Your hormones are always talking to you. But are you listening? Predominantly synonymous with Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), an increasing public understanding of their impact on physical and mental well-being is revolutionising the way we look at them. Traditional lab systems are being considered inconvenient in the wake of startups offering at-home tests so that we gain cognisance over our hormonal fluctuations.
Home testing becomes a fitting alternative to lab testing as hormonal parameters can now be documented regularly and easily at your place. “At-home hormone testing has revolutionised the way we can track hormone fluctuations. Going to a lab is inconvenient and impractical because hormones change every day. Home tests allow you to find imbalances in hormone trends by testing multiple times a month rather than going only once,” says Aayush Rai, CEO and co-founder of Inito, a medical technology startup based out of Bengaluru, that he launched with Varun AV.
Their device analyses the collected data and diagnoses health conditions. It also suggests food and lifestyle amendments scrutinising a user’s hormonal trajectory. The Inito instrument is the only one in the market that measures and reflects hormonal value in an app. These tests can be booked as individual tests, as a package, or customised according to specific requirements of a service seeker. Following this, a phlebotomist will be at your doorstep for collection.
From follicle stimulating hormone test, luteinizing hormone test, prolactin and growth hormone HGH to testosterone test, anything is done through these home kits. Deepak Sahni, CEO and founder of Healthians, one of India’s largest home test providers, has worked on making his company’s model an inclusive one wherein a customer becomes a stakeholder of his testing process. “The idea is for people to know their bodies better. For this, Healthians has introduced HealthKarma, which gives a detailed health risk assessment based on a person’s lifestyle. Customers can avail free consultation with a doctor or a dietician post their test,” he says.
The cost for tests at Healthians stands between `290 and `696, while packages for Thyroid and PCOD cost `1,599 and `1,999 respectively. With numerous peer-reviewed studies validating that hormone test results support symptomatology, science now recognises that hormones don't function in isolation. They are a fundamental part of treating the body as a whole, says Dr Jyoti Mishra, Associate Director, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jaypee Hospital, Delhi.
So, the reason for this new healthcare intervention that has brought hormones such as estrogen, ghrelin, insulin, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, melatonin, serotonin, and leptin into the mainstream is the changing nature of diseases. “Earlier our medical care was designed to treat communicable diseases like cholera, malaria, dengue which required it to be reactive. Diseases today have changed to lifestyle-oriented such as diabetes, heart disease, infertility, thyroid and others. These conditions require regular monitoring via diagnostic devices provided at home,” says Rai.
With hormones, everybody’s needs are specific and intervention has to be tailor-made. That’s what Labrix’s Salivary Hormone Testing, available through Amazon.in, aims to project. It disregards one-size-fits-all notion and identifies specific imbalances through saliva.The challenge with testing at home is misinformation. “Too much information can sometimes create panic. There are variations in the hormone levels at different stages of life. Thus tests are best conducted and their reports best analysed and explained by a gynaecologist or endocrinologist,” says Mishra. But there’s no denying that testing at home is an inclusive, time-efficient and accessible of way monitoring hormonal health.
Monitoring at Ease
One can opt for individual packages or customised hormone testing at home according to specific requirements of the service seeker.
Hormones like estrogen, ghrelin, insulin, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, melatonin, serotonin, and septin can be checked through home tests.
The home-delivered test kits can cost anywhere between `299 and `2,000 depending on the type of package selected.