If you’ve been looking into hormonal imbalances – you may have come across or been recommended the DUTCH test. It stands for ‘Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones’ and is exactly that! I was advised by my naturopath to take the test and I’m going to help ya’ll out by sharing my insights and experience with it. I hope it helps you to decide if the DUTCH complete hormone test is worth it for you.
What does the DUTCH Complete Hormone Test entail?
The Dutch test requires you to collect dry urine samples throughout the day to get a complete profile of your hormones. You end up with 4-5 samples which get sent off to the lab for a thorough analysis of your sex and adrenal steroid hormones. You need to test on certain days according to your menstrual cycle, which is all clearly outlined in the information sheet you receive with the test.
What Hormones Does it Test?
The DUTCH Complete Hormone test looks at the following:
- 3 Different types of Estrogen (estradiol, estrone, and estriol)
- How you process and clear estrogen out of your body
- Progesterone levels
- Testosterone levels, including 5a-DHT
- DHEA + DHEAS levels
- Total cortisol production
- Free cortisol levels, including how it fluctuates throughout the day
- Melatonin levels (relating to sleep issues)
It gathers a solid amount of data, a lot more compared to blood or saliva test which are generally a lot cheaper. For more information on the DUTCH test and what it does, watch the video below.
So, How Much is it?
This is what held me back for a while! It costs $385 for the test, with $20 for shipping and handling. This is in Australia, so it may be different in other countries.
Is the DUTCH test Worth it?
I definitely think it was worth it for me! However everyone has different needs, which is why I’m not here trying to persuade you either way. Here’s my pro’s/con’s list which helped me to decide if it was worth it or not!
Pro’s:
- It checks ALL of your sex and adrenal hormones, including metabolites
- They analyse your data, linking it to your symptoms & suggest treatment plans
- You get a full 18 page breakdown of your results
- You finally know the exact hormone/s causing your symptoms, and are therefore able to get very specific with treatments
- They look at markers showing how your body processes hormones – therefore finding out if it is a detoxification/clearing issue for excess hormone production
Con’s:
- It’s expensive!
- You could just do a 24 hour urine test to find out basic hormone & cortisol levels (cheaper!)
- You could just do a blood test to find out basic hormone levels (cheaper!)
My Verdict:
As you can see, it really depends on your needs and how thorough you want your results to be. I was very much guided by my naturopath and I’m so glad I ended up doing the DUTCH Complete Hormone Test. My justification was this: I’m spending all this money on supplements which may not be even targeting the right hormones. I was also spending money on facials and peels to treat my hormonal acne which was really draining my bank account. After performing the DUTCH test – I was able to identify that my estrogen & testosterone was low and start correcting them. Just knowing the exact root cause was well worth it for me.
