⏰

so when that clock is thrown off (from travelling, jet lag, disruption in routine, sleep, etc), it can throw off our period

I’ve certainly experienced that over these past few weeks, but I’ve also had multiple clients reaching out to me to let me know they’ve experienced this too.

But not to fret - again, this is to be expected.

What’s not to be expected is when we have consistently irregular or missing periods, short periods, PMS, painful periods etc.

If this sounds like you, it usually means something deeper is going on…

Enter: the ✨ DUTCH Test ✨

The DUTCH test is one of my go-to functional medicine tests that I use in my practice. It allows us to look deeper into our hormonal health picture- and we’re going to be breaking it down below 👇🏼

WHAT IS THE DUTCH?

The DUTCH test is a hormone test that measures levels of hormones and their metabolites in dried urine samples.

The acronym DUTCH stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones.

The test can help identify hormonal imbalances in women by providing a more complete picture of hormones than traditional blood tests.

In my practice, I utilize the DUTCH complete test, which is a 24 hour urine test that is timed with ovulation.

Unlike your run of the mill blood work, this test goes deeper than just estrogen vs. progesterone

It assesses the metabolites of hormones in your urine, which tells us how your body is actually breaking down and utilizing hormones

This gives us greater insight into your symptoms, your “why” and your root cause.

And is particularly helpful for my clients who have gotten hormonal blood work done and “everything seems normal”

Plus, it is all done in the comfort of your home.

WHO SHOULD DO A DUTCH TEST?

In my practice, when I see symptoms of…

• stubborn hormonal acne

• mood swings

• cramping, painful and heavy periods

• PCOS or endometriosis

• migraines or headaches

• fertility challenges

• hair loss

• missing or irregular periods

off goes the alarm for the DUTCH test

but this test also measures more than just estrogen vs. progesterone vs. testosterone. It also goes into

• cortisol fluctuations throughout the day

• cortisol metabolism

• melatonin production

• dopamine and other neurotransmitters

so that we can also really see what is going on with your stress response, your sleep, your mind and mood.

ALRIGHT, SO WHAT DOES IT SHOW ME?

I’m not going to lie - I usually don’t play favorites but the DUTCH test has my heart.

I’ve run it on myself about 3-4 times in the last few years because it is JUST that good.

And it is my go-to test among my clients.

Here’s what it gives ya…

SECTION 1: THE BIGGIES

Estrogen, progesterone and testosterone .

These are our big guns. And some common patterns I tend to see: