Dutch Test – The Most Informative Hormone Test
The DUTCH Test is the most informative hormone test available for women’s health. Uncover insights into estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and more to support balanced hormones and overall wellness.
Update on September 7th, 2025.
As a nutrition consultant, I spend a lot of time helping women reconnect with their health through food, lifestyle, and natural approaches. But one thing I’ve learned over the years is this: food alone doesn’t always tell the whole story. Sometimes, your symptoms are rooted in deeper imbalances that can’t be seen on the surface. That’s where testing comes in—and the DUTCH Test has become my favorite tool.
When I first discovered the DUTCH Test, it felt like I had been given a map to the inner workings of the body. Instead of guessing whether fatigue was caused by cortisol burnout, or if bloating and mood swings were connected to estrogen dominance, I suddenly had a clear picture. This test truly is the most informative hormone test available for women’s health.
What is the DUTCH Test
The DUTCH hormones test is the most comprehensive hormone test available on the market. It provides a greater insight into how hormones are processed in the body than other hormonal tests. It provides several benefits over other hormonal tests (it gives you metabolites of your hormones that you don’t get from saliva and blood tests). 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
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 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 it Better than other Standard Tests
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.
Traditional blood tests often provide only a snapshot of hormone levels at a single point in time. The DUTCH Test goes much deeper. It measures hormones and their metabolites over time, providing insight into not just the levels of estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol, but also how your body metabolizes and utilizes them. This matters because two women can have the same hormone levels but very different symptoms depending on how their bodies process those hormones.
For me, the DUTCH Test felt like opening a health diary that my body had been keeping all along; I just needed the right test to read it.
Types of Hormone Testing
There are three types of hormone testing: urine, saliva, and blood. I’m going to explain the pros and cons of each of them.
Saliva testing is easy to collect; it is 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, the concentration of hormones in saliva is lower, making it more difficult to get an accurate hormone reading as a result. Hormone levels can change when your pH levels change (like when you brush your teeth, for example), and it only reports the levels of free cortisol and diurnal patterns, but not metabolite levels, which are also important.
Standard urine testing provides a 24-hour snapshot and is the only way to track cortisol metabolism, as well as measure the metabolites of hormones. However, it is not always accurate and can only measure the hormones you are currently excreting, which, again, are insufficient.
Want to save this recipe?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes from us every week!
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). Additionally, this test does not provide complete cortisol readings (it only measures total cortisol, but not metabolites), and it cannot detect estrogen metabolites, which is particularly 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 appears to be safe, but a sixteen-carbon metabolite can stimulate uncontrolled cell proliferation, allowing cells to grow without anchoring to a surface —a critical factor in 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 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 provides regarding the methylation pathway, which is a direct conduit of information about 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.
What Happens After the Test
The magic of the DUTCH Test isn’t just in the data, it’s in the action plan you can create afterward. Once you know your results, you can:
- Adjust your nutrition (for example, broccoli sprouts, flax seeds, and leafy greens support estrogen metabolism).
- Support your liver and gut (key for hormone detox pathways).
- Reduce stress through lifestyle shifts that restore cortisol rhythm.
- Fine-tune supplementation if needed.
- Work with your healthcare provider on a personalized plan.
Taking the DUTCH Test was one of the most empowering steps I’ve ever taken for my health. It transformed my understanding of my own body and gave me practical ways to restore balance. If you’ve been struggling with symptoms that don’t make sense, or you feel like your hormones are running the show, this test can shine a light on what’s really happening.
The DUTCH Test is truly the most informative hormone test available for women’s health. It provides answers, clarity, and a roadmap to help you feel like yourself again.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me, and if you would like to book a DUTCH test with me, please send me an email at [email protected]
References:
https://dutchtest.com/resources/reading-journals-websites
[catalyst_hook_box name=”newsletter_signup”][catalyst_hook_box name=”relative_articles”]
Love My Content? Buy Me a Coffee!
Creating these resources for you is my passion, and I love hearing how they’ve helped you on your health journey. If you appreciate my content and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee to help fuel more tips, recipes, and inspiration. Every little bit means the world to me!
