As a Patient

Hormone testing affects your diagnosis for medical conditions and the type of treatment you get for them, so it’s important for you to know what goes into your testing and how it can be improved.

Read about hormone testing and why it’s so important for effective healthcare. And talk to your doctor on you next visit. Ask:

1. What’s the typical margin of error for a given test?
2. How big is the range considered “normal”?
3. Are you using a standardized test?

As a Doctor

1. Look into the quality of the tests you order. If the test is for testosterone, estradiol or vitamin D, ask your lab if it’s standardized. For other tests, get more details about how precision and reliability are gauged and achieved.
2. Keep up with the latest developments in hormone testing. Talk to professional associations about the importance of test quality and push for more support for standardization efforts and encourage your organization to join PATH.
3. Educate colleagues who may not be aware of how improved hormone testing leads directly to better patient care, less retesting, and more consistent diagnoses. One way to start is by creating a list of standardized tests and the labs that offer them as a reference guide for everyone who orders diagnostics.

Visit the CDC for a list of all CLIA-certified laboratories and Certified Participants in the HoSt program. 

As a Health Insurer

1. Educate yourself on how test precision and reliability affect costs and care for hormone-related conditions.
2. Understand that some tests are more reliable than others, and support coverage for tests that are standardized.
3. Create incentives for manufacturers to participate in the CDC’s Laboratory/Manufacturer Hormone Standardization (HoSt) program, and ask them to help CDC expand the program.

As A Laboratory/Manufacturer

1. If you’re developing a hormone test, please participate the CDC’s Laboratory/Manufacturer Hormone Standardization (HoSt) program. The HoSt program assesses your test for bias and imprecision for a full year. You get support for your test’s calibration and the science, medical and public health community gets more reliable, precise measurements for diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
2. Tell labs and other manufacturers about the program, and work together on accelerating the standardization of testing for all hormones.
3. Educate yourself and your colleagues about hormone testing, why standardization lowers costs and improves care and why FDA approval is not enough. And keep up with the latest developments in hormone testing.

As a Researcher

1. Precise, reliable tests strengthen your ability to pool data from different studies and more swiftly use your findings to improve patient care. Insist on using standardized tests in your studies when they’re available.
2. If standardized test are not available ask questions about a test’s accuracy and reliability, and factor these qualities into your final selection.
3. Encourage your peers to use standardized tests and keep current on new developments. When others join you in using standardized tests, the pooling of data from different studies will be optimized and patient care improvements will happen faster.