Functional Testing – when you need a deeper understanding
I always begin by understanding your symptoms, health history and any recent blood test results you already have. When a deeper understanding would help guide your nutrition plan, I may recommend functional testing to provide additional insights and help us create a more personalised approach.
When functional testing is appropriate, these are the tests I use most often to help build a clearer picture of what’s happening beneath the surface.
Comprehensive Hormone Testing
Make sense of your hormones by understanding how your body produces, uses and clears them, and how this may be contributing to your symptoms.
Hormones act as your body’s chemical messengers, helping to regulate everything from your menstrual cycle and fertility to energy, mood, sleep, metabolism and stress resilience. When hormones become out of balance, symptoms can often feel confusing or be mistaken for a normal part of ageing.
The DUTCH test (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) provides a detailed picture of how your body is producing, using and clearing hormones, alongside your daily cortisol pattern. Rather than looking at hormone levels alone, it can help us understand the patterns behind your symptoms and create a more personalised plan.
For women: it provides valuable insights into menstrual and hormone-related symptoms (including PMS, PMDD, PCOS and heavy or painful periods), perimenopause and menopause, as well as fatigue, weight changes, low libido, sleep disturbances and mood changes.
For men: it provides valuable insights into symptoms associated with low testosterone, weight changes, fatigue, low libido, sleep disturbances, mood changes and prostate health.
The process:
001 Test
Hormone testing is carried out using simple urine samples collected at four time points over a 24-hour period.
002 Review
We’ll discuss your results together, helping you understand what they may mean in the context of your symptoms, health history and goals.
003 Act
You’ll receive a personalised, evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle plan designed to support healthier hormone balance.
Blood tests
Blood tests can tell us a great deal about your health and are an important part of modern healthcare. I always review any recent blood test results as part of your assessment, helping to identify patterns that may be contributing to your symptoms.
Many people continue to experience symptoms despite being told their blood test results are within the normal range. Nutritional therapy considers your results alongside your symptoms, health history and what may be considered optimal for wellbeing, helping to build a more complete picture of your health.
Where appropriate, I may recommend additional blood tests to help build a more complete picture of your health. This might include a more detailed assessment of areas such as thyroid function, nutrient status, blood sugar balance or inflammation, depending on your individual needs. For example, when exploring thyroid health, it can be helpful to assess a broader range of markers than those included in routine screening, providing a more complete understanding of how your thyroid is functioning.
By combining your symptoms, health history and blood test results, we can create a more personalised nutrition and lifestyle plan tailored to your individual needs.
Gut & Microbiome Testing
Make sense of your gut health by understanding the microbes that influence digestion, immunity, hormones and overall wellbeing.
Since birth, a bustling ecosystem has lived in your gut, helping digest food, produce essential nutrients and support many of your body’s systems. Made up of trillions of microbes, this community is known as the gut microbiome.
Like a fingerprint, your gut microbiome is unique to you, shaped by your diet, lifestyle and environment. Research shows that it plays an important role in digestion, immunity, metabolism and many other aspects of health.
The test combines microbiome analysis with key markers of digestive function, inflammation, immune health and potential pathogens. This helps us understand not just who is living in your gut, but how well your digestive system is functioning, giving us a more complete picture from a single sample.
By understanding both your gut microbiome and digestive health, we can often make sense of symptoms affecting digestion, energy, hormones, mood, skin and overall wellbeing.
Signs your gut microbiome may be out of balance:
- Digestive symptoms: bloating, gas, abdominal discomfort, constipation, diarrhoea, irregular bowel habits.
- Hormone-related symptoms: heavy periods, PMS and perimenopause symptoms.
- Energy, sleep and immunity: ongoing fatigue or heavy tiredness, poor sleep, or getting sick more often and taking longer to recover.
- Skin, mood and brain: acne, skin flare-ups, mood changes, brain fog, stress.
- Immunity and inflammation: frequent colds or infections, slow recover from illness, seasonal allergies or autoimmune flare-ups.
The process:
001 Test
Microbiome testing is carried out using a simple stool sample.
002 Review
We’ll discuss your results together, helping you understand what they mean in the context of your symptoms, health history and goals.
003 Act
You’ll receive a personalised, evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle plan aimed at supporting your gut health and rebalancing your microbiome.
