Which DUTCH Panel Will Help You Best Assess Your Patients’ Hormone Health?

by Clinical Consulting Team

One of the top questions we get asked is ‘which DUTCH test is right for me?’ Below is a guide for healthcare practitioners to use in determining which testing panel may be best for them to recommend to their patients.

When a patient is experiencing symptoms like painful PMS, chronic fatigue, low libido, or just feeling “off,” it only makes matters worse trying to get answers from traditional medical tests. It can be even more frustrating to suffer from symptoms and receive no diagnosis because their bloodwork comes back “normal.” This is one of the many reasons why many healthcare practitioners and their patients are switching to DUTCH testing – they get more answers.

DUTCH is dried urine test for comprehensive hormones. It offers an extensive profile of sex and adrenal hormones, along with their metabolites, and is the world leader in hormone panels. DUTCH testing is unique because it helps identify symptoms of hormonal imbalances by providing a complete picture of a patient’s hormone levels which cannot be seen in testing serum (blood) or saliva alone.

Precision Analytical, creators of the DUTCH Test®, exists to make it easier for patients and their healthcare providers to find answers to complex clinical questions which affect their everyday lives. Our unique hormone testing and reporting methods create better tools for healthcare providers to explore hormone issues with their patients. We do this through our four main hormone panel kits: the DUTCH Complete™, DUTCH Plus®, DUTCH Cycle Mapping™, and DUTCH Cycle Mapping™ Plus.

The DUTCH Complete Panel

The DUTCH Complete is our flagship product and shows a comprehensive assessment of 20 sex hormone metabolite markers (2 Progesterone, 8 Androgen, and 10 Estrogen), 12 adrenal hormone metabolite markers (4 Cortisol, 4 Cortisone, 3 Cortisol Metabolites, 4 Creatinine, and DHEA-S), 6 Organic Acids, 8-OHdG, and Melatonin. All these markers are taken from a one-day, 4-spot urine collection. Specimens are collected easily at home and are shipped directly back to our lab for processing, with free shipping in the US!

If a patient is feeling “off” consider testing with DUTCH. We have thousands of healthcare providers who use our testing with great success, and we can even help patients find one on our website. Interested in becoming a DUTCH provider? Contact us today to get started and receive access to exclusive resources.

For more information about the DUTCH Complete please click here.

The DUTCH Plus Panel

The DUTCH Plus includes all the biomarkers of the DUTCH Complete (2 Progesterone, 8 Androgen, and 10 Estrogen, 3 Cortisol metabolites, 4 Creatinine, DHEA-S, 6 Organic Acids, 8-OHdG, and Melatonin markers taken from a one-day, 4-spot urine collection) but also adds 4 salivary measurements to assess the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) by adding 5-6 Free Cortisol and Cortisone points each, taken throughout the day. The CAR assessment collects salivary samples at the moment of waking and twice more, at 30 and 60 minutes after waking to bring another important piece of the HPA Axis into focus.

Even though some lab tests may show “normal” free cortisol levels throughout the day, it does not always mean everything is functioning properly. Testing free cortisol is helpful at understanding the circadian rhythm and answers questions such as “Why am I tired?” “Why can’t I sleep?” “Why do I crash in the afternoon?” The HPA axis might not be appropriately responding when faced with a stressor, even when cortisol levels are fluctuating nicely throughout the day. Through testing the CAR, the “stress” of waking allows us to test the HPA axis through saliva in a way it cannot be assessed by urine alone. The combination of the detailed analysis of a DUTCH Complete coupled with the CAR results give an expanded view of patient health with the DUTCH Plus.

Click here to learn more about the DUTCH Plus.

The DUTCH Cycle Mapping Panel

DUTCH Cycle Mapping analyzes the full picture of progesterone and estrogen patterns throughout the menstrual cycle. Providers can use these results to potentially answer important questions for patients with month-long symptoms, fertility concerns, or even issues related to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

The one-day urine and salivary testing with DUTCH is very helpful to give a snapshot of a woman’s hormones in a particular part of her cycle but may not give the full picture of hormone health. For example, if a woman is having specific symptoms on multiple days of the month, such as headaches or mood swings, she might want to expand to the DUTCH Cycle Mapping.

This test collects 9 targeted estrogen and progesterone measurements from urine throughout the cycle to graph out a woman’s follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases. These convenient, first-morning urine collections are based on the actual length of the cycle to allow for better characterization of both the ovulatory and luteal peaks.

Practitioners can sometimes face challenges in treating women with irregular cycles, fertility problems, or who have had an ablation due to the difficulty in determining specific details with hormone patterns throughout the entire cycle. The DUTCH Cycle Mapping test gives a complete picture of the patient’s cycle and allows for a more accurate, comprehensive, and customized treatment program. This test is helpful for patients and providers to see if/when a woman is ovulating as well as to determine the reasons behind mid-cycle spotting, hormonal migraines, fertility issues, and more.

For more information about DUTCH Cycle Mapping, please click here.

The DUTCH Cycle Mapping Plus Panel

DUTCH Cycle Mapping Plus is for patients and their providers to see if/when a woman is ovulating as well as to determine the reasons behind mid-cycle spotting, hormonal migraines, fertility concerns, or even issues related to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). It also helps identify symptoms of hormonal imbalances by providing a complete picture of a patient’s hormone levels which cannot be seen in testing serum (blood) or saliva alone.

The DUTCH Cycle Mapping Plus not only maps estrogen and progesterone throughout the monthly menstrual cycle but also adds the comprehensiveness of all the hormone metabolites of the DUTCH Complete™ along with the cortisol awakening response (CAR).

This test uses more first-morning, urine sample collections for mapping and performs testing on targeted samples based on the actual length of the cycle. In addition, one full day of four (4) urine and five (5) saliva samples are collected, providing comprehensive hormone metabolites and CAR results you expect from the DUTCH Complete and DUTCH Plus testing panels.

Click here for more information about the DUTCH Cycle Mapping Plus.