Hormones can feel confusing, but your symptoms are rarely random.

You may have months where you feel calm, clear and capable, followed by weeks where your body seems to change without warning.

Your sleep becomes lighter. Your mood feels less predictable. You feel more inflamed, bloated or reactive. Your cycle changes. Your weight shifts despite doing “all the right things”. Your libido drops. Your energy becomes unreliable. You wake at 3am with your mind switched on, wondering why your body suddenly feels so unfamiliar.

So you do what most sensible women do.

You ask for help.
You have blood tests.
You’re told everything is “normal”.

And technically, it may be.

But “normal” does not always mean optimal. And when it comes to hormones, the issue is not always whether one hormone is simply too high or too low.

Often, it is the pattern that matters.

How your hormones rise and fall.
How they interact with each other.
How your body metabolises and clears them.
How your stress hormones behave across the day.
How your nervous system, liver, gut, blood sugar and inflammation levels influence the whole picture.

This is why two women can have similar hormone levels on paper, but completely different symptoms in real life.

• One may feel anxious and wired.
• Another may feel flat and depleted.
• Another may have heavy periods, breast tenderness and poor sleep.
• Another may feel like she has lost her spark altogether.

The numbers matter, but the story behind the numbers matters more.

The DUTCH test gives us a more detailed picture of how your hormones are being made, used, broken down and cleared from the body. It helps us move away from guessing and start understanding what may be driving your symptoms.

What is the DUTCH test?

DUTCH stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones.

It is an advanced hormone test that you do at home using small urine ands saliva samples collected on special filter paper cards and mouth swabs. These samples are then sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Unlike a standard blood test, which gives us a snapshot of certain hormones at one point in time, the DUTCH test can show a broader picture of your hormone patterns and hormone metabolism.

The DUTCH Complete test includes sex hormones(oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone and androgens), cortisol and their metabolites, it also includes markers linked with areas such as oxidative stress, nutritional status, gut health and melatonin.  

In simple terms, it helps answer questions like:

• Are you making enough hormones?
• Are you breaking them down well
• Is your stress response stuck on high alert?
• Is your body clearing oestrogen safely and efficiently?
• Could your symptoms be linked to hormone patterns, not just hormone levels? 

Why not just do a blood test?

Blood tests can be very useful, and in some situations they are exactly what we need.

But when it comes to hormones, especially in women, blood tests can sometimes miss the bigger picture.

That is because hormones fluctuate.

They change throughout the day, throughout the month, and throughout different stages of life, especially during perimenopause.

A standard blood test may tell us what is circulating in the blood at that moment. But it may not show us how your body is processing those hormones after they have done their job.

Think of it like looking at your bank balance.

A blood test may show how much money is in your account today.

The DUTCH test is more like looking at your income, spending habits, savings, and where the money is going.

Both can be useful, but they tell us different things.

Why might women choose the DUTCH test?

You may find the DUTCH test to be very useful if you are experiencing:

✔️ PMS or PMDD-type symptoms
✔️ Heavy, painful or irregular periods
✔️ Perimenopause symptoms
✔️ Mood swings, anxiety or low mood
✔️ Poor sleep or night waking
✔️ Fatigue or burnout
✔️ Low libido
✔️ Brain fog
✔️ Weight gain around the middle
✔️ Breast tenderness or cycle-related migraines
✔️ Acne, facial hair or hair thinning
✔️ PMOS or endometriosis-type symptoms
✔️ Thyroid symptoms that do not fully resolve
✔️ Inflammation, poor recovery or symptoms that worsen before your period
✔️ “Normal” blood tests, but you still do not feel right
✔️ A desire to start HRT with more clarity and confidence that it is safe for you

The goal is simple: to understand what your body is doing, so your next steps are informed, targeted and right for you.

This is especially important if you are considering HRT.

HRT can be incredibly helpful for many women, but it should not be approached blindly.

Before adding hormones, it makes sense to understand your baseline hormone picture, especially how your body is processing oestrogen, how your progesterone is showing up, and how stress hormones may be influencing your symptoms.

The DUTCH test is indispensable for gaining deeper insight into your hormonal health. These insights can be used to help reduce symptoms and optimise your hormones in a targeted and effective way.