Should You Take An At-Home Cortisol Test?

Stressed out? There’s a test for that. At-home lab test kits now let you monitor your cortisol levels, all without having to see a doctor.

Here’s everything you need to know about the tests—and if you need to be testing your cortisol at home in the first place.

What’s so important about understanding cortisol and its impact on health?

Cortisol is commonly known as the “stress hormone” but it’s also an essential hormone for human survival, says Carolyn Cummins, a professor that specializes in stress hormone signalling at the University of Toronto’s Pharmacy department.

When we encounter a stressor, our brain reacts and our adrenal glands release cortisol, which helps mobilize glucose, she explains. “It provides fuel for the brain,” says Cummins. The effects are physical: our heart rate increases and our breath quickens.

Cortisol provides a short-term solution—the fight-or-flight response—to what should be a short-term threat. “It’s really important for short periods of time to survive stress,” Cummins says, “but then it should come back down.”

“The rhythm is really important.”

(Dr. Jen Gunter also has detailed primer on the stress response on her Substack, too, if you're looking for more information.)

Chronic stress, however, can cause that natural rise-and-fall rhythm to become a persistent drumbeat, which can eventually lead to dysregulation. Over time, that flattening or blunting of the stress response can wreak havoc on your health, affecting your immune function and even increasing your risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

How do the test kits work?

These at-home test kits, available to purchase online from companies like DUTCH and LifeLabs, allow hormonal health-curious to provide urine and/or saliva samples from home that are then sent to a lab for analysis.

The kits, according to the companies that sell them, provide detailed hormonal health information that you and an affiliated healthcare provider might use to take steps to improve your health and wellbeing.

What’s the point of testing your cortisol at home?

Cummins feels confident that the tests, which are sent to real labs that use validated analysis techniques, would provide fairly accurate and detailed information. But she’s not sure the information in isolation—or absent an actual problem or reason for testing beyond curiosity—is that useful. It’s complex information, she says, and is likely better interpreted by an endocrinologist.

While you could potentially get some kind of diagnostic information from these tests that you can share with your doctor or take to an affiliated medical professional for further investigation, she suspects it’s likely going to be within a minority of cases.

“In most cases, everyone will be in the normal range,” she says.

Some cortisol tests targeted to women going through perimenopause also include analysis of sex hormone panels, but that information may be even less useful. That’s because during perimenopause sex hormones can be erratic, Cummins says.

Do you need tests—or just more support to help deal with chronic stress?

While some tests walk you through a detailed analysis of the results, Cummins wonders what value or actions a person can take from the reports that aren’t already widely known to be helpful for addressing chronic stress without having to splash out for a test.

If you’re concerned about your stress levels and its effects on your physical and mental health, it’s likely you need support and to develop an approach for mitigating its effects.

You may also need to see a doctor or have a direct relationship with a healthcare provider, too.

“Advice that our doctors have been giving us for the past 50 years is the best advice there still is,” argues Cummins. Engaging in daily exercise, prioritizing sleep, eating a nutritious diet, and practising mindfulness and stress-reducing activities like yoga are all actions that can help people better deal with chronic stress.

“If we did all those things,” says Cummins, “it’s likely we wouldn’t be interested in such tests.”