Hormone Blood Test Results Explained

Endocrine Tests: Your Hormone Control Center

Your endocrine system is basically your body's internal messaging service. Glands scattered throughout your body produce hormones that tell your organs what to do, how fast to do it, and when to stop. When one gland misfires, the ripple effects hit everything from your energy to your mood to your weight.

Endocrine blood tests measure these hormone levels to figure out which gland is misbehaving and how badly.

Tests Included in Endocrine Panels

• Cortisol (AM and PM) - your main stress hormone, should be highest in the morning and lowest at night
• ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic Hormone) - the brain hormone that tells your adrenal glands to produce cortisol
• DHEA-S - an adrenal hormone that is a precursor to testosterone and estrogen
• Growth Hormone (GH) - regulates growth, body composition, and metabolism
• IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor) - reflects your growth hormone activity over time, more stable than GH itself
• Prolactin - produced by the pituitary gland, elevated levels can indicate a pituitary issue
• ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone) - controls water balance in your body
• Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) - regulates calcium and phosphorus levels

Timing Is Everything

This is one area where when your blood was drawn matters a lot. Cortisol is supposed to be high in the morning and low at night. If your morning cortisol is low, it could mean adrenal insufficiency. If your evening cortisol is high, it could point to Cushing's syndrome. Growth hormone is secreted in pulses, mostly during sleep, so a single random reading is almost meaningless without stimulation testing.

If your doctor did not note the time of your blood draw on your lab results, make sure you remember it. It changes the interpretation of almost every endocrine marker.

When to Get Endocrine Testing

Unexplained weight gain or loss. Extreme fatigue that sleep does not fix. Feeling wired at night and exhausted in the morning. Changes in body composition without changes in diet or exercise. Excessive thirst or urination. If multiple symptoms are piling up and standard tests keep coming back normal, an endocrine workup can uncover what others miss.

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