Dutch Test – The Most Informative Hormone Test Available

 

The DUTCH hormones test is the most comprehensive hormone test available on the market and provides a greater insight how hormones are processed in the body than other hormonal tests. It provides several benefits over the other hormonal test (it gives you metabolites of your hormones you don’t get from saliva and blood test). It is a dried urine test.

The DUTCH test for:

  • Total cortisol
  • Free cortisol
  • Cortisone
  • Progesterone
  • Testosterone and its metabolites
  • DHEA-S
  • Methylation of estrogen
  • Estrogen and their metabolites

I use the industry leading hormone test, in my practice, which is the DUTCH test. DUTCH stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones. This test is very high quality, which is, of course, the foundation we need to deliver the results we are after. It is the gold standard when it comes to hormone testing, and it also shows other underlying issues beyond just your hormone levels. For example, information regarding methylation, an important process in the body, which is frequently overlooked, is exposed by this test. In addition, this test is very helpful in showing levels of sex and adrenal hormones (as well as their metabolites, which is imperative), and it also gives you insight into many other conditions that may otherwise go unnoticed. My clients are mostly women, and they come to me with different hormonal imbalances that their doctors have been unable to help with. The DUTCH test is an important first step in finding the help these women are looking for, and getting their hormonal balance back in alignment so they can feel vibrantly alive again.

Why is this test better than many other standard hormone tests on the market? Blood and saliva testing don’t yield all the necessary information about the state of your hormones. As a result, a practitioner really can’t give you the most accurate assessment nor a protocol that will be effective.

One of the biggest problems is that some hormones fluctuate throughout the day. Cortisol, for example, rises as soon as you get out of bed and then declines as the day wears on.

There are three types of hormones testing: urine, saliva, and blood. I’m going to explain the pros and cons of each of them.

Saliva testing is easy to collect; probably the only way to accurately measure the impacts of progesterone cream, and it is easy to chart changing hormones over time. On the other hand concentration of hormones in saliva is lower, it more difficult to get an accurate hormone reading as a result. Hormone levels can change when your pH changes (like when you brush your teeth for example) and only reports the levels of free cortisol and diurnal patterns but not metabolite levels, which are important.

Standard urine testing: gives a 24 hr snapshot and it is the only way to track cortisol metabolism, as well as measuring the metabolites of hormones. However, it is not always accurate and can only measure the hormones you are currently excreting which, again, are insufficient.

Blood testing: Allows you to track pituitary hormones, can measure free and total testosterone (which can’t be done with others – but the ranges are too wide which leads to a large variability of results). Also this test does not give complete cortisol readings (it only gives you total cortisol but no metabolites) and it cannot measure estrogen metabolites, which is so important.

The DUTCH test provides all the information needed, including that which is lacking in the tests referenced above.

The Dutch test uses dried urine. The advantage of this test is that it will measure your reproductive hormones, your cortisol (it can check free cortisol which is a better marker) and it will measure your parent hormones as well as their metabolites which is very valuable when measuring estrogen (the metabolites gives us a better picture of how estrogen is metabolized in the body which is referred to as estrogen clearance).

Why do we pay attention to the metabolites? They help complete the picture so we can focus on the underlying problem without having to guess at it. For example, estrogen is being metabolized into 2-OH-E1, 4-OH-E1 and 16 –OH-E1 which are the three main forms of estrogen in the body. Estradiol, which is the most potent form of estrogen, estrone, and estriol, which is the least potent form. Estrone and estrogen can be converted back and forth into one another. This hormone is commonly associated with breast cancer and for that reason alone it is important to monitor.

Estradiol in the body is metabolized in two ways. First – an estrogen molecule has two carbon atoms; the second one has sixteen. The first one seems to be safe, but a sixteen-carbon metabolite can stimulate uncontrolled cell proliferation, and this allows cells to grow without anchoring to a surface –critical factors needed for the development of cancer. This estrogen is toxic to cellular DNA.

The four-carbon pathway is associated with the most toxic forms of estrogen. Having a high ratio of E4 is now being thought to indicate an increased risk of breast cancer.

Monitoring how our bodies are excreting estrogens is highly important. It is especially important to be aware of the potential for estrogen dominance in our systems – because the types of estrogen being produced can impact our risk levels for certain estrogen-dependent cancers such as breast, uterine and ovarian.
Another benefit of this test is the information it provided in relation to the methylation pathway, which is a direct conduit of information regarding detoxification in our bodies. It can also inform you of potential MTHFR gene mutations, which are fairly common as well as numerous nutrient deficiencies. All of these issues have to be addressed for the optimal functioning of your body.

If you have any questions, please contact me, and if you would like to book a DUTCH test with me, please send me an email at

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