Irritable? Moody? Gaining weight in spite of all the exercise? Exhausted but not able to sleep? Yes, these can all be blamed on your hormones, and specifically a hormone imbalance. Hormones regulate everything in our body from that stab of fear you felt upon seeing a snake slighter across the path to the very act of giving birth.
Unfortunately, because they are such important chemical messengers in the body, disruptions can cause severe side effects. In this article, you’ll learn what hormones are, why testing hormones is so important, what the Dutch Hormone Test is, and how the Dutch Hormone Test can help you balance your hormones.
What Are Hormones?
Hormones are fast acting chemical messengers that react to internal and external stimuli to give your body critical information about how to respond. It’s important to note that hormone levels are in a constant state of flux, they are always adjusting to maintain homeostasis. The problem occurs when those hormones fail to reach a proper balance, thus resulting in a hormone imbalance that can cause some nasty symptoms.
Most of us live in an environment that is less than optimal for balancing our hormones. For example, stress, toxins, food, infections, illness, and the bacteria in our guts can all disrupt hormone levels.
Our environments are filled with toxins and chemicals that disrupt hormone levels and cause dysfunction in the body.
Add that on top of the regular hormonal changes women have to go through each month and you could be dealing with a serious hormonal imbalance. That imbalance could look like painful periods, irregular cycles, excessive bleeding, or even infertility. Women also have to endure more dramatic hormonal shifts as we age that can cause troubling symptoms.
Why Is Testing Your Hormones SO Important?
Since we know that hormones regulate much of the body’s responses and help maintain homeostasis, it’s easier to understand why testing your hormones is so important. How can you address various symptoms without having actual data about your hormone levels? Trust me, girl, you’re going to want to know the data otherwise it’s just a game of guesswork. As a holistic practitioner, I always like to test versus guessing as there is evidence to support specific treatment protocols and lifestyle recommendations.
When you know what your hormone levels actually are, you can work with a doctor to create a custom care plan that will address the root cause of your symptoms. The Dutch Hormone Test is a perfect place to start to understand the complexities of hormones on overall health and wellness.
What is the Dutch Hormone Test?
This is where the Dutch Hormone Test comes in handy! This test is an innovative hormone test created by Precision Analytical Labs used for assessing sex and adrenal hormones and their metabolites. It’s unlike anything else on the market and looks at what your hormones are actually doing in your body. Plus, it’s extremely easy to do! It’s a simple urine test where you collect a urine sample on a test strip between 4 and 5 times over a 24-hour period.
Dried urine testing allows ease of collection, evaluation of bound and unbound cortisol, accurate sex hormone determination, and reporting of sex hormone metabolites. The test also includes a marker for B vitamins that are most commonly low: folate, B12, B6. It also has a marker for oxidative stress, neurotransmitters that show dopamine and first responder stress hormones, and your need for glutathione.
Who Is The Dutch Hormone Test For?
- This test is for women who have issues with their menstrual cycle such as irregular cycles, PMS, painful periods, anxiety, depression, constipation or diarrhea related to your cycle, long or short cycles, acne, migraine, insomnia, and fatigue.
- If you have been under stress for a long period of time or feel you are suffering from chronic stress and would like help regaining your energy, motivation, and a better mood.
- If you have insomnia or other sleep issues.
- If you are dealing with issues with fertility or just trying to conceive in general.
- If you are peri-menopause and looking for help dealing with associated symptoms due to shifting hormones.
- If you have fatigue, brain fog, memory issues, low or high blood pressure, muscle or joint pain, weight loss or weight gain, or abdominal pain.
- If you are dealing with PCOS, endometriosis, or started hormone replacement therapy.
What Hormones Does It Test and Why?
The Dutch Hormone Test is comprehensive and tests the following hormones:
- Estrogens – Estrone, Estradiol, Estriol. These explain symptoms such as PMS, painful cycles, irregular cycles, and mood swings.
- Estrogen Metabolites – These markers show how the estrogens are being broken down in your body, either in a beneficial or potentially harmful way.
- Progesterone Metabolites – These metabolites show if a healthy ovulation occurred and also explain a possible hormonal imbalance between estrogen and progesterone.
- DHEA-S – This is a precursor hormone to testosterone and estrogen. If DHEA-S is high we look at possible PCOS or inflammation in the body. If DHEA-S is low we look at possible adrenal issues.
- Testosterone – This hormone is important because it helps women with motivation, energy levels, muscle maintenance, and a healthy sex drive.
- Testosterone Metabolites – There are competing enzymes leading to different metabolites that help give us a full picture of how testosterone is functioning in your body.
- Melatonin – This is important to look at if you have problems falling/staying asleep or waking up early. Melatonin is also important for your immune system, mood, and is an antioxidant.
- Free Cortisol – The active form of cortisol in your body. This gives us a lot of information on how your body is dealing with stress – is it bouncing back or is it shutting down and not responding.
- Free Cortisone & Cortisone Metabolites – Your body converts cortisol into inactive cortisone which can either be a helpful process or a sign that your body is trying to get you to slow down.
- Nutritional Markers for Vitamin B6 & B12 – These are important for energy, mood, methylation of estrogens, creation of neurotransmitters, and involved in many metabolic reactions in the body.
- Pyroglutamate – This is a marker for glutathione deficiency.
- Oxidative Stress – 8-OHdG is a biomarker for oxidative stress. This “rusting” in your body can damage cells, DNA, and the mitochondria.
- Neurotransmitter Metabolites – Metabolites of the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin are used to view a representation of these neurotransmitters in the brain.
What Do I Do With Your Results?
The DUTCH test is an innovative hormone test created by Precision Analytical Labs used for assessing sex and adrenal hormones and their metabolites. The results from the test are instrumental in creating a personalized health care plan and assist in addressing specific health needs to restore hormonal balance in the body.
Once we have the results of your DUTCH Hormone Test, we are armed with the data needed to create a personalized health care plan and address your specific health needs so we can restore the hormonal balance in your body.
Rather than simply treating the symptoms, the Dutch Hormone Test allows us to pinpoint exactly what is out of balance. Hormones are tricky and often when one is out of balance it can mimic symptoms of another hormone, making it difficult to create a care plan without the information the Dutch Hormone Test supplies.
A personalized health plan will look something like a combination of lifestyle medicine like adjustments in exercise, sleep, diet, stress management, and household toxins. That combined with the right use of herbs and supplements will give you a strategy to get your health under control.
Do you have symptoms that you think are related to your hormones? Would you like to have a better understanding of your hormonal health? If that sounds like you, fill out my contact form and let’s talk about how I can help you achieve optimal health through balanced hormones!
