Why I won’t use the DUTCH test

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn. This episode has been a long time coming. I’ve talked around this topic before in episodes sharing why testing is hard for women, and what we need out of good diagnostic and screening tests, but I’ve never tackled this topic head-on. 

So, here we go. 

I don’t want you to be frustrated when you listen to this if you’ve ever felt unheard by your doctor and chose to do a test that offered the hope of answers. 

I don’t want you to be frustrated if you’re a practitioner and you’ve been using this test with your patients. 

I don’t want you to be frustrated at all. 

We do our best with the knowledge that we have. We also make patients feel like they have to figure things out on their own because nobody is listening. Wellness also markets to our insecurities, and women are often worried about their hormones. 

For tests to be considered “good” they have to be better than what they already do, teach us something we don’t already know and guide our treatment of women better than what we would have done anyways. This test doesn’t do any of those things. 

Have a listen and stay open-minded. I’m happy to change my mind about this test if someone would run a real study on it. Science changes. I’ll change too. But I’m also not willing to lean on a test that doesn’t stand up to the test of evidence-based practice. 

Enjoy the episode!