A Comprehensive Guide to the Dutch Hormone Test in Michigan

What Is a DUTCH Hormone Test?

DUTCH stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones. It’s an at-home hormone test where you collect a few small urine samples on filter paper throughout the day. After the cards dry, you mail them to the lab.

Unlike a single blood draw, DUTCH shows your hormone patterns over 24 hours and how your body is metabolizing them. The report covers sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone), adrenal/stress hormones (cortisol, DHEA), and selected organic acid markers related to nutrient status and metabolism. The goal is to reveal hidden imbalances that may affect energy, mood, sleep, menstrual cycles, fertility, and overall health.

In simple terms, The DUTCH hormone test uses dried urine samples collected throughout the day to measure a wide range of hormones. After mailing your samples to the lab, you’ll receive a report showing your sex, adrenal, and metabolic hormone patterns helping uncover imbalances that may affect your energy, mood, fertility, or menstrual cycle.

Key features of the DUTCH test include:

• Comprehensive hormone panel: Measures estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, cortisone, and their metabolites—showing not just levels but how your body processes and clears hormones.
  
• Adrenal and sleep hormones: Tracks your daily cortisol rhythm, DHEA-S, and melatonin to assess stress, energy, and sleep balance.
  
• Organic acids and nutrients: The DUTCH Complete version adds organic acid markers to reveal nutrient status (like B12, B6, and glutathione) and gut or metabolic health.
  

Together, these insights offer a comprehensive view of your hormonal and metabolic health, helping your provider create a personalized plan for lasting balance.

Who Should Consider a DUTCH Hormone Test?

You might be wondering if the DUTCH hormone test is right for you. This test can be especially useful for individuals who have symptoms or health concerns that suggest hormonal imbalances or dysregulation in the stress response. Consider the DUTCH test if you:

• Have irregular cycles or hormonal symptoms: Ideal for those with PMS, menopause, fertility challenges, or irregular periods. It helps assess estrogen, progesterone, and their balance throughout the cycle.
  
• Struggle with fatigue or burnout: Reveals if cortisol (your stress hormone) is too high, too low, or poorly timed—common patterns behind low energy and poor sleep.
  
• Experience mood swings or anxiety: Hormones like cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone affect brain chemistry and mood. DUTCH testing helps identify imbalances that may trigger these changes.
  
• Still have symptoms despite “normal” labs: Standard blood tests might miss hormone metabolism or daily fluctuations. DUTCH offers a deeper look at how your body uses and clears hormones.
  
• Use hormone therapy: Helpful for monitoring how your body processes estrogen, progesterone, or DHEA supplements, ensuring safe and effective dosing.
  
• Suspect PCOS or high androgens: Detects elevated testosterone or DHEA and distinguishes whether excess androgens come from the ovaries or adrenals.
  
• Live with chronic stress: Assesses long-term stress effects on adrenal function and overall hormone balance, identifying patterns linked to fatigue, insomnia, or brain fog.
  
• Want a preventive check-up: Offers a proactive look at hormone and stress health, catching early imbalances before they lead to bigger issues.
  

In short, anyone interested in a functional, root-cause approach to health can benefit from the DUTCH test—especially those with unexplained fatigue, mood changes, reproductive issues, or metabolic concerns.

Note: Men can also take the DUTCH test to assess testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol balance. The only part excluded for men is the menstrual cycle mapping.  Also the dutch test is not recommended for postmenopausal women not on HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy).

What Does the DUTCH Test Measure?

The DUTCH hormone test is prized for its comprehensiveness. It doesn’t just give you a single hormone reading, it provides an entire hormone profile. Here’s a breakdown of the key things the DUTCH test measures:

• Sex Hormones & Metabolites: Includes estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA, plus their breakdown products.
  
• Adrenal (Stress) Hormones: Tracks cortisol and cortisone throughout the day to reveal your stress pattern. It also measures DHEA-S and melatonin, giving insight into adrenal health, energy balance, and sleep quality.
  
• Organic Acids & Other Markers: The DUTCH Complete version adds metabolic indicators such as B12, B6, glutathione, and neurotransmitter metabolites. It even includes gut health markers like Indican, linking digestion and hormone metabolism.
  

In short, the DUTCH test provides a comprehensive map of your hormone production, metabolism, and balance helping your provider identify where issues may arise and how to restore optimal function.

Read more What Is Functional Medicine Testing & How to Find It in Michigan

How Does the DUTCH Test Work? (Process & Preparation)

The DUTCH test is simple, convenient, and done entirely at home, no lab visits or needles required. Here’s how it works:

1. Order & Receive the Kit: Your healthcare provider (such as Integrative Wellness Centers) will determine if DUTCH testing is right for you and provide the appropriate kit—DUTCH Complete, DUTCH Plus, or Cycle Mapping for women tracking their full cycle.

2. Collect Samples at Home: You’ll collect 4–5 urine samples over 24 hours using filter paper cards. Typical times include late afternoon, bedtime, during the night (optional), upon waking, and two hours after waking. This captures your daily hormone rhythm.

3. Follow Simple Prep Guidelines:
- For women: Collect samples on day 19–22 of a typical 28-day cycle (mid-luteal phase).
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol, avocados, bananas, and fava beans for 48 hours before testing.
- Limit fluids to 1–2 liters during the collection day.
- Pause certain supplements or hormone therapies if advised by your provider.

4. Dry & Mail Samples: Let the cards dry completely, pack them in the provided envelope, and mail them to the lab.

5. Get Results (2–3 Weeks): The lab analyzes your hormone and metabolite levels. Results are sent to your provider in an easy-to-read report with graphs and color-coded ranges.

6. Review & Plan: Your provider interprets the findings and builds a personalized treatment plan which may include nutrition, lifestyle, supplements, or hormone therapy to help restore balance.

In short, the DUTCH test offers an accurate, at-home way to assess your hormone health. With expert guidance, it can uncover the patterns behind your symptoms and help you achieve lasting balance.Ready to get clarity on your hormones?

‍Schedule an appointment at Integrative Wellness Centers to discuss if the DUTCH test is a good option for you.

Benefits of the DUTCH Hormone Test

Why choose the DUTCH test over standard hormone tests? Here are some of the unique benefits and advantages of DUTCH hormone testing, especially from a functional or root-cause medicine perspective:

• Comprehensive 24-Hour Profile: Hormone levels fluctuate all day. DUTCH tracks these changes across 24 hours (or even an entire menstrual month), giving a complete view of your hormone rhythm—especially for cortisol, which follows a daily cycle.
  
• Deeper Insight Through Metabolites: Unlike standard blood tests, DUTCH measures hormone metabolites, showing how your body processes and detoxifies hormones. This helps identify whether issues stem from hormone production, metabolism, or clearance.
  
• Hormones in Context: The panel evaluates sex, stress, and nutrient-related hormones together, linking how chronic stress, poor sleep, or nutrient deficiencies impact your overall balance. It connects hormone health with gut, brain, and metabolic function
  
• Convenient & Non-Invasive: The test is done entirely at home—no needles, no lab visits. You collect samples on your own schedule and mail them in, reducing stress that could otherwise affect results.
  
• Personalized & Preventive Care: The results guide individualized treatment plans, from lifestyle and nutrition adjustments to supplement and hormone therapy recommendations. It also detects subtle imbalances early, supporting prevention before issues worsen.
  
• Helpful for Complex Cases: In patients with symptoms like fatigue, weight changes, or mood swings, the DUTCH test often reveals patterns that standard tests miss—helping identify the root cause faster.

Overall, the DUTCH hormone test provides an in-depth, functional view of hormone health, empowering both you and your provider to create targeted, effective, and sustainable wellness plans.

Limitations of DUTCH Testing

While the DUTCH test is a powerful tool, it’s important to understand its limitations and why it may not be appropriate or necessary for everyone. Here are some of the main limitations and considerations of the DUTCH hormone test:

• Limited Independent Research: Most validation studies are conducted by the test’s creators, not independent researchers. While practitioners find it clinically helpful, it isn’t yet backed by large-scale trials.
  
• Requires Skilled Interpretation: DUTCH reports are complex and best understood by providers trained in hormone metabolism. Misinterpretation can lead to inaccurate conclusions if analyzed by someone inexperienced.
  
• Too Much Data for Simple Cases: In straightforward hormone concerns, a standard blood test may suffice. The DUTCH test can reveal minor variations that aren’t always clinically relevant if viewed without context.
  
• Potential At-Home Collection Errors: Since it’s a self-administered test, results can be affected by not following prep instructions or shipping delays. However, the lab uses quality checks to reduce errors.
  
• Not a Diagnostic Tool: DUTCH testing cannot diagnose diseases like Addison’s, Cushing’s, or thyroid disorders. It’s a functional assessment tool meant to guide treatment alongside standard labs—not replace them.
  
• Cost and Insurance: The test typically costs $300–$600 and is rarely covered by insurance. It’s an out-of-pocket investment, though many find the insights worthwhile.
  
• Doesn’t Measure Active Blood Levels: DUTCH evaluates hormones and metabolites in urine, not live blood levels. For fertility or thyroid evaluation, blood tests remain the gold standard.
  
• Not Ideal for Menopausal Women Without HRT: For women in natural menopause who are not on hormone replacement therapy, DUTCH testing typically provides limited value. Since estrogen and progesterone levels are already known to be consistently low in menopause, testing them doesn't usually change clinical management or inform treatment decisions.
  
  The test becomes most useful for menopausal women when they're on HRT and need to monitor how their body metabolizes hormones, optimize dosing, or assess estrogen metabolite pathways for safety. For symptom management in menopause without HRT, clinical assessment is usually more helpful than hormone testing.
  

In summary, the DUTCH test offers powerful insights but must be used wisely—with the right context, expertise, and complementary testing. At Integrative Wellness Centers, we use it as one piece of your broader functional health puzzle, ensuring that testing leads to meaningful, patient-centered care.

DUTCH Test vs. Other Hormone Tests

Each hormone testing method blood, saliva, and urine has its pros and cons. Here’s how the DUTCH test stacks up:

Blood Testing (Serum Tests)

What it measures: Hormones circulating in your bloodstream at the time of the draw.

‍Pros:
- Gold standard for most hormones (e.g., thyroid, FSH/LH).
- Highly accurate and covered by insurance when ordered by a doctor.

‍Cons:
- Reflects only one moment in time; hormones like cortisol fluctuate.
- Doesn’t show how your body metabolizes hormones.
- Multiple draws for pattern tracking are impractical.

Saliva Testing

What it measures: The free (active) portion of hormones.

‍Pros:
- Easy, at-home, and non-invasive.
- Useful for assessing daily cortisol rhythm.

‍Cons:
- Can be affected by eating, drinking, or oral hygiene.
- Less standardized across labs.
- Limited in showing hormone breakdown or detox pathways.

24-Hour Urine Testing (Conventional)

What it measures: Total hormone output and metabolites over a full day.

‍Pros:
- Captures hormone metabolites and total production.
- Commonly used for Cushing’s or estrogen load testing.

‍Cons:
- Inconvenient and easy to collect incorrectly.
- Misses hormone rhythm and timing patterns.

Where DUTCH Stands Out

The DUTCH test bridges the gap:
- Like saliva, it’s non-invasive and at-home, allowing multiple collections over the day.
- Like urine testing, it measures metabolites and total production—giving a fuller picture of hormone metabolism.
- It shows daily patterns, including cortisol curves and melatonin rhythms, that blood or conventional urine tests can’t.

‍Drawbacks:
- Not as widely accepted as serum testing.
- Requires following a specific collection schedule.
- Typically not covered by insurance.

👉 Interested in a hormone evaluation? Our team at Integrative Wellness Centers offers both standard labs and advanced panels like DUTCH to help you find the right testing approach for your needs.

What Can the DUTCH Test Help Identify?

While the DUTCH test isn’t a diagnostic tool for diseases, it offers valuable insight into your body’s hormone activity. By mapping hormone patterns, it helps practitioners understand what may be driving your symptoms and guides personalized treatment. Here’s what it can help reveal:

• Perimenopause and Hormone Transitions: For women still cycling or in perimenopause, DUTCH shows how estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate throughout the month, helping identify patterns behind symptoms like irregular periods, hot flashes, mood swings, or sleep disturbances.
  
• Menopause with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): While DUTCH testing is not typically recommended for menopausal women who aren't on HRT (since hormone levels are already known to be low), it becomes highly valuable for women using bioidentical or conventional HRT.
  
  The test shows how your body metabolizes estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone, helps optimize dosing for symptom relief, evaluates estrogen metabolite ratios (important for safety and cancer risk assessment), and monitors whether hormone therapy is working effectively. This makes DUTCH an excellent tool for personalizing and fine-tuning HRT protocols.
  
• PMS or PMDD: Identifies estrogen-progesterone imbalances that contribute to mood swings, headaches, or anxiety before menstruation—helping tailor nutrition, supplement, or hormone-based interventions.
  
• Irregular or Absent Periods: Detects whether ovulation is occurring and evaluates baseline hormone production. This helps uncover causes such as stress, under-nutrition, or PCOS-related anovulation.
  
• PCOS and Androgen Excess: Highlights elevated androgens (testosterone, DHEA) and their metabolites to show whether the excess is from adrenal or ovarian origin. This distinction can guide targeted PCOS management.
  
• Adrenal Dysfunction & Chronic Stress: Reveals cortisol rhythm patterns, helping identify adrenal overdrive (high output) or burnout (low output). These insights support stress management and adrenal recovery protocols.
  
• Sleep Issues: Evaluates melatonin and nighttime cortisol levels to understand insomnia or morning fatigue and guide treatment with sleep hygiene, adaptogens, or melatonin support.
  
• Hormone Therapy Monitoring: Tracks how your body processes estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone during therapy—helping ensure hormones are metabolized safely and effectively.
  
• Unexplained Fatigue or Brain Fog: Helps uncover whether low cortisol, estrogen dominance, or poor hormone detoxification contribute to persistent fatigue or cognitive issues.

In essence, the DUTCH test acts like a hormonal roadmap. it doesn’t diagnose disease, but it helps you and your provider see where imbalances may be hiding.

Where to Find a DUTCH Hormone Test in Michigan?

If you’re looking for a DUTCH hormone test in Michigan, Integrative Wellness Centers is one of the leading clinics offering this advanced functional hormone assessment. Our experienced functional medicine team specializes in root-cause hormone health, combining the DUTCH test with comprehensive lab evaluations to uncover why your hormones may be out of balance.

We don’t just provide testing, we translate your DUTCH results into a clear, personalized plan for recovery. Whether you’re dealing with fatigue, PMS, menopause, adrenal stress, or other hormone-related issues, our doctors create evidence-based treatment plans that may include nutrition, lifestyle optimization, and natural hormone support. 

You can visit our Michigan clinic or schedule a telehealth consultation from anywhere in the state.👉 Schedule your DUTCH hormone test with Integrative Wellness Centers today!

Frequently Asked Questions About Dutch Hormones Test

1: What is root cause medicine, and how does it relate to hormone testing?
Root cause (functional) medicine focuses on identifying why imbalances occur—such as stress, gut issues, or poor detoxification—rather than just treating symptoms. The DUTCH test helps uncover these underlying patterns, offering insights that guide a more personalized, long-term healing plan.

‍2: Is the DUTCH test accurate and reliable?
Yes, the DUTCH test is widely trusted in functional medicine and developed by Precision Analytical. It’s backed by internal validation and correlates well with other hormone testing methods. While not FDA-cleared, it provides valuable insights when interpreted by an experienced practitioner.

‍3: How much does it cost, and is it covered by insurance?
The DUTCH test typically costs between $300–$600, depending on the panel. It’s usually not covered by insurance, but HSA or FSA funds can often be used. At Integrative Wellness Centers, we’re transparent about pricing and only recommend the test when it adds real value to your treatment plan.

4: Can men take the DUTCH test?
Absolutely. The DUTCH test isn’t just for women—it also measures testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol, making it useful for evaluating men’s hormone balance, energy, and stress response.

‍5: How do I get a DUTCH test?
It’s best to order the test through a healthcare provider who can interpret the results. At Integrative Wellness Centers, we offer both in-person and telehealth options. After a consultation, we’ll provide the kit, review your results, and build a personalized plan for you.

‍6: How long do results take?
Once mailed, results typically take 2–3 weeks. Your provider will then review the findings with you and explain the next steps for balancing your hormones naturally.

‍7: Are there alternatives if I can’t afford the DUTCH test?
Yes. Conventional blood or saliva tests can provide basic hormone insights. We often start there and upgrade to DUTCH later if needed. Our goal is to work within your budget while still addressing your root health concerns.

8: Should I get DUTCH testing if I'm menopausal?
‍It depends. If you're in natural menopause and not on hormone replacement therapy, DUTCH testing typically isn't necessary since your estrogen and progesterone are already known to be low. Standard blood tests (like FSH/LH) can confirm menopausal status if needed. However, if you're on HRT or considering it, DUTCH becomes very valuable for monitoring how your body processes hormones, optimizing your dosing, and ensuring safe metabolism—especially important for estrogen metabolite assessment.