Category: Hormones

Irregular periods and high testosterone can occur with PMOS, formerly called PCOS, but this combination does not establish the diagnosis by itself. Thyroid dysfunction, elevated prolactin, an adrenal enzyme disorder, medication exposure, and less common […]

How aldosterone, renin, the aldosterone-to-renin ratio, potassium, and kidney function help explain a hormonal cause of high blood pressure. Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a disorder in which one or both adrenal glands produce aldosterone partly […]

Glucose results tell you about blood sugar. Kidney, lipid, and liver results answer additional questions about your health. A person can have an improving A1C while urine albumin remains elevated, cholesterol-related risk persists, or liver […]

Why calcium, PTH, vitamin D, kidney function, and urine calcium must be interpreted together. Primary hyperparathyroidism testing starts with a relationship: when blood calcium rises, parathyroid hormone (PTH) should fall. A PTH result that stays […]

Editorial status: Draft for named medical and laboratory review. Product URLs are supported by current Ulta Lab Tests search and internal-link evidence but still require a final in-site canonical check before publication. Obesity is a […]

What is leptin, and should it be tested for weight loss? Leptin is a hormone made mainly by fat cells. It carries information about stored energy to the brain, especially the hypothalamus, and helps coordinate […]

Direct Answer Cortisol helps the body make fuel available during physical or psychological demands. Sustained pathologic cortisol excess, as occurs in Cushing syndrome, can raise glucose, impair insulin action, increase blood pressure, and alter body-fat […]

Direct Answer Progesterone is central to post-ovulation reproductive physiology, the menstrual cycle, the uterine lining, and pregnancy, but current evidence does not show that it independently causes sustained body-fat gain or produces weight loss. Natural […]

Direct answer: Most cisgender women and other people born without a typical prostate gland do not develop conventional prostate cancer. They do have Skene’s glands—small paraurethral glands that are developmentally related to prostate tissue—but benign […]

A blood-pressure cuff detects elevated pressure inside your arteries. Hypertension lab tests answer different questions: they can help show whether high blood pressure is affecting the kidneys, whether glucose or lipid abnormalities are adding cardiovascular […]

An insulin resistance diet is not one prescribed menu. It is a flexible eating pattern that emphasizes nonstarchy vegetables, fiber-rich carbohydrate foods, protein, and unsaturated fats while limiting sugary drinks, refined grains, and heavily processed […]

Diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, develops when insulin is too low for the body's needs and the liver rapidly produces acidic ketones. The resulting crisis is not defined by one abnormal value. Clinicians must establish three […]

Insulin resistance can develop quietly. Early in the process, the pancreas may release more insulin to keep glucose in the usual range. A normal fasting glucose therefore does not always mean the glucose-insulin system is […]

Adults who develop high blood sugar are often assumed to have type 2 diabetes. That is the correct classification for many people—but not for everyone. Adult-onset autoimmune diabetes is type 1 diabetes that begins in […]

TSH levels are best understood as part of a thyroid feedback pattern, not as a diagnosis by themselves. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is made by the pituitary gland and tells the thyroid how strongly to produce […]

Originally published October 8, 2024. Updated August 26, 2026. Healthy sleep, regular physical activity, balanced meals, relaxation skills, and appropriate mental health support can reduce perceived stress and support normal hormone rhythms. However, cortisol is […]

Last evidence review: August 25, 2026 Medical note: This article is for education and does not diagnose Cushing syndrome. Cortisol testing is sensitive to timing, collection, sleep, medications, kidney function, pregnancy, illness, and assay method. […]

Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), formerly called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), is both a reproductive and metabolic condition. The diabetes connection is important because glucose dysregulation can develop even when fasting glucose, A1C, or body […]

Women’s hormone blood tests measure ovarian, pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, pregnancy, blood-count, and metabolic markers. Depending on the question, testing may include an estradiol measurement, progesterone measurement, FSH, LH, AMH, prolactin, or focused androgen, thyroid, pregnancy, […]

Neurological Blood Tests: The Direct Answer Neurological blood tests can help identify treatable or clinically relevant contributors to memory change, numbness, weakness, headache, balance problems, and other neurological symptoms. Common questions involve blood-cell patterns, glucose […]

Fertility lab tests and preconception blood tests can answer focused questions about ovulation, ovarian reserve, reproductive hormones, thyroid function, metabolic health, infection risk, immunity, blood type, and selected inherited conditions. They cannot determine fertility by […]

Men’s health blood tests can help evaluate testosterone status, pituitary-to-testis signaling, selected causes of sexual symptoms, prostate-related risk, treatment safety, and cardiometabolic health. The most useful starting test for suspected testosterone deficiency is usually a […]

Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones lose strength and become more likely to fracture. A central DXA scan measures bone mineral density and helps diagnose or classify osteoporosis, but it does not explain why […]

Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) can progress silently, allowing liver scarring to develop before symptoms appear. Assessing MASLD fibrosis risk requires more than ALT and AST: these enzymes may reflect liver-cell injury, but they do not […]

A pattern-based guide to separating primary adrenal failure from pituitary, hypothalamic, and medication-related cortisol deficiency—and to recognizing when outpatient testing is no longer appropriate. Addison’s disease is not diagnosed by fatigue, salt craving, low sodium, […]