Self-testing menopause kits are useless, leading doctors warn

Expensive over-the-counter hormone tests for menopause are clinically useless and risk undermining women's healthcare, senior doctors have warned.

- Amelia Hill

The testing kits, offered by private clinics and available to buy for self-testing, claim to offer tailored insights through measuring hormone levels. But they have been described by experts as misleading and medically unnecessary.

"There are lots of private healthcare and telehealth clinics offering tests and increasing numbers of medically untrained, self-proclaimed 'experts' giving advice on social media and podcasts to get these tests done," said Dr Stephanie Sterry, who recently co-wrote an editorial for the BMJ titled Menopause Misinformation is Harming Care.

"These tests are not evidence-based," she added. "All they are doing is encouraging women to spend hundreds of pounds on tests that don't make any difference to the treatment they should be given."

There are two types of menopause hormone kits in the UK: rapid urine-based tests - some claiming to give results in just two minutes - and finger-prick blood tests, with laboratory results guaranteed in one to two days.