Hormones — Female

The full female hormone picture, with testosterone included rather than treated as a men’s marker. Most women never get this measured. You should be able to.

Markers measured (8)

• Testosterone
• Free testosterone (calculated)
• Oestradiol
• SHBG
• FSH
• LH
• Prolactin
• Progesterone

Working out your free androgen index

This panel measures both numbers the free androgen index is built from, so you can calculate it yourself. Divide total testosterone by SHBG, both in nmol/L, and multiply by 100. The units cancel, so the answer has none.

It was devised for investigating androgen excess in women and that is still where it earns its place, but two situations make it unreadable rather than merely rough. Below an SHBG of 30 nmol/L it overstates how much testosterone is free. And on the combined pill it is not interpretable at all, because the pill raises SHBG and drives the number down while the progestogen in it can push the testosterone reading up.

The calculated free testosterone already on this panel is the better of the two numbers. Both the 2023 international guideline on PMOS and the Society for Endocrinology prefer it, because it holds up across the whole span of SHBG values where the index falls apart at the bottom.

No endocrine society publishes a threshold for the index, and the NHS labs that publish a range disagree with each other by roughly twofold, so a cut-off from one lab does not carry over to another. Free androgen index in the Biomarker Guide sets out why, and what the published figures are actually based on.

Timing

Take between 7am and 10am, ideally fasted. Cycle day matters: days 2–5 for FSH, LH and oestradiol; 7 days before your period is due for progesterone, which is day 21 of a 28-day cycle.

The morning window matters and so does the fast. Glucose is the only marker we sell that is invalid unfasted, so if you cannot fast, keep the early slot and take it anyway.

Venous or finger prick

Same markers either way.

Venous — a professional takes the sample. You choose one of the four blood draw options in your basket, before checkout. Book Monday to Thursday and post the same day.
Finger prick — an at-home test you do yourself, in under ten minutes. No blood draw appointment needed. Post it the same day it is taken. The timing above still applies. Collect Monday to Thursday and post the same day. Finger-prick samples fail more often than venous ones; what that means.

Before you order

• How it works — the four blood draw options, what each costs, and the process end to end.
• Choosing a test — what to check before buying any blood test, here or anywhere.
• Biomarker Guide — every marker we run, in plain English.
• Body Guide — what each organ and system actually does.

Turnaround: the lab reports this test within 24 hours of receiving your sample, counted in working days. Most samples reach them within about 3 days of posting. Full detail on our Turnaround Times page.

We do not interpret results. Not medical advice or a diagnosis.