The 6 Best At-Home Cortisol Tests + Signs Of Abnormal Levels

Table of Content

• Folate At-Home Test Kits
• Best for follow-up advice: LetsGetChecked Cortisol Test
• Low cortisol levels
• Best At-Home Cortisol Test
• What Does A Cortisol Test Show?

It also comes with detailed, easy-to-follow instructions to test cortisol levels at home without prior experience. MyLAB Box is a sleep and stress test kit for men and women that measures cortisol and melatonin levels in saliva. The samples are collected privately from the comfort of your home, making the entire process fast, easy and private. To test cortisol levels at home, you’ll need to collect blood, urine, or saliva samples and send them to the laboratory for analysis.

Cortisol is made by your adrenal glands, two small glands that sit above the kidneys. A gland in your brain, called the pituitary gland, makes a hormone that tells your adrenal glands how much cortisol to make. If your cortisol levels are too high or too low, it may mean you have a disorder of your adrenal glands, a problem with your pituitary gland, or a tumor that makes cortisol.

Folate At-Home Test Kits

Verisana makes it easy to check your cortisol levels at home. Priced at under $50, this at-home cortisol test is great for people who don’t want to spend a ton of money. The test is a comprehensive panel that measures cortisol, cortisone, melatonin, and creatinine.

They may also provide a saliva test kit for analyzing a person’s cortisol levels. Medical experts test your cortisol levels through blood, saliva, or urine. The cortisol measured in these body fluids helps detect or keep track of health conditions linked to your adrenal glands. This is why sample collection for a cortisol home test should be done first thing in the morning when you wake up. Alternatively, using a cortisol test kit at midnight as directed by your doctor can also be used to help identify Cushing syndrome. The purpose of cortisol is to regulate a wide range of the human body’s vital processes, including the metabolism and the immune system.

Best for follow-up advice: LetsGetChecked Cortisol Test

Monday through Thursday and return your kit the day you collect the sample. If your test results come back out of range, a nurse will call you for a consultation free of cost. Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone” and is produced in the adrenal glands which are located on the top of the kidneys. Cortisol plays a role in the stress response in your body and taking an at-home cortisol test is an easy and convenient way to discover what your levels are. If you have an extremely low or high cortisol level, you need to consult a doctor.

Verisana at home cortisol test kit is a diurnal cortisol test kit explicitly created to measure blood levels of cortisol throughout the day. But the test may also be done on urine or saliva collected at home. Normally, cortisol levels vary during the day, so your provider may order more than one type of test to get more information about your cortisol levels. A person can take these tests at home by providing a urine, blood, or saliva sample.

Low cortisol levels

Without treatment, these conditions could cause life-threatening complications. After taking a home cortisol test, people can sometimes receive their results as early as within 2–5 days online or via a telephone call with a healthcare professional. But results can vary widely, depending on the time of the test and the other factors that affect cortisol levels. The test determines whether you have too much or too little of the hormone. According to naturopathic doctor Ralph Esposito, serum cortisol testing is the least useful for monitoring cortisol levels.

Results outside the normal range might indicate Cushing’s syndrome, Addison’s disease or a tumor. An ACTH stimulation can be done to see if the problem is based in the pituitary or adrenal glands. If you respond to an ACTH stimulation test, your pituitary gland is most likely the issue. For example, people with low cortisol levels that do not respond to ACTH stimulation tests, could have a condition known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia .

How to Test Cortisol Levels at Home

However, several at-home cortisol tests are available to purchase. ZRT Laboratory indicates that the morning is the peak time for hormone production and the best time to test cortisol levels. The company also has a team of nurses and doctors available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to offer ongoing support. The healthcare professionals are available to discuss a person’s results over the phone. There are several home cortisol tests available to purchase over the counter or online.

Fluctuation in weights and blood sugar levels can also be a sign of high or low cortisol levels. Irregular periods and erectile dysfunction may also link to the change in the cortisol level. When your cortisol is tested at a doctor’s office, it’s typically done using a blood sample. Most at-home cortisol tests are collected through a saliva sample, though a few may use urine or blood samples. A cortisol saliva test is usually done at home with a kit to collect a saliva sample.

As a stress hormone, your ability to handle stress is directly related to your cortisol levels. An excess cortisol level may cause a person to over react to stressful situations. Verisana provides a convenient way to measure and keep track of your body’s stress levels throughout the day. It is helpful for people who experience overwhelming tiredness, depression, sleep disorders, and have trouble concentrating. MyLAB Box is for both men and women who want to understand their body’s stress levels and how it impacts their sleep.

The results will be available in a few days and sent to you via email or your smartphone. At approximately $100, the cost is about average for home cortisol testing, but results come back fairly quickly in about five days. It’s helpful to have a free nurse consultation to get your questions answered and help you interpret your results. It uses a blood sample collection method with a low or no pain fingerprick and detailed instructions are provided. LetsGetChecked also has the added benefit of an app, offering convenience for ordering and viewing test results from its secure platform. After requesting your kit online, your order is approved by a board-certified physician in your state.

The laboratories for LetsGetChecked are CLIA -approved and CAP-accredited. CLIA regulates lab testing and before human samples can be used for testing, these labs need to be certified by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. When a lab is CAP-accredited, it’s inspected by the College of American Pathologists and its standards help maintain the accuracy of test results. Your sample is processed in the same labs that providers and hospitals use.

Carefully massage your finger to encourage drops of blood to flow out and into the collection tube. Point your finger straight down, toward the floor, to help the blood flow to your fingertip more easily. Alternate between squeezing and releasing your finger so that blood can flow back into your fingertip between squeezes. Continue to do this until the tube is filled to the indicated level. Check the instructions on your kit to find out what time of day is best for collecting your sample. Keep the collection container in your refrigerator between uses.

Cortisol Home Blood Test Kit

Table of Content

• Methodology
• Receive your test
• When To Test Cortisol Levels at Home?
• What Causes Low Cortisol Levels?

Addison’s disease, also known as hypocortisolism or primary adrenal insufficiency. This condition happens when your body has too little cortisol. Your test results will show the amount of cortisol detected from the test samples. The lab report will also reference the normal range of cortisol in healthy people. Once you’re done with blood, urine, or saliva testing, you can carry on with your normal activities. Cortisol levels circulating in your body provide the trigger, so involved glands and organs carry out these steps normally.

Once their finger is completely dry, they will pierce the skin using the lancet in the test kit. Then, they will wipe away the first drop of blood before squeezing some into the blood collection tube. YorkTest’s products have a 98% reproducibility rate, meaning that two separate results of the same person’s sample will correlate with each other 98% of the time. All results are confidential and provided to you online via our wellness hub within 7 days. Stress reduction and lowering cortisol levels go hand in hand.

Methodology

While we don't guarantee this, as analysis of biological samples is complex and can be variable, results are returned in this timeframe in most cases. Get cortisol home test results delivered securely online, typically within 24 hours. Your doctor may ask you to temporarily stop taking certain medications that can interfere with getting an accurate test result. You may also be asked to refrain from vigorous exercise in the day leading up to the test.

So many foods that have “calming” properties are also potentially good for regulating cortisol levels. Dark chocolate, specifically types rich in polyphenols, has been shown, in a small study, to reduce cortisol levels6. These are just a few dietary considerations to help manage cortisol levels. Below we discuss more specific foods and supplements that can help in regulating high and low cortisol. Raised or low levels of cortisol can tell you if stress could be impacting your health and whether you need to make lifestyle changes or visit your GP. A cortisol test shows whether a person has high or low levels of cortisol, which may indicate an adrenal disorder.

Receive your test

To help you take control of your own stress response, we spoke with experts and researched the best at-home cortisol tests available today. Below, find our top picks that are the most accurate, easy to use, and a good value for your money. If you’re collecting your samples at home, bring the containers to the facility within the required period. The lab will give you multiple containers for obtaining your sample every time you pee. Further testing reveals more health information about your glands, such as an ACTH stimulation test, which measures how well your adrenal glands are in making cortisol.

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When To Test Cortisol Levels at Home?

Female Total Health Check - Take a whole body holistic view of female health risks. This all round health test provides the reassurance needed for a healthier you!. Need a high quality, clinically accredited test done in a professional clinical laboratory. You get the convenience of home testing with the reassurance of professional clinical analysis. Measuring cortisol allows you to assess whether your body is under too much stress or if you have been over training.

Your cortisol levels will then increase, and the adrenal glands will stop the production of CRH from the hypothalamus, to lower your cortisol levels. Sometimes, you may be told to chew on gum or cotton to stimulate saliva production. You will then spit into a collection container or use a swab to collect saliva, which usually takes just a few minutes and may be done at a laboratory or home.

The results will be sent back to you in a few days after the sample arrives at the lab. The results will provide an overview of your blood cortisol concentration at different times of the day. LetsGetChecked allows anyone to test their cortisol levels at home to detect if the levels in their blood are too high or too low. For anyone who wants to quickly and conveniently test cortisol levels at home without having to break the bank, the EverlyWell cortisol test kit is just right for you. It’s designed specifically for people who experience difficulty sleeping and want to measure hormonal levels that affect their metabolism, stress, and sleep patterns.

YorkTest offers a simple finger prick at home cortisol blood test sample test to measure cortisol levels and results are provided in an easy-to-review report within 7 days. Our results will provide detailed guidance on your results to show if you have normal cortisol levels, and advice going forward. Proper testing is the best way to measure cortisol levels and pinpoint whether there’s a deficiency or excess of hormones present. While cortisol testing can be done with blood, urine, or saliva tests, a blood cortisol test is the most common and accurate method. Urine tests are not helpful unless you collect your urine for 24 hours and then test a sample of the whole collection.

Vitamin B12 At-Home Test Kits

You can also opt for a clinic visit, for professional sample collection by experienced staff, in a comfortable & caring environment. But cortisol is also released in high quantities in response to stress, to help the body respond appropriately, so high levels are a good indicator of this. Other health conditions like pregnancy, obesity, physical and psychological stress, depression, diabetes, alcoholism, and sleep apnea. For blood testing, a sample is usually taken from a vein in your arm. The person taking the sample will increase blood in the veins by tying an elastic band around your upper arm.

The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. Blood samples are usually taken twice during the day--once in the morning when cortisol levels are at their highest, and again around 4 p.m., when levels are much lower. You’ll likely need to label the container with information such as your name, the date, and the start and end times of the collection period.

Lyme Disease At-Home Test Kits

This is often done when your doctor wants you to take blood samples at several time points throughout the day to have a better idea of how your body responds to stress. If you were diagnosed with Cushing syndrome or Addison’s disease, then you often might be required to test your cortisol levels with a home test on a regular basis. These tests involve collecting blood, urine, or saliva samples and mailing them to a laboratory for analysis. Because cortisol levels change throughout the day, some tests require samples to be collected in the morning, while others use samples taken at several different times during the day. LetsGetChecked carefully measures cortisol levels in blood samples through a finger prick.

Somehow, our bodies have been hard-wired by years of evolution to deal with stressful situations. So whether you work an exhausting 9-5 or are faced with near-death experiences, the world is indeed a stress-filled place to live in. Founded in 2014, LetsGetChecked stood out because of its comprehensive health assessment and follow-up.

Learn More About Our Cortisol Test

This isn’t very practical, and a blood test is much more useful to determine what your cortisol level is. Cortisol is produced in the adrenal glands and is released in response to stressors like illness and exercise. Cortisol is often referred to as your body’s “stress hormone,” but it has many roles in the body, including helping to control blood sugar levels and regulating energy metabolism.