Should You Try At-Home Hormone Testing? Experts Weigh The Pros And Cons

August 27, 2024
Written By: Olivia Luppino

Right now, hormone testing is the talk of the internet. At-home hormone tests—which can run up to $500, BTW—can check all kinds of biomarkers across your thyroid, metabolism, and reproductive system. The question is: Do we need them to?

On TikTok, women are saying yes, advocating that more people push their doctors to check their hormones or take matters into their own hands with an at-home kit (that evaluates a sample of their urine, saliva, or blood) if their doctor won’t order the tests. They’re thought to potentially explain a wide array of symptoms, including chronic fatigue, anxiety, acne, bloating, and weight gain—side effects that could be the result of what people online call “hormone imbalances”—though hormones aren’t necessarily the culprit for these conditions, according to experts.

“I want to empower women to take care of their own health, but checking and monitoring hormone levels all the time is probably not the best way to do that,” says Stephanie Faubion, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health and medical director of the North American Menopause Society.

But, if you are dealing with symptoms that have a significant impact on your quality of life and there’s even a slight chance hormones could be involved, it makes sense to want to look into them. One reason people are turning to these kits is they feel like they’re not being heard by a doctor. When it comes to your health, having more data isn’t a bad thing. And, that’s what at-home hormone kits provide, says Jaime Knopman, MD, reproductive endocrinologist and director of fertility preservation at CCRM Fertility.

Beyond more generalized symptoms like fatigue and mood swings, reproductive hormones play a role in things like polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), menopause, and fertility, and they make tests specifically for those hormones, too. You just want to make sure you’re collecting info that’s actually helpful and interpreting it correctly, which isn’t always the case with an at-home test, warns Dr. Knopman.

Here’s what you need to know before you take an at-home hormone test.

Can hormone testing tell you if your hormones are balanced?

Chances are if you’ve heard about hormone testing, you’ve also heard about “hormone balancing,” but this term doesn’t mean anything to medical professionals, and it wouldn’t be something they prioritize. “Hormones are cyclical,” so they wouldn’t be balanced because their levels are always changing, explains Dr. Knopman.

For example, it’s totally normal to have low progesterone a day or two after you ovulate—if an egg wasn’t fertilized, it naturally drops which is what leads to a period—but an at-home test doesn’t know this.

Similarly, a “normal” estrogen level ranges from 30 to 300, and there’s no data that says being closer to 30 or closer to 300 is better for you because every person reacts differently to different levels, says Dr. Faubion. Say your results come back with a level of 35—should you be concerned that your estrogen is low? “No, because next week it’s probably going to be 150,” she says. “We all have hormone levels that vary; that’s what they’re supposed to be doing.” This means that if you decide to check your hormone levels, you need to know not only their normal ranges, but the normal ranges for where you are in your cycle.

FYI: The birth control pill keeps hormones artificially balanced by supplying you with estrogen and progesterone throughout your cycle. (And, if you’re on the pill, you wouldn’t want to take an at-home hormone test—it just won’t tell you anything.)

The normal fluctuation of hormones can explain some symptoms, like fatigue, acne, and mood swings. While you don’t need to stress too much over these things if they’re not having a major impact on you, Dr. Knopman recommends exercising to improve blood flow, reduce bloating, and raise endorphins or modifying diet to limit salty and sugary foods. If needed, taking over-the-counter pain relievers like Advil or Tylenol can help with some PMS symptoms, she says. Anything that a company (or the TikToker that recommended it) might be trying to sell you—like supplements, diet plans, or hormone creams—is best discussed with your doctor first, just to make sure it’s safe or going to be effective.

What can at-home hormone testing tell you?

Overall, the information you’re getting from any at-home hormone test should be thought of as supplementary to your medical treatment and likely won’t be enough information on its own to diagnose a problem, says Dr. Knopman. The other thing to keep in mind is that since hormones are often changing, an at-home test is giving you just a singular snapshot of your levels, which might not be that helpful. That said, so long as you’re not on hormonal birth control, here’s what you can potentially learn from testing your reproductive hormones as they pertain to fertility, PCOS, and menopause.

Fertility

When tested at certain points in your cycle, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and luteinizing hormone (LH) can all give you insights into if you’re ovulating or if you have low estrogen, both of which might be helpful pieces of information to share with your doctor if you have questions about fertility, says Dr. Knopman. These data points, coupled with other information about your cycle and other symptoms you might be experiencing, can help your doctor come up with a better plan of attack when it comes to fertility. But, it should never be on you as the patient to provide at-home hormone testing results and many doctors will order their own versions of these tests anyway.

PCOS

If you suspect you’re dealing with PCOS, which can take over two years to diagnose according to a study published in The Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism—and your ob-gyn isn’t taking that possibility seriously—an at-home hormone panel indicating consistently high levels of LH or testosterone could also provide you with some data to push your diagnosis along. Though, ideally you wouldn’t be put in a position where you had to do that, both Dr. Knopman and Dr. Faubion agree.

Early Menopause

In the case of perimenopause and menopause, at-home hormone testing kits are probably not worth the money, says Dr. Faubion. “If a woman is in her early or mid forties and starting to experience menopause symptoms, then that’s probably what it is,” she says. “Doing a blood test is not going to help you define that.” And, once you reach your forties, hormones are fluctuating so much that testing them today might give you an entirely different result from testing them tomorrow, and your doctor is going to treat your symptoms anyway, she says.

However, if you think you might be experiencing menopause earlier than that, hormone testing, either at-home or with your doctor could help confirm this. High follicle-stimulating hormone levels and low estradiol might indicate menopause, but of course, if you’re younger than typical menopause age, you should also rule out pregnancy with a pregnancy test first—the O.G. at-home hormone test (pregnancy tests look for human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy).

Amenorrhea

For people who don’t get their period, hormone testing could help provide insight that providers would usually rely on cycle information for, says Dr. Faubion. This includes people who have an IUD, a hysterectomy but still have ovaries, PCOS, or functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (or, the lack of a period caused by over-exercising, stress, or an eating disorder). By looking at estrogen levels, doctors can evaluate things like if you’re ovulating.

Pros And Cons Of Hormone Testing, According To Doctors

Hormone tests might not be quite the savior TikTok says they are, but they likely won’t hurt anything beyond your wallet (which is an important consideration). The best kind of hormone testing is done in your doctor’s office, and going with an at-home test might not provide very reliable data. Not only does your doctor have better methods of measuring your hormones (something that is actually pretty complicated, according to Dr. Faubion), but they can also order targeted tests based on your symptoms and are trained to interpret those results, put all the pieces together, and give you a diagnosis, says Dr. Knopman.

But, what if your doctor doesn’t think you’re a good candidate for hormone testing? This may be because many of the concerns driving at-home tests are likely not explained by hormones, so your doc might want to focus on something else. Still, if you’re passionate about looking into your hormones, and you have someone to interpret a hormone kit’s results for you in the context of your medical history and symptoms, the best part about at-home tests is that they give people the ability to proactively look deeper into their health, says Dr. Knopman. “Wanting to know more about your body and get healthy is a big plus so I am not knocking [at-home testing],” she says. “But remember that all of the answers don’t come from one blood, saliva swab, or urine test.”

And, in a medical system where women aren’t always given adequate care, at-home testing might feel empowering—but hopefully fewer and fewer women will be put in a position where they feel the need to purchase a kit, say both docs. “We need to listen to women when they’re telling us that they don’t feel well because obviously people are trying to troubleshoot this on their own because they’re not getting answers from somewhere,” says Dr. Faubion.