Hormones are responsible for crucial bodily functions as well as major changes that occur over your lifetime. They are essential for fertility, libido, muscle tone, skin tone, bone health, energy levels, and weight management, among other functions. Additionally, hormone levels shift at various points to induce life stages such as puberty, reproduction, pregnancy, and menopause. Imbalanced hormone levels are part of the reason why young people going through puberty often develop facial acne and why women going through menopause typically experience hot flashes just to point out a few issues.

Hormones are chemical messengers that manage many bodily functions. Balanced hormones help you maintain good health, but shifting or unbalanced hormones can negatively affect your health. Hormone testing can identify hormonal imbalances to provide insight as to whether hormone therapy to balance your hormone levels could improve your health, vitality, and quality of life.

The 24 hour urine test is one of the options available that many practitioners find useful.

Urine Hormone Test Pros

1. The 24-hour urine hormone test has several positive qualities. It shows a good overall picture of hormone levels by providing the average hormone level over a 24-hour period, removing the variable of daily fluctuations in one’s hormone levels. It accounts for the full day and night of hormonal secretion. This eliminates the possibility of falsely elevated or depressed levels that may be obtained when a single point collection occurs at a peak or valley of an individual’s secretory cycle.  Since higher amounts of hormones are secreted at different times during the day, this gives a picture of the average level of hormone secretion.
2. Urine assays measure systemic, circulating, unbound hormone, reflecting that which is bio-available and ready for the body to use.  Urine hormone tests shows hormones in their water-soluble form, meaning that the body has prepared it and made it ready for excretion.
3. Although the test is more expensive than blood or saliva, it provides a more comprehensive hormone picture by testing a broader range of hormones, pro-hormones, and hormone metabolites than any blood or saliva panel, which results in a higher level of information that is especially helpful in difficult cases.  Pro-hormones are the precursors or biochemical building blocks for hormones. Hormone metabolites are the biochemical by-products or end products of hormone metabolism.
4. Measuring hormones in urine is quite common in research. A 24-hour urine collection is the preferred method for testing hormones that are secreted at night and during deep sleep, such as growth hormone and melatonin, and is the most economical and reliable way to evaluate steroid hormone metabolites.  This method has been gaining in popularity among integrative practitioners since it was brought into clinical practice by Dr. Jonathan Wright in the early 1980s.

1.  Urine Hormone Test For Estrogen

• Urine tests for all three estrogens (estrone, estradiol, and estriol) and provides additional helpful information, such as the levels of 2/16 hydroxyestrone ratio and 2-methoxyestradiol (suspected to have anticancer qualities).

• Other useful hormone tests are available using the urine, including different sub-types of estrogens such as 16 alpha (OH) estrone.

2.  Urine Hormone Test for Cortisol

Twenty-four hour urine hormone panels are excellent for evaluating adrenal health and function. In addition to measuring DHEA and cortisol, a complete panel also measures cortisone (the storage form of cortisol) and several important cortisol and cortisone metabolites, as well as aldosterone and other mineralocorticoids. The importance of measuring these metabolites can be seen in the stressed patient with normal or high-normal cortisol. Cortisol and cortisone metabolites can point to decreasing daily cortisol production that signals adrenal deficiency. The ratio of cortisol and cortisone is another important indicator of adrenal function, as are the mineralocorticoids: low mineralocorticoids are a clear indicator of chronic adrenal fatigue and are an excellent marker to monitor adrenal recovery with treatment.

3.  Urine Hormone Test for Metabolites

• An important advantage of a 24-hour urine hormone collection is the ability to measure hormone metabolites. This is most important when evaluating the adequacy and safety of exogenous estrogen supplementation and in assessing adrenal function. It is well established that certain estrogen metabolites are “good” estrogens, having a protective effect on estrogen-sensitive tissues. Other metabolites are known to have more carcinogenic effects.

• The utility of measuring estrogen metabolites has been the focus of much recent attention. Studies from 2012 and 2013 (a prospective case-control study and a retrospective case-control study) uncover new data that find a statistically significant association between 2-hydroxylation pathway estrogen metabolites and lower breast cancer risk.   These studies focused on postmenopausal women not taking hormone replacement. While there are no studies to date that examine estrogen metabolite ratios in postmenopausal women while concurrently taking hormone replacement, it stands to reason that supplemented levels of parent estrogens will make estrogen metabolite analyses an important test in this population group.

• Thierry Hertoghe, M.D., from Belgium and the author of The Hormone Solution, proposes that urinary hormone studies provide the best overall picture of hormone metabolism. He says they are a critical component for evaluating age-related hormonal changes, one that blood studies do not provide, and he suggests a comprehensive 24- hour urinary hormone profile as the initial test to be used in hormone balancing therapy.

• Estrogen metabolism is also easily influenced, being easily altered with supplements such as diindolylmethane (DIM), indol-3-carbinol (I3C), methylated B vitamins, and magnesium.  Being able to evaluate the relative balance of protective estrogens to potentially harmful estrogens and see the effects of treatment interventions is invaluable to the clinician working to maximize quality of life while also protecting against harmful effects. Because 24-hour urine hormone profiles measure both phase 1 and phase 2 liver metabolites of estrogen, these profiles also offer a peek into liver function and may suggest further avenues for treatment.  It also shows urinary metabolites of steroid sex hormones, such as those involved in testosterone and pregnenolone metabolism.

Urine Hormone Test Cons

Even though it has so many benefits, the 24-hour urinary hormone panel has a few limitations as well.

1. This method is considered inconvenient by some because it requires a person to collect all their urine over a 24-hour period.
2. Older people are often unable to manage urine collection with accuracy, and for these individuals’ urine testing may be too cumbersome.
3. Dehydration or excessive fluid intake can also affect the results.
4. It only measures the hormones the body is excreting in the urine. And while excreted hormones often correlate with tissue and blood levels, this is not always the case.
5. Not all urine hormone testing methods are equal. Serial single-point urine collection does not account for individual differences in hormone secretion, especially for patients with nontraditional schedules, such as shift workers.
6. Just as single-point and 24-hour collection are different, not all technical methods of urine assay are equally accurate. Highly sophisticated gas chromatography (GC) run in tandem with mass spectrometry (MS) is emerging as the method against which all other methods are measured.
7. People with kidney disease do not excrete urine or metabolic products normally, so a urine hormone test is not suitable in these cases as hormone results may be altered in people with significant liver or kidney disease.
8. As with all other methods of testing, non-bio-identical hormone substances are not measured.
9. Urine testing cannot test both free (active) and total levels of testosterone.
10. This test is complex and difficult to interpret, so you need to consult a physician who is an expert in this type of testing to tell you what it means.
11. The 24-hour urine collection does not shed light on the diurnal cortisol pattern. It has been observed clinically, however,  that an elevated cortisol and cortisone in the 24-hour urine panel may be related to nighttime cortisol spikes.
12. Some practitioners have expressed a concern about the convenience of a 24-hour urine collection.
13. To help ensure accuracy, some labs and their total testosterone hormone testing have been CDC-certified every year since the program’s inception in 2011. Unfortunately, there is no similar certification program for overall urine hormone testing at this time.

DUTCH Dried Urine Test

The 24 hour urine test has been elevated to a new level with the availability of the DUTCH test which is a dried urine test and more comprehensive than the above mentioned urine tests.

DUTCH  – Dried Urine Test Comprehensive Hormone Tests

To receive $50 off of your DUTCH test, use Passionate For Truth’s special discount link.

Hormone blood tests, saliva test and 24 hour urine hormone tests are useful tools, but according to Precision Laboratories, they are not the same as the comprehensive DUTCH test. Blood tests won’t measure your cortisol rhythms and estrogen metabolism. Blood tests will not track hormone replacement as thoroughly. They will not shed light on adrenal, cortisol and sleep problems.

The DUTCH test was created to provide insight into many of these concerns.  It has been designed to provide the most complete assessment of sex and adrenal hormones, along with their metabolites, in one easy to administer test available in the comfort of your own home. The DUTCH test tests your reproductive and adrenal hormones as well as melatonin and oxidative stress.  No blood to draw, spitting in tubes or filling up jugs of urine. The DUTCH test uses a dried urine collection process that is great for baseline measurements of women with hormonal imbalances and for Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) monitoring. Once receiving the results of your DUTCH test, you can work with your medical professional to achieve optimum hormone balance.

More than just a test for the reproductive hormones, the DUTCH hormone test adds testing for metabolites and is able to focus on androgens (testosterone, DHT), as well as break down estrogens further to see if their may be metabolism issues involved.  One of the most exciting parts of the DUTCH hormone test is the daily cortisol component which improves urine testing because it includes getting a full picture of all hormones throughout the day:  Cortisol metabolites rather than just the free cortisol reading,  progesterone and melatonin, as well as more specific readings overall for the estrogens are all included in the DUTCH hormone test, which when combined with all of the other findings will give the best overall picture in order for health professionals to make the best clinical decisions for each person.

The total hormones tested with the DUTCH hormone test include:

• Cortisol
• Cortisone

ESTROGENS:

• Estradiol
• Estrone
• Estriol

• Progesterone
• Testosterone
• DHEA
• Melatonin

The DUTCH test is considered to be the most cutting edge, comprehensive, Functional Medicine hormone test.

The clinical bottom line is that blood, urine, and saliva tests each have advantages and disadvantages. One test type doesn’t replace the rest, but adds information that can be part of an assessment for the best outcome for the individual patient.

Every practitioner has his/her preference.  Each of the hormone tests provide information that is valuable.  The best part about having so many options is that if you do not have insurance, your insurance doesn’t cover it, or you practitioner is only familiar or uses one specific kind, having some information, regardless of how comprehensive, can benefit your understanding in trying to re-balance your hormones and regain optimal health if the hormones are involved.

Hormone tests contain a wealth of information, and  it may appear overwhelming to some. If you don’t have a knowledgeable health professional who is well versed in hormones, a good laboratory will have experts with clinical experience available to help you get the most from your results.

You can find out more info about the more DUTCH comprehensive dried urine test here.

Receive $20 off of your DUTCH test with Passionate For Truth’s discount link.

**Ordering a lab test through this site does not provide any patient-practitioner relationship, and Passionate For Truth does not hold any responsibility for any results provided by the lab test, or changes made to the individual’s health plan based on these results.

Laboratory services are for informational purposes only. It is not the intention of Passionate For Truth to provide specific medical advice but rather to provide users with information to better understand their health. Specific medical advice including diagnosis and treatment will not be provided. The test results are subject to the same privacy and release restrictions that HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) places on all medical records. The HIPAA Privacy Rule, protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information. Patients should be aware that test results will not automatically be forwarded to your physician or become a part of office medical records unless you make a specific request. Clients may request to release information to their physician, if they desire. Always seek the advice of a trained health professional for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.