Interpreting Women’s Hormone Labs with Confidence
This focused 3-lesson mini-course shows you exactly how to interpret hormone labs through a functional medicine lens so you can stop second-guessing and start making clear, confident clinical decisions.
You’ll learn how to:
- Understand how estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone behave in real women and how those patterns drive symptoms and clinical choices.
- Apply practical interpretation frameworks in clinic tomorrow.
- Know when serum testing is enough, when to order DUTCH, and how to integrate both for a complete picture.
Who This Mini-Course Is For
This training is designed for:
Functional and integrative MD/DO/NP/PA and FNPs
who see women with hormone complaints.
DCs, NDs, LAc, and nutritionists
who are ordering, interpreting, or reviewing hormone labs and want more clarity.
Health professionals who already know the basics
but feel a gap between theory and the confidence to make decisions from real-world labs.
You’ll get the most value if:
- You’re building or growing a functional medicine practice and want your lab interpretation skills to match your clinical ambition.
- You regularly see women with “normal” labs but obvious symptoms (PMS, fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, irregular cycles, perimenopausal concerns).
- You’re unsure when to rely on serum alone vs when to invest in DUTCH and other specialty tests.
The Numbers Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story
If you’ve ever looked at a stack of hormone labs and thought:
These numbers look fine, but she feels awful…what am I missing?
Serum is ‘normal’… but metabolites tell a different story.
Is this estrogen dominance? Poor metabolism? Or simply the wrong timing?
…you’re not alone.
Conventional models weren’t built for complex, chronic hormone issues in women, especially when multiple systems (HPA axis, metabolism, detox) are in play.
Without that deeper context, you get conflicting interpretations, stalled treatment plans, and patients who lose confidence when they don’t improve.This mini-course is designed to close that confidence gap, fast.
A Focused Tour Through the Three Keystone Hormones
Instead of overwhelming you with every hormone marker possible, this mini-course zooms in on:
- The three keystone hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, and how they regulate whole-body health, not just reproduction.
- The binding proteins SHBG and albumin that make or mask hormone imbalances in your lab data.
- The serum vs DUTCH decision tree, what each test is good at, where it falls short, and how to time and interpret results.
- A full case study where you see all of this in action with clear before-and-after labs and outcomes.
What You’ll Learn – Lesson by Lesson
1
The Top 3 Hormones to Track
In Lesson 1, you’ll:
- Clarify the distinct roles of estradiol (E2), progesterone, and testosterone in women’s health, across menstrual years, perimenopause, and beyond.
- Understand how estradiol acts as a “gas pedal” for tissue growth, bone density, cardiovascular health, and cognitive function.
- See why progesterone is more than a “pregnancy hormone”, from balancing estrogen and supporting sleep, to its GABA-agonist, neuroprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects.
- Learn how testosterone supports women’s libido, energy, mood stability, muscle mass, bone health, and cardiometabolic function, despite being labeled a “male hormone.”
- Get a clear framework for total vs free vs bioavailable hormone, and why you can’t rely on total hormone levels alone.
You’ll finish this lesson with a simple way to map symptoms back to these three hormones and their binding proteins, instead of chasing isolated numbers.
2
Understanding Lab Context (Serum + DUTCH)
In Lesson 2, you’ll:
- Learn when serum hormone testing is your best first step, its strengths as a “gold standard” for circulating hormone levels, and where it can mislead (snapshots, pulsatile secretion, poor detection of certain HRT routes).
- Clarify timing for serum estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and SHBG, early follicular vs mid-luteal, and AM testosterone draws.
- Decode SHBG patterns: normal total but low free hormone, high free with low total, and both low; and what those patterns suggest about binding protein abnormalities, metabolic stress, insulin resistance, or primary gland dysfunction.
- Understand when serum isn’t enough, especially for oral or transdermal progesterone and testosterone metabolism.
- Dive into DUTCH (dried urine) as the functional medicine “gold standard” for hormone metabolites and detox pathways. You’ll see how estrogen, progesterone, and androgen metabolites reveal whether hormones are being cleared safely or pushed down higher-risk pathways.
By the end, you’ll have a practical “Serum vs DUTCH” grid in your head: what to order, when, and what each result is actually telling you.
3
Case Study: Real Data in Practice
In Lesson 3, you’ll follow a 47-year-old woman with:
- Irregular cycles
- Sleep maintenance insomnia
- Fatigue & brain fog
- Anxiety, irritability
Who just “doesn’t feel like herself”.
You’ll walk through:
- Baseline serum and DUTCH labs showing hormonal abnormalities
- A staged Functional Medicine intervention plan:
- Foundational work, including diet, sleep, stress, and gut support
- Strategic introduction of supplements and BHRT
- Follow-up testing showing optimized hormones and detox pathways
- Connecting the dots from data to interventions to outcomes, so you can replicate the thinking, not just memorize patterns
What You’ll Be Able to Do After This Course
By the end of these three lessons, you’ll be able to:
- Recognize common estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone patterns that drive women’s symptoms and distinguish them from “normal-on-paper” labs.
- Decide when a simple serum panel is enough and when DUTCH or additional testing is necessary.
- Interpret SHBG and albumin in context so you don’t get fooled by normal totals with abnormal free levels.
- Confidently explain lab findings to patients in plain language, increasing their trust and adherence.
- Start building a more systematic, functional medicine approach to women’s hormone complaints.
Meet Your Instructor
Tracey O’Shea, MSN, FNP-C, A-CFMP, IFMCP
Tracey is a licensed, board-certified Functional Medicine Nurse Practitioner and the Owner of Kresser Institute. She has worked closely with Chris Kresser to design and deliver the Adapt Practitioner Training and Functional Blood Testing programs, and has trained thousands of clinicians in applying Functional Medicine in real practice.
Her clinical work focuses heavily on women’s hormone health, complex chronic illness, and the nuanced interpretation of specialty labs. This mini-course distills the hormone-lab portion of that work into a focused, actionable format.
Contributing Faculty
Megan Anderson, APN
Megan Anderson is a Board-Certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in nursing and patient care. After early work in pediatric cardiology, gynecology/oncology, and community health, she moved to Colorado, where she discovered functional medicine while working in an integrative clinic. Completing the Adapt Practitioner Training Program in 2017 confirmed her passion for helping patients address the root causes of chronic health issues.
Allie Nowak, PA-C
Allie Nowak is a board-certified Physician Assistant with advanced training in Functional Medicine, holding a Master’s degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She was first introduced to root-cause medicine in 2011 during an internship with Dr. Terry Wahls, where she saw the profound impact of therapeutic diet and lifestyle on MS patients, an experience that reshaped her approach to care. After working in primary care and OBGYN, she pursued additional training through the Kresser Institute’s ADAPT Program and A4M’s metabolic and endocrine coursework. While her functional medicine career began in women’s health, her practice soon expanded to support patients with gastrointestinal issues, hormone imbalances, fatigue, metabolic challenges, autoimmune disease, and sleep concerns.
About Kresser Institute
Founded by Chris Kresser and led by Program Director Tracey O’Shea MSN, FNP-C, A-CFMP, IFMCP, Kresser Institute exists to equip the next generation of functional health practitioners with the skills, tools, and systems to prevent and reverse chronic disease, not just manage it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a licensed practitioner to enroll in this mini-course?
This mini-course is designed for licensed and credentialed professionals who order labs (or allied professionals who interpret labs in collaboration with licensed providers).
How long does the course take to complete?
This training was built for the busy practitioner who wants meaningful growth without overwhelm. Each module is structured in concise, digestible segments that you can move through in less than two hours. The material is intentionally focused, so the time you invest delivers high clinical value and immediate application in practice.
How long will I have access to this mini-course?
You will have full access for six months, which gives you ample time to work through the material at your own pace, revisit key sections, and integrate the concepts into your clinical practice.
How does this differ from the Functional Blood Testing course?
The Adapt Functional Blood Testing course is a comprehensive training that covers full systems, root-cause frameworks, and extensive lab interpretation across multiple domains.
This mini-course focuses specifically on interpreting women’s sex hormone labs, giving you a fast, practical win and a preview of the depth and teaching style inside Adapt.
Do you offer payment plans?
Yes, financing for this course is available through Klarna. Please note that your financing agreement will be with Klarna, and that any questions about your agreement or billing should be directed to Klarna. To enroll in a Klarna payment plan, please select the option on the checkout page.
Ready to feel confident reading women’s hormone labs?
You don’t need another 400-page textbook. You need a clear, functional framework you can actually use with your next patient.
Enroll in Interpreting Women’s Hormone Labs with Confidence for $99.
