Spotlight on the DUTCH test
Not all hormone testing is created equal. At Tendwell, we often use advanced hormone testing to obtain a nuanced and full picture of what is happening with an individual’s hormonal function. Sadly, this is not what usually happens in standard primary care. Most of the time, standard medical practices send patients to a company like Quest for blood-based hormone testing. This kind of hormone testing has its place but it often misses information that is truly valuable. A far better method is the one used in the DUTCH test (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones), which is one of my favorites.
The DUTCH is a hormone testing method developed by Precision Analytical Inc. It provides a comprehensive analysis of hormone levels and their metabolites using dried urine samples, rather than blood. The DUTCH test offers a detailed assessment of various hormones, including cortisol, estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone, along with their metabolites, and organic acids. It also shows where these estrogen metabolites are ending up, following them through phase 1 and phase 2 estrogen detoxification, which is super important especially for cancer prevention and reducing DNA damage.
To conduct the DUTCH test, individuals collect their urine samples on special filter paper strips multiple times throughout the day and sometimes overnight. These strips are then dried and sent to the laboratory for analysis. The advantage of using dried urine samples is that it allows for stable and accurate hormone measurements. For example, getting accurate cortisol levels with blood at a standard lab is problematic because the blood draw must occur within 30 minutes of waking up. Unless you are sleeping at the lab, this is obviously a difficult thing to do. Also complicating the picture is the innate stress of having a blood draw which could falsely elevate cortisol levels. Obtaining samples in the comfort of your own home is much preferred.
Once the samples reach the laboratory, Precision Analytical Inc. employs advanced mass spectrometry technology to measure hormone levels and their metabolites. This method enables a comprehensive evaluation of hormone production, metabolism, and clearance within the body.
The DUTCH test provides valuable insights into hormone imbalances, which can be associated with various health conditions and symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, weight gain, decreased libido, perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, and reproductive concerns. By evaluating hormone patterns throughout the day and assessing hormone metabolites, the test helps functional medicine providers gain a deeper understanding of a patient's hormonal health and develop targeted treatment plans to optimize hormonal health. The DUTCH Plus is one of my favorite tests and I think that many people can benefit from checking in on their hormones and patterns once a year as part of a comprehensive annual functional medicine evaluation.
But what about standard medical practices? As noted, they often send patients for blood-based hormone testing, with all of its limitations. In my past experience working in standard primary care, the blood-based tests often resulted in “normal” readings, which led patients to think the problems they were experiencing were not hormonal but were more in their heads. I often suspected this wasn’t the case. Now that I work in functional medicine, I am happy to say that at Tendwell we are able to offer this nuanced hormone testing to all our patients, men included!! Schedule a free consultation to find out more, or become a member today.