The DUTCH Test: Dried Urine for Comprehensive Hormones
One of the most thorough hormone snapshots available in functional medicine. Unlike a single blood draw that captures one moment in time, the DUTCH gathers dried urine samples and saliva samples across the day so we can see your hormones in motion: how cortisol rises and falls, how your sex hormones are being made and broken down, and where your body may be getting stuck.
What you should know about DUTCH Testing
What It Measures
Cortisol rhythm across the day, sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA), how your body processes and clears those hormones, melatonin, and several markers of how your nervous system is handling stress.
Symptoms it helps explain
Fatigue that doesn’t lift with rest, trouble falling or staying asleep, mood swings, brain fog, low libido, weight gain around the middle, irregular cycles or hot flashes, anxiety that came out of nowhere — and that overall feeling that “something just isn’t right.”
What we’ll do with results
Once results come in, we sit down together and look at the bigger picture — what your hormones are doing, why, and how the patterns we see line up with what you’ve been feeling. From there, we build a protocol that supports the actual root cause, not just the symptoms.
Why the DUTCH gives a clear picture
Hormones can and do change throughout the day. To get the best view of your hormones, it is best to test the changes that take place over the course of a day, rathan than a one-time blood test. A standard blood test catches one frame of that story; the DUTCH catches the bigger picture. You’ll collect dried urine (and possibly mouth swab samples) four to five times during a single day in the comfort of your own home, then mail them off to the lab.
From those samples, we can see not only how much of each hormone is present, but how your body is breaking them down and whether those breakdown pathways are healthy ones.
Common Questions about DUTCH Testing
A few supplements (like ashwagandha or topical hormone creams) can affect results, but you should never stop a prescription medication without your prescribing doctor’s okay. We’ll go over your specific list together and decide what, if anything, needs to pause for a few days before collection.
Most DUTCH results are back within two to three weeks. We’ll schedule your results review visit shortly after, so we can go through everything together while it’s fresh.
The DUTCH is generally not billed through insurance; it’s a direct-to-lab test paid for at the time of ordering. The advantage is full access to a level of hormone detail that most insurance panels do not cover. HSA and FSA funds can often be used.
We love making people feel BETTER!
With highly trained practitioners, including a Nurse Practitioner with over 20 years of experience in clinical medicine. We consider the whole person and focus on uncovering the cause of your symptoms.